Wall-mounted station box, part of a Dent type tell-tale clock, for recording warder patrols at Sussex Lunatic Asylum, 1877-1897

Used at Sussex Lunatic Asylum in the late 1800s, this was used by warders to record their patrols around the institution. Warders had a key to log their patrol. The presence of the register within the asylum indicates the ‘inmates’ experienced a strict regime of surveillance and security. These were crucial to asylum life when moral treatment emerged in the early 1800s. The device was made by E. Dent and Company in London. They manufactured high quality timepieces. They also produced the chronometers that accompanied Charles Darwin on the HMS Beagle in 1831 and David Livingstone on his African explorations.