Nicolas Mathieu Rieussec

In the minutes of its meeting held on 15 October 1821, the French Academy of Sciences reports on Rieussec's invention, which he had presented to them two weeks earlier and which was examined by two of its members, Breguet and Prony. As Rieussec later wrote to Comte Siméon, it was this prestigious company that was the first to call his invention the “Chronograph with Seconds Indicator.” The expression caught on to such a point that it replaced “chronometer” and “timer.” Then and for all time to come, the term became “Rieussec’s chronograph.” Having the Academy's minutes is no small advantage. They provide a description of the chronograph and its operation that is among the most comprehensive in existence:

”The volume and shape of this instrument are about those of a large pocket chronometer. The dial is movable and turns about an axis that is perpendicular to its plane and passes through its centre. When the Chronograph is operating, this dial makes one revolution per minute, and since its circumference is divided into 60 parts, the angular motion of one division corresponds to one second. A small window next to the hanging ring reveals a number, which is replaced by another number with each revolution of the dial and indicates the minutes; the Chronograph can run about three-quarters of an hour without stopping.

To use this instrument, when it is mounted and in a resting state, one first sets the divisions marking the time to the starting points by turning a knurled knob with one’s hand. Through the intermediary of a gear train, the knob causes the minute and second dials to move. Having done this, when the moment to start timing arrives, one presses a small button next to the knob to set the machine in motion. The observer can give full attention to the phenomena whose successive time intervals he wishes to measure, and as soon as one of the divisions of these intervals is reached, he presses a second button next to the one we have just mentioned. At the moment when it is pressed a small pen, or metal point, passing through the open tip of a cone filled with black oil ink and placed opposite the moving dial’s fixed zero point, marks a point on the circumference that is divided into seconds. This point then indicates the second and fraction of a second corresponding to the beginning or end of the period of time being measured. Operation of the pen trigger mechanism neither stops nor slows the moving dial’s motion, so the button can be pressed several times while this motion lasts, making a number of black points on the scale divided into 60 parts; each point indicates, by its position, the moment when it was marked. To stop the chronograph quickly, one need only press the button that started it. The mechanism is arranged such that pressing this button abruptly changes the current state of the machine, making it pass from a resting state to movement or from movement to its resting state. We did not examine the inside of the instrument, and we do not think that it offers anything particularly remarkable, given the current state of watchmaking. Its principal merit lies in its ability to instantly indicate the first and last moments of several successive time intervals by means of permanent, visible signs on a moving dial, without requiring the attention of the observer’s eyes or ears. A chronograph with such a property unquestionably offers precious resources to physicians, engineers and, in general, anyone who measures phenomena. A highly satisfactory trial was recently made at public horse races; but its use can obviously extend to an infinite variety of other kinds of observations, the testing of moving machines, gauging of running water, and almost all hydraulic operations. The passage of a star over the cross-hairs of a telescope, when the astronomer has only one free hand, will be very precisely indicated by this new means, which will either serve to verify the count of the seconds on a clock, or will replace such a count if the distant location of the clock or poor hearing keeps the escapement from being heard. […]

We think that Mr. Rieussec’s Chronograph deserves the Academy’s approval.[3]

In summary, on 14 October 1821, Rieussec presented his invention to the Academy of Sciences, which christened it a chronograph. The term was particularly well chosen: chronograph comes from the Greek words chronos and graphin, which means “that which writes time”. This system works as follows: a nib places a black mark on the dial at the moment when the phenomenon being measured ends. So the user can read the duration of the phenomenon - a horse race or something else - on the dial thanks to the time written by the hand. The chronograph was born!

Armed with the reports from the Race Jury and the Academy of Sciences, Nicolas Mathieu Rieussec sent a letter to “His Excellency, Comte Siméon, Minister, Junior Minister in the Ministry of the Interior.” Ambitious, he reminded the minister that the minister had given him cause to hope for “a Patent on the basis of public utility.” To support his request, he attached a copy of the previously mentioned reports and “the plans and designs for the component parts of the race Chronograph and of the one used for astronomy and for observation of phenomena requiring the strictest accuracy.” This last point is important. It tells that right from the beginning, Rieussec made two different chronographs - one tested at the 1821 Arrondissement de la Seine race, the other presented before the Academy of Sciences that same year. Rieussec's application, recorded by the Ministry of the Interior's departments, was examined by the Advisory Committee for Arts and Factories at a meeting on 22 December 1821. At its meeting on 2 March 1822, the Advisory Committee acknowledged the following facts: “Sieur Rieussec, Watchmaker to the King in Paris, requests a five-year patent for a timepiece that he calls a Chronograph. The description and design furnished by the petitioner were sufficiently clear and detailed; nothing stands in the way of granting the Patent.” One week later, on 9 March 1822, Rieussec obtained a five-year patent for a “Timepiece, or timer for distance covered, called a chronograph with seconds indicator, indicating the duration of several successive phenomena without requiring the observer’s attention.” In his application packet, Rieussec justifies the improvements he believed he had made to his chronograph. The following text is an excerpt from his justification:

“The first Chronographs, for which I obtained a Patent in 1821, were too large in size to be easily transportable as watches, due to the complicated parts that made up the mechanism. “Since that time I have attempted to simplify the mechanism enough so that chronographs could be incorporated into very small watches, and as will be seen in the description < >, I have even combined the chronograph movement and the watch movement in a single case, such that this instrument is always available to use. The simplifications that I have added are such that I can adapt this mechanism even to the most ordinary watches and put them on the market at a very moderate price.”[4]

He was granted the patent on 16 January 1838. Apart from the simplifications noted above, Rieussec made another important modification to his chronographs. From that time on, they had a fixed dial and a moving hand.

