In and About New York State History; 108; Hands of Time

tone silence beeping beep then opening music As Americans we seem obsessed with time. Too much, not enough, being on time, leaving on time, finishing on time. Wasting time, lacking time and sometimes we even take time off. But how did this obsession begin? Man didn't always use clocks to keep

time but he was always aware of its passing. The sun structured his day. The moon recorded the passing days, the stars the passing years. (Bells chiming)The English word Clock comes from the German word glock from glockenspiel meaning death Bell. The first clocks were essentially bells placed in towers of monasteries and town meeting places. They tolled at certain times of the day to summon people to worship, work and were not meant to be accurate time keepers. Rather they functioned as a way to keep track of the of the passing day. Clock making was a skill brought to America by the European settlers the eighteenth century was the period of handcrafting. While the 19th centuries saw the introduction of mass production, as craftsman perfected the movement,

accuracy became an important feature. During this period, New England and New York emerged as two primary locations for the clock making industry. The original clocks from the early clock-making era have been restored and preserved at at the Hoffman Clock Museum in Newark, New York. More than 100 examples of timekeeping throughout modern history are on display at the museum. One of only eight in the entire country devoted exclusively to clocks. And the only one in New York State. The museum was founded in 1951 after the death of Jenny Hoffman the widow of Augustus Hoffman a New York jeweler and clock collector. Kaufman who died in 1945. Spent much of his time collecting clocks from all around the world. The museum's collection includes some of the best examples of American clock making in the 18th and 19th century. The styles of Amerian clock cases developed hand and hand with the improvement of the

movements which drove the clocks. Wooden brass weight-driven clocks were eventually replaced by spring movements as American clock makers worked to improve the accuracy and the function of time pieces. The earliest clocks in America were brought from Europe by the first settlers. Still clocks were scarce in the colonies so the tower clocks placed in a meeting house or church was the one place where they could be informed of the time. These closks were set by solar time using the sun as a guide to the time of day. Using a sundial the townspeople could set the tower clock according to the placement of the sun in the sky. Although this method was scientific It was not completely accurate. The time in neighboring towns could vary by as much as twenty minutes or one half hour. But in the eighteenth century most people were not concerned with passing minutes. A general idea of the hour of the day was all that was necessary.

The first tower blocks were made of iron movements which were crafted in Europe. The upkeep of the town clock was an important job since no clock makers existed in the first settlements it was usually up to the town blacksmith or gunsmith skilled in working with iron to maintain the clock. The first box that appeared in homes were tall case clocks commonly called Grandfather clocks the movements of these early clocks were replicas of the tower clock movements. The clockmaker would make the movement. It would be up to the owner to hire a cabinetmaker to to design the case. While the tall case provides the clock with its prominent appearance, the case was more functional than decorative. The first clock movements were weight driven with a long pendulum that regulated the movement and weights that kept the movement running. The tall case housed these parts of the clock. (sound of clicking clock)

Throughout the seventeenth and early eighteenth century clocks were a luxury only the very rich could afford. And when they were able to pay the clockmaker they may have had to wait a few years before they were able to pay the cabinet maker for the case. But they didn't let the clock go unused wag on wall clocks were clocks waiting for their cases. A clock consists of a movement which contains the years, the case and accoutrements, accessories such as the hands,the dials, weights and pertiment other decorations. The movement is made of a series of gears. There are two sides to a clock movement the time side which counts time and the strike side which controls the chime or a bell. The gears turn the hands on one side and the count wheel on the other. In the early clocks the years were driven by weights which were hooked onto a cord and wound around

a pulley. The weights on the cord pulled the drum which sets the gears in motion. The motion of the gears is based on gravity. The clock is fully wound with the weights at the top of the case. The weights fall controlled by the escapement of pendulum depending on the length of the cord holding the weights the clocks could run for 30 hours or 8 days as the drum on the times side turns a great wheel turns a series of gears the gears turn an escape wheel which slowly releases the gear that turns the hands the ticking you hear is the intermittent stopping of the escape wheel teeth hitting the metal ends of the verge. The verge hangs above the escape wheel. the escapement is a device that interrupts the otherwise continuous motion of the gears. The pendulum is attached to the escapement by means of a crutch wire. The swinging motion of the pendulum controls the rate at which the escapement will turn.

