The poorhouse girls that build an empire! - Astonishing story of Fusee chain makers.

I love this type of stuff ..So much different stuff in homology it's never boring.

Incredible story well told! Nothing is beyond mankind capability because we are God's creation and are constantly learning and evolving as nessasary. Those wonderful little chains couldn't have been easy to rivet, and they seem to be coated perhaps tin as a lubricant and protect from oxidation?

I've sent you an email 👍

I'll try and contact you through your info @ on your website later, just keeps rejecting call, have so many photos of the holy grail to show you 🙂 cheers

Mindblowing Kalle. Love history of watchmaking. Will it be a chapter in your book?

Absolutely Stunning

I'll try and ring you on Friday ,you are an hour ahead. 👍

The main collection is locked away, which I'm going to contact the british Museum and see if I can join up them with collection as its a shame, when I viewed the collection, I said to the contact, has anyone else viewed the collection, the contact said " no your the first one" I want to get it on display

I've got that book Kalle and I've been to Christchurch , found the old fusee factory which Henry Jenkins owned it is still there now ,also looked at all of Mrs Andrews tools handled the press tools punches, there were a few surprises , which are not obvious in the book, I'll give you a bell if your around in the next two weeks, have it all on file loaded of photos

Incredible amazing history, I absolutely impresive with… Kalle you are a master, I’m only a pasionate fan of horologie, and respect so much the skilled work of watchmakers. Thanks for your Job …

Your right, that is amazing. And at one time you could buy a timekeeper for a dollar.

As you say Kalle, mind boggling that these chains could only be made ( I'm guessing that adult fingers over a certain age could not cut it ! ) by children who still had extremely sharp eyesight, wonderful patience, with fanatical concentration plus tenacious dexterity & extreme perseverance.....all long gone, but God bless their dear little departed souls. Thank you for posting such a warm raw & down to earth informative Video, I loved it.!

Amazing stuff , I have only just discovered your channel and as an amateur watch repairer I find your content so informative and relaxing, thank you so much . 👊🏻

I worked in a family business as a child. I'm much less horrified than I know I am supposed to be at the thought of children working. I think I learned a lot of lessons that many whose education was limited to school have sorely missed.

I learned something once again,thanks Kalle

Amazing and very, very interesting. Thanks for sharing....

Excellent! Thank you for sharing! 😲❤️🙏

Hartelijk dank voor de geweldig informatie !

Yes kalle...
It does blow my mind when I look at 15th, 16th, 17th 18th centuries micro engineering...
We use all sorts of machines and tooling today that assist us in what we are trying to do!
Such engineers get so much respect from me!
It just leaves me speechless at times... the sheer scale at which they worked with... Incredible!
The funny thing is Kalle, I too am a carpenter, now retired at 70...
Yet as you know, I am designing and creating my own watch...
I can't wait to start my project in the new year... right now I'm ordering tooling, and attempting to make up various jigs ect...

Love your vids...

Frank...
Bristol... UK...

I agree, Kalle. That is remarkable for the time. They probably looked for people that had 15/15 vision.

Fascinating history that current sheep walking around have no clue about. Incredible past we humans have.....

I've always been fascinated by the fuseé movements and had heard about the child labor making the chains, but have not heard it described in such detail. Thanks so much for sharing! I will soon be servicing my own English verge fuseé pocket watches and I'm trying to muster the courage, but I'm working alongside an experienced watchmaker who has experience with them, so I'm optimistic!

Simply astounding!

I had heard many years ago that the last place these chains were made was in Scottish prisons. I don't know how accurate this is but that's what I'd been told 30-40 years ago.

Very interesting. Love these type of videos along with new tooling.
Ha ha 😂 I have a huge dislike for cats also. Catgut.

Hi Kalle,

I suspect that in your box of chains there is at last one that has a bad link.

A really cool video would be to have you replace it with a new one , of your making, using the original tools and (maybe) without magnification.

