Gent’s of Leicester Night Watchman Slave

Their purpose was to ensure the Night Watchman was doing his job and checking all doors, gates and other secure places within the premises, were indeed secure and locked and he was not having 40 winks. During his rounds which maybe once an hour or more frequent, as he went about his round at each location to be checked, he would insert a key into a contact box, which in turn was wired back to the Watch-Man Clock.

On turning the key this would make the circuit and cause the marker in the WMC to operate and leave a ink dot on the revolving paper chart fixed to the drum. The paper chart once his shift had ended could be checked to make sure all the check points had been and at what time he had checked each point. In this WMC the drum turns as with the clock every 12 hours, so is a 12 hour drum, some Watch-Man Clock’s had larger drums that only needed changing every 7 days, but was long enough to cover the Night Watchman’s shift period.

After a checking a new paper chart was fixed to the drum which is removable to make this easier to do and as the drum is a friction fit on its shaft, could be set to the same time as the clock. There would be time marks on the paper chart so that this to could be set to the time marks on the top of the drum when clipping it in place.