Still, it was not until the fall of 1837 that Rieussec filed a patent application for "Improvements to Chronographs". The wording of this application sounds like a manifesto: Ten-year patent for invention and various significant improvements made to chronographs, which he states he invented and improved. In his application packet, Rieussec justifies the improvements he believed he had made to his chronograph. Here is an excerpt from his justification:

”The first Chronographs, for which I obtained a Patent in 1821, were too large in size to be easily transportable as watches, due to the complicated parts that made up the mechanism. Since that time I have attempted to simplify the mechanism enough so that Cronographs could be incorporated into very small watches, and as will be seen in the description […], I have even combined the chronograph movement and the watch movement in a single case, such that this instrument is always available to use. The simplifications that I have added are such that I can adapt this mechanism even to the most ordinary watches and put them on the market at a very moderate price.”[4]

He was granted the patent on 16 January 1838. Apart from the simplifications noted above, Rieussec made another important modification to his chronographs. From that time on, they had a fixed dial and a moving hand.

Improvements to Chronographs invented by Nicolas Rieussec - 1822

On the eve of 1830, Nicolas Mathieu's brother Nicolas Joseph Rieussec was interested in selling heating wood. It was in this context of a new business being developed by his brother that our watchmaker filed two new patents, both completely unrelated to watchmaking. On 5 September 1832 he drew up an application for “a cart for transporting heating wood to a residence [and called a] cart with measuring device [voiture porte mesure] or improved dray.” An excerpt from one of the documents submitted with the file helps to imagine Rieussec's project:

Improvements to Chronographs invented by Nicolas Rieussec - 1845

“This cart differs from those known as measuring carts [voitures mesures] mainly in that in these last, the frame that contains the wood to be transported, which is longer and more cumbersome, is placed above the axle and is part of the body of the cart, which necessitates the use of wheels with a small diameter to avoid having it be too high, but then one can see how difficult it is for the horse that has to pull the full cart, especially if it meets with an obstacle.

In contrast, the frame of the cart with measuring device is suspended beneath the axle, which allows for the use of large wheels […].”[5]

He was granted a five-year patent on 5 October 1832. Some months later, Rieussec drew up a new application, again for an invention related to heating wood. This time, he claimed “a new and improved system of devices for sawing, weighing and measuring residential heating wood.” Rieussec's interest in heating wood is astonishing, for being so much a part of another time. Yet he did express real concern for some of his contemporaries’ daily concerns. Rieussec's career as an inventor did not stop there. In 1860, at the age of 79, he filed another patent application, his last. This time, it was for a “snuffbox system called the Rieussec Snuffbox.” Rieussec's last invention showed a concern for health that was before its time.

During the first half of the 19th century, the French industrial sector was expanding rapidly. Its newness led public authorities to work toward encouraging a “copycat effect.” Consequently, industry lived by the rhythm of the expositions devoted to its products. From 1823 to 1855, Rieussec was a regular participant in these exhibitions, which initially were held every four years. The first world's fair was held in 1851, in London. Rieussec was there. In 1855, Paris hosted another world's fair, which gave the Second Empire an opportunity to celebrate industry and modernity. These expositions were an opportunity for Rieussec to collect new honours. In 1823, he exhibited an “astronomical clock with seconds, and a watch of his own invention, which he calls a chronograph.” This earned him a bronze medal. He was also among the exhibitors in 1839, when he introduced a new-style chronograph, after having obtained a patent the year before. The jury awarded him the bronze medal, a repeat of the one received in 1823. Rieussec was again present at the 1844 exposition. That year, “the jury [was] delighted to acknowledge how prolific Mr. Rieussec’s invention has been in terms of useful applications, and hasten[ed] to do him justice by awarding him a silver medal.” In 1851, he was in London exhibiting in the Crystal Palace. Once again, his products, attracted notice. “The ingenuity of the mechanical combinations used by Mr. Rieussec to conveniently and reliably obtain a result so valuable to experimenters so impressed the London jury that the creator of this mechanism was unanimously found worthy of the first prize, and - to the great regret of all the judges - was deprived of it only by the clause in the rules stipulating that the highest award could not be given to an invention more than twenty years old.” Which, however, did not prevent him from being awarded a prize medal. The 1855 world's fair was the crowning achievement of Rieussec's watchmaking career, as “this veteran of French watchmaking” was awarded a first-class medal.