Each hour the strike side is released and goes into motion. The count wheel controls the striking action. It has 12 notches spaced accordingly. that tell the hammer how many times to strike before stopping. A counterpart to the escapement on the strike side is the fly. The turning motion generates enough wind resistance to slow down the movement of the gears that work the strike hammer and the Count wheel. Europeans used brass to construct the workings of clocks but the American makers had to rely on what resources were available. So the first movements made in America were hand cut from wood. The original clockmakers where woodworkers painstakingly cut individual gears for each clock. Because of the time needed to make just one they were expensive to own. A Connecticut clockmaker name Eli Terry changed this. His idea was to make a clock movement that would be affordable to more people. This was accomplished

when clock manufacturers Levi and Edward Porter contracted Terry to make 4000 wood grandfather movements in three years. Terry quickly accepted the challenge. But his colleagues predicted financial ruin. A year later no movements had been made. Instead Terry had hired two woodworkers SethThomas and Silas Hoadley hopefully to design and make tools that could cut the gears more quickly. Once the tools were complete he cut the gears and Terry hired relatively inexperienced people not clockmakers to assemble the movements. the 4000 clock movements was completed in record time and the age of clock mass production was born. Following the success of the Porter contract, Terry decided to expand his business. Instead of making just the movements he wanted to make the entire clock. Terry's clock was smaller housed in a rectangular case. The clock owner and salesman and ultimately the clockmaker would benefit.

Unlike before when the owner had to buy his own case he could now buy it in one piece. The peddlers who traveled hundreds of miles by wagon found the previously large cases hard to transport. For these reasons Terry's clock was immediately popular. Later he redesigned the case adding a pillar and smaller?? design. The delicate and refined design on the case made the clock one of America's most attractive. A later model has the escape wheel out in front. This was done to increase interest on the clock. The movement of the escape wheel let the owner know the clock was working. However the outside escape wheel was not very popular and few were ever made. It proved to difficult to service because the escape wheel had to be taken off in order to work on the movement. This clock is one of the most valuable time pieces in the Hoffman Museum because it is so rare.

Terry received a patent for his design in 1816. Other manufacturers saw the potential for the design including an old employee's F. Seth Thomas. Thomas received permission from Terry to manufacture shelf products using his design. The result was this off center pillar and scroll model. The box shape is the same and the movement is almost identical except for the placement of the pendulum which hangs off center to the right. However innovative clockmakers found ways to utilize Terry's design and avoid violating the patent. Norris North another Connecticut clockmaker placed the movement in the clock crosswise. This east west movement or Torrington named for the town where it was made. As in the rest is hunches label? which helps identify the year it was manufactured Silas Hoadley who worked in Plymouth, Connecticut offered another variation on Terry's movement by inverting the arrangement with the escapement at the bottom and the winding holes above.

Hoadley placed the gears opposite that of his former employers. This style became known as the upsidedown Hoadley. Hoadley however preferred to call them Franklin plugs because the Benjamin Franklin mottos printed inside. Time is money accompanied by a drawing of Franklin were printed on the glass and label inside the case. Though most of the Connecticut clock industry at the turn of the 19th century was busy perfecting the wood movement. A few clock makers worked with brass because of its durability. Brass movement plugs had been made in Great Britain and Europe throughout the 18th century. But the cost of importing the clocks of the United States or just the brass to manufacture the clocks was very expensive. Simon Willard of Roxbury Massachusetts wanted to produce a weight driven clock that possessed the delicacy of the European spring driven timepieces. In eighteen hundred one he patented the movement and case design for his improved

timepiece. However the shape of the case determined the name by which it is known today. The banjo clock. In order to conserve brass the banjo clock was small and contained only a time sign no strike sign. The slender shorter case was made possible by the placement of the pendulum. It was hung behind the dial rather than below. The case was made in three parts. The circular top housed the movement the tapered metal covered the pendulum rod and the rectangular bottom allowed the pendulum bob to swing. The banjo clock was made by a number of clockmakers for many years after it was developed. This clock has become one of the most highly prized by collectors because of its unique shape. Still wood movement clocks were more popular in the early part of the 19th century because of their affordability.