I think that this would make a fantastic tribute to the fusee makers and a top class video, although you may want to record the soundtrack afterwards, given the difficulty and frustration of the task.

Harrison was not always taken seriously by the Board of Longitude, but horologists tended to admire him quite a bit. He had many defenders amongst the top watch and clock makers of the day.

Great history lesson Kalle! Thank you very much.

True workmanship at its best! They were amazing times for innovation and invention.

Yes it is really mind blowing, but now i sit here with bare feet. 😊

Perfect makes me appreciate my fusee pocket watch even more, thanks again, love your work.

Wonderful sir thank you.

Go and watch the movie Longitude about John Harrison and the marine chronometer.

So interesting Kalle thank you 👍😁

Fantastic find Kalle the impossible is possible

Wow. Just bought the book on amazon after this. 

I some times wonder if there is a future for the fusee "chain" but in the form of a graphene "rope". I also think about the engineering possibilities of sapphire.

An aside: the corvid family of birds are to an impressive and unrecognised extent responsible for the abilities of the Royal Navy and it's predecessors by their forgetfulness when burying Oak acorns for later eating in the winter - it is their forgetfulness that was in no small part responsible for the creation of the Oak tree forests that became the wood used in the ship building that furthered the ambitions of England's and then the United Kingdom's governments, speculators, traders and let us be honest slavers.

I haven't watched the video yet so apologies if you mention it but another good book is The Christchurch Fusee Chain Gang by Sue Newman, if you don't have a copy and want one in English for your library reply to this and will send a copy to your workshop.

What can you say to that!!

I once made a link for such chain,although perhaps slightly larger, to repair a barometer where the chain was wound around the shaft that holds the arm. It had to be very freely moving,or else the indication would be wrong. Took me many hours and several attempts

Measurement of Earth's circumference
Main article: Earth's circumference § Eratosthenes

Measure of Earth's circumference according to Cleomedes' simplified version, based on the approximation that Syene is on the Tropic of Cancer and on the same meridian as Alexandria
The measurement of Earth's circumference is the most famous among the results obtained by Eratosthenes,[13] who estimated that the meridian has a length of 252,000 stadia (39,060 to 40,320 kilometres, with an error on the real value between −2.4% and +0.8% (assuming a value for the stadion between 155 and 160 metres. Eratosthenes described his arc measurement technique, in a book entitled On the measure of the Earth, which has not been preserved. However, a simplified version of the method has been preserved, as described by Cleomedes.

The simplified method works by considering two cities along the same meridian and measuring both the distance between them and the difference in angles of the shadows cast by the sun on a vertical rod (a gnomon) in each city at noon on the summer solstice. The two cities used were Alexandria and Syene (modern Aswan), and the distance between the cities was measured by professional bematists. Did they use a chain? A geometric calculation reveals that the circumference of the Earth is the distance between the two cities divided by the difference in shadow angles expressed as a fraction of one turn.

NOOOO!!!! Don't hurt my cat heart.

Wonderful story told by a passionate storyteller which is why you are so enjoyable to watch. Your passion for all things about time shines through all of your work. I loved your post about the planetarium in the house in the Netherlands. Keep it up! 👍🏼

The origin of the fusee is not known. Many sources erroneously credit clock maker Jacob Zech of Prague with inventing it around 1525. The earliest definitely dated fusee clock was made by Zech in 1525, but the fusee actually appeared earlier, with the first spring driven clocks in the 15th century.

Thanks again Kalle, fascinating insight. Amazing what can be made by hand, we are so machine dependent today but not necessarily a bad thing when you consider the deprivation these folks must have suffered

Now I want a mini chainsaw.

Kalle you are such a wealth of knowledge. Everytime I watch one of your streams I learn something new. You never disappoint. Thank you for all you bring to this channel and the Horology community. 💌

It had to be more than one person to put a link together I would say one person doing the holding and another one doing the hammering

Great video!

Thank you Kalle, fascinating!

Thats amazing