This gear cutting engine with iron base and drive pulley is a good example of a well-established benchtop English clockmaker's instrument of the 19th century. It has a brass dividing wheel and fittings on metal rectangular base. It was designed to cut teeth on brass clock-wheel blanks and insured accurate division and regular spacing of teeth on each gear. This is one of the early foot-operated pieces of machinery. The wheel blank is mounted firmly on the central spindle, integral with the index plate, each tooth space is formed by bringing the rotating cutter through the wheel-blank, after which the index plate is moved the next location.

It is British, after 1854, probably 1880s, according to the stamp: W: Doke Jones maker Prescott May 24 1854 on a metal plate.

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1802.69 Disk plate D 13.5”