A brass pot made in the United States in the early 19th century sold for twenty to thirty five dollars or more while wood clocks sold for less than $10. Even so the wood clock industry was headed for financial disaster. The recession of 1837 combined with the flooded clock market. hurt the clock industry. Fierce competition between manufacturers forced wholesale prices of wood clocks from nine dollars in 1830 to $4 in 1837. The lower price was barely enough to cover the clockmakers' costs. It was at this critical time in the clock industry that Chauncey Jerome, a cabinet maker and former employee of Eli Terry, decided to manufacture affordable brass clocks. His brother noble Jerome designed a movement based on Chauncey's specifications. Noble received a patent for the movement in 1839 idea was simple. The clock would be a scaled down version of the wood movement

housed in a simple case. The new clock was aesthetically pleasing and affordable. The case design became known as the Ogee star. The term came from the French word meaning S curve. The rectangular shelf case had a molding that was wave like. One side was convex the other concave like a letter S. The clock quickly caught on with the public. Its popularity lay with the design of the case which was imported from Europe. The Ogee design was used in the United States from about 1835 to 1914. It housed wood brass 30 hours 8 day weight and spring driven movements. this clock manufactured by the Ian Welsh company is a variation of the Ogee style. It's called a reverse Ogee. Because the curve of the molding is opposite that of the Jerome Ogee. As shelf clocks became more popular, the case grew more elaborate.

A glass panel on the door of the case became a decorative piece of art. The first panels were painted scenes of city buildings and country farmhouses. Other manufacturers etched geometric patterns in the glass. Later the cases were decorated with paintings of flowers or fruit on a plain background. Later still geometric shapes were painted on. Because of this design progression collectors use this as one way to date a clock. By the mid 1800s mass production was rapidly becoming the way to manufacture clocks in Connecticut industry but in the less developed industry of New York State the clock makers were still concerned with hand crafting. Clock makers in New York primarily manufactured shelf clocks. Which was the popular style of that time. Some clocks like the two here imported movements from Connecticut while the cases were made locally. The clock on the right was made in Rochester. by A. Smith of Connecticut movements. The clock on the left was made by Marshall and

Adams of Seneca Falls and also used Connecticut movements. New York clock makers were adept at finding ways to economize on the brass. This movement was called The Swiss cheese movement. Phillip Smith of Marcellus New York made his eight day weight driven movement from road brass and cut holes in the blades to save metal. Jared Arnold of Hamburg New York made his brass movement from strips of brass. The strips were riveted together to make a strap like movement. Others however were less frugal Etna Jones who came from a clock making family in New Hampshire made this brass movement clock in his workshop in East Bloomfield New York. Around 1825. Although they were cold brass movement clocks a number of parts were made of steel. But Jones a brass founder made nearly the entire clock movement about 95 percent from brass. One of the first clock makers to produce brass clocks in mass quantities in New York was Asa Munger

of Auburn. Munger who learned the trade in Massachusetts combined handcrafting with mass production by employing prisoners from the nearby state prison to assemble the clocks. From 1833 to 1836 the firm of Asa Munger and Co. paid the prison thirty-two cents a day for each convict they employed an average of twenty five prisoners could assemble three clock movements a day which sold for about eighteen dollars apiece. This clock combined a Connecticut clock movement with a perpetual calendar movement designed by H.B. Horton of Ithaca. The calendar was unique because it was made to correctly date each month it would skip the late dates on the shorter months. The clock kept track of the months by a wheel that rotated once a year. The calendar also kept track of leap year knowing to add a day every four years. This was done by a wheel inside the clock that rotated once every eight years. Without the calendar clocks the new months would have to be set by hand if the month was shorter than 31 days.

