Hist. [Of obscure origin; presumably corrupt Ger. or Du.
The word appears in the Encyclopédie (1756), s.v. Fusée, in the form stochfred. Berthoud, Hist. de la Mesure du Temps (1802), I. 77, has stackfreed, and staak-freed occurs in a Fr. work of 1811 quoted in Archæologia, XXXIII. 27, note.]
(See quot. 1884.)
1819. Rees, Cycl., VIII. 381, s.v. Clock, This piece of mechanism … was a German invention,… and was called stack-freed.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 246. Stack freed, an eccentric wheel or cam attached to the barrels of watches before the invention of the fusee in order to equalize the force transmitted.
attrib. 1899. F. J. Britten, Old Clocks & Watches, 352. In 1764 Frederick Kehlhoff, of London, patented a centre seconds and going barrel watch with a stackfreed remontoire.
