American_clock

American clock

American clock

Style of clock design

For the play by Arthur Miller, see The American Clock.

The term American clock refers to a style of clock design. During the 1600s, when metal was harder to come by in the colonies than wood, works for many American clocks were made of wood, including the gears, which were whittled and fashioned by hand, as were all other parts.[2] There is some evidence that wooden clocks were being made as early as 1715 near New Haven.[3] Benjamin Cheney of East Hartford, Connecticut, was producing wooden striking clocks by 1745.[3]

Dallas Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City holds in its collections a tall-case striking clock that Benjamin Bagnall, Sr., constructed in Boston before 1740 and that Elisha Williams probably acquired between 1725 and 1739 while he was rector of Yale College.[1]

In the 19th century, many clocks and watches were produced in the United States, especially in Connecticut, where many companies were formed to mass-produce quality timepieces.[4] Makers of American clocks included:

  • Ansonia Clock Company, 1851–1930
  • Waterbury Clock Company, 1857–1944
  • Seth Thomas Clock Company, 1853–1930
  • W.L. Gilbert & Co., 1845–48 and 1851–66, later Gilbert Mfg. Co., William L. Gilbert Clock Company
  • Elias Ingraham & Co., 1857–60, 1861–1958
  • E.N. Welch Mfg. Co., 1864–1903
  • Sessions Clock Co., 1903–56
  • New Haven Clock Co., 1853–1960
  • F. Kroeber Clock Co., 1863–1904
  • Boston Clock Company, 1884–1894, founded by Joseph Eastman

References

  1. [1]
    Safford, Heckscher & Rogers 1985, pp. 290–291.
  2. [2]
    Gottshall 1971, p. 101.
  3. [3]
    Uselding, Paul (2003). "Clock and Watch Industry". Dictionary of American History. The Gale Group Inc. Archived from the original on 2016-05-13. Retrieved 2017-05-31. The first clockmaker of record in America was Thomas Nash, an early settler of New Haven in 1638. Throughout the seventeenth century, eight-day striking clocks with brass movements, similar to those made in England, were produced by craft methods in several towns and villages in Connecticut. .... By 1745 Benjamin Cheney of East Hartford was producing wooden clocks, and there is some evidence that these clocks were being made as early as 1715 near New Haven.
  4. [4]
    Chauncey Jerome, Lockwood Barr (1860). History of the American clock business for the past sixty years: and life of Chauncey Jerome, written by himself. F. C. Dayton, jr., 1860. Retrieved 10 April 2010.

Sources


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