The weight driven by this movement was still popular in the 1840s but another type of movement was being developed in the United States. The spring driven clock was coming into its own as a more practical and accurate form of timekeeping. Coiled springs had been used in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries but were too expensive to import to make an affordable American clock. The first type of spring driven clock developed in the United States was the wagon spring. Joseph Ives used the wagon spring movement in this clock made in 1828 in his workshop in Brooklyn. The spring is made of strips of steel arranged on top of each other. Each one shorter than the next down. A winding motion lifts the gears up and the tension of the spring slowly lowers and drives the gears. One of the earliest promoters of coiled spring movements in the United States was the son of Eli Terry

Silas Terry carried on the family tradition by developing a clock movement that would become as popular as his father's wood movement had 30 years earlier. The years on the spring driven clock were set in motion by two coiled springs. Slowly unwinding. There was no more need for pulleys above the clock movement or weights hanging below. There were definite benefits to the spring driven clocks. Elias Ingram was one of the first to realize the design possibilities revealed after the need for pulleys and weights was eliminated No more pulleys at the top meant it could be narrower. The steeple clock with its pointed top and the beehive shape with a narrow top were 2 new case designs. And these clocks by various manufacturers with round pointed and narrow tops would have been impossible if a weight driven movement had been used. Another advantage of the spring driven clock was the way in which it could be transported. The cords of weight driven clocks frequently became entangled in the works during bumpy wagon rides. Since springs eliminated the need for weights

this reduced the difficulties encountered in transporting and setting up the clocks The majority of clocks in the 18th and 19th centuries were housed in wood cases but other materials and movements were also being used. This fob manufactured by the Ian Welsh company in the 1870s was driven by a rotating pendulum. this pendulum was suspended from a cord above the clock and rotated in front of the dials. The clock made no ticking sound because there was no escapement wheel. This type of clock called a Briggs rotary used an escapement developed in the eighteenth century. It was originally designed to move telescopes that followed the movement of the stars. The rotary escapement allowed for a sweeping movement rather than the intermittent stops created by the teeth on other escapements. This figurine houses a balance wheel movement. It was an added feature on the spring driven

clocks that allowed it to keep running even if the clock was on an uneven surface. It has a wire connected to the escapement but makes the eyes blink while the clock is running. Man's fascination with time and its relation to the movement of the Earth Sun and Moon is apparent in many of the early toll clocks that had moon phases on the dial. This continued with later clocks. This sundial modeled on the earliest form of timekeeping used man's understanding of the position of the sun in relation to the day in a unique way. A small cannon filled with gunpowder sat waiting for noon When the sun would be strongest. The sun's rays pass through a magnifying glass heating the gunpowder. As the sun got higher of the gunpowder got hotter. A blast from a cannon signaled noon. The passing day is demonstrated in another way by this globe clock. Almost

all of its parts Except for the globes manufactured were manufactured in upstate New York. This globe clock was made by Theodore Timby in Baldwinsville. A globe of the earth mounted in the case of a clock rotated with a dial above it. This indicated the relationship of the earth's movement to the passing day. Under the globe another dial kept track of the minutes. In the 19th century the materials for movements changed from wood to brass and the power used to drive the movements changed from weights to springs. The advances in use of materials and design Improve the accuracy of the clocks by the late 19th century. Until then solar time and been used to set these clocks. But as the country grew more industrialized it became necessary to enhance accuracy with standardization.

Basing the time of day on the position of the sun was no longer adequate. The burgeoning railroad system was one of the prime catalysts behind the search for more accurate timekeeping. In the past time varied from town to town because of the reliance upon solar time. But if someone wanted to take the one o'clock train and the only time that mattered was the time of the railroad station. However this posed problems for the train traveling public. Each railroad company kept its own time. And each town the trains passed through set its own clocks. Long distance travelers were continually adjusting their watches to maintain the local time of the area they passed through. A person traveling from New York to San Francisco might have to set his watch 20 different times. A proposal by Charles Dowd of Saratoga, New York changed this. In 1870. He devised a system of national time for railroads and divided the country into four time zones with one hour differences between each zone.

It was adopted by the railroads in 1883 and most towns in North America adapted to the new time standard. It wasn't until after World War I One time zones was slightly altered that the United States officially adopted Charles Dowd's concept. Our perceptions of time on the passing of time have evolved with the perfecting of timekeeping movements. Tower clocks placed in the center of town were there for everyone's use. But they were noticeable to people only if they made the effort to look up. Today clocks are everywhere we are. In our homes in our automobiles on our bodies. Once a luxury they're now a necessity. Once of one design. There are now endless possibilities for shape and size.

Digital watches would be incomprehensible to the person who first discovered that the sun follows the same pattern each day. And then use this knowledge to construct the first solar clock. But we owe what we know today to that person's logical reasoning. And the innovativeness of the clock makers that followed music]