Sounding machine

Edward Massey (mentioned on object), 1810

‘The numbers tell the tale’ is a saying that also applied on board ships. The depth of water could be determined using a sounding line. The design for this sounding machine was patented by Edward Massey in 1802. The machine was attached to a sounding line. As it sank to the seabed, a rotating vane drove a counter with a wormscrew; its revolutions were converted to the depth in fathoms.

  • Artwork typesounding lead
  • Object numberNG-MC-1234
  • Dimensionsheight 21.5 cm x width 17.2 cm x depth 7.5 cm
  • Physical characteristicsbrass

Edward Massey

Sounding Machine

London, 1810

Inscriptions

  • inscription, below the dial:Edw,, Massey
  • monogram, below the dial:L L L
  • inscription, below the dial:Patentee / LONDON / 1444

Provenance

...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883

Object number: NG-MC-1234

Entry

Mechanical device that consists of a brass plate with a rotating vane that drives a counter by means of a worm screw; on one side the dial reads fathoms, on the other side tens of fathoms. A circular blocking device automatically stops the vane from rotating when it touches the seabed.

Edward Massey’s (c. 1768-1852) mechanical deep-sea sounding machine was patented in 1802. It was not the first mechanical machine that was patented by the Englishman John Christopher Van Berg back in 1636, but Massey’s was the first to become a commercial success.1_Navigation Collections NMM _1973, Vol. 1, p. 13-1. The Board of Longitude awarded Massey £ 200 for his invention and recommended the British Navy to buy five hundred of them.2R. Dunn and R. Higgitt, Ships, Clocks & Stars: The Quest for Longitude, exh. cat. London (National Maritime Museum Greenwich) 2014, p. 178.

Massey’s sounding machine was an improvement on the commonly used hand lead (NG-MC-1330), and was based on the same design principle as his rotating log for the measurement of the ship’s speed.

All Massey’s sounding machines are uniquely numbered. This specimen bears the number 1444. Two identical sounding machines in the collections of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich and Het Scheepvaartmuseum in Amsterdam, are numbered 6432 and 1331 respectively.3Greenwich, National Maritime Museum, inv. no. NAV0673; Amsterdam, Het Scheepvaartmuseum, inv. no. NSM A.1173(01).

Literature

J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089, no. 1234; A. Treherne, The Massey Family, Newcastle under Lyme 1977; R. Dunn and R. Higgitt, Ships, Clocks & Stars: The Quest for Longitude, exh. cat. London (National Maritime Museum Greenwich) 2014, p. 178

Citation

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'Edward Massey, Sounding Machine, London, 1810', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200316108

(accessed 9 December 2025 02:34:39).

Footnotes

  • 1_Navigation Collections NMM _1973, Vol. 1, p. 13-1.
  • 2R. Dunn and R. Higgitt, Ships, Clocks & Stars: The Quest for Longitude, exh. cat. London (National Maritime Museum Greenwich) 2014, p. 178.
  • 3Greenwich, National Maritime Museum, inv. no. NAV0673; Amsterdam, Het Scheepvaartmuseum, inv. no. NSM A.1173(01).