One of the instrument makers of New England who has remained 

 relatively unknown was Benjamin Piatt (1757-1833), who was 

 born in Danbury, Connecticut, on January 3, 1757.^' He married 

 Adah Fairchild of the same city in 1776, and it is believed that he 

 must have completed his apprenticeship by that date inasmuch as 

 apprentices usually were not allowed to marry. 



It is not known how long Piatt worked in his native city, but by 

 1780 he had moved to Litchfield, where he worked in gold, silver, 

 and brass. He became established as a clockmaker and produced 

 tall case clocks and other types. In 1787 he was in New Milford, a 

 town adjacent to Danbury, where he produced surveying compasses 

 (see fig. 24). Three years later, in 1790, he was at Milford, where 

 he invented a "Compass for measuring distance in hilly country." 

 In 1793 he returned to New Milford, where he made a clock to 

 order for Eli Todd, and by 1800 he had moved to Lanesboro, 

 Massachusetts. 



Ohio 



Benjamin Piatt was the migratory type. In 1817 he migrated 

 from Lanesboro to Columbus, Ohio. His son, Augustus Piatt 

 (1793-1886), also made mathematical instruments (see fig. 25) in 

 Columbus. In 1809 a grandson, named William Augustus Piatt 

 was born. When the child's mother died, Benjamin and Adah 

 Piatt adopted the boy, and when he came of age he went into the 

 watchmaking trade. William Piatt married Fanny Hayes, sister 

 of President Hayes. ^^ His shop was listed in the 1843 city direc- 

 tory; it was the first jewelry and clock and watch store in the 

 community. 



An interesting account of instrument making in Ohio is found 

 in the report of a missionary, John Heckewelder. He mentioned 

 the brothers Joseph and Francois Devacht who worked as watch- 

 makers and instrument makers in Gallipolis, Ohio. Writing in 

 1792, Heckewelder stated that "the most interesting shops of 

 the Workmen lin Gallipolis] were those of the Goldsmiths and 

 Watchmjakers. They showed us work on watches, compasses, 

 sundials finer than I have ever beheld." 



*^ William McCabe, "Benjamin Piatt of New Fairfield, Connecticut," Time- 

 pieces Quarterly (November 1948), vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 26-28. 

 ^2 Ibid. 



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