educator, had variousK been a bookseller and con- 

 ductor of a "Female Monitorial School." '* The 

 junior William B. Fowie we have first located as a 

 ticket master with the Boston and Worcester Railroad 

 in 1848," and he retained tliis lisiinQ; in the directory 

 through 1851. Starting in 18.52 and continuing 

 through 1862, with no indication of employer or 

 occujjation, he had an oflice at 9 Merchants E.xchange. 

 In 1860 and 1862 he was a member of the Boston 

 Common Council, and was president of that l)()dy in 

 1865. In 1862, after the .second battle of Bull Run, 

 he raised an infantry company for the 43rd Massa- 

 chusetts V'olunteers and was mustered in, September 

 24, 1862, with the rank of captain. From December 

 7, 1862, to March 4, 1863, he was commandant of the 

 military post at Beaufort, North Carolina. He then 

 reported to his regiment. On June 24, 1863, he was 

 left sick at New Bern, North Carolina, by his company 

 bound for Fortress Monroe. On July 21 he rejoined 

 his company at Boston, Ma.s.sachusetts, in time to be 

 mustered out on July 30 at the expiration of his nine 

 months' enlistment."" 



In the 1864 Boston directory we find him listed as 

 treasurer of the Bear Valley Coal Co., and the 

 North Mountain Coal Co., with an ofRce at 38 City 

 Exchange. This association with the coal business 

 continued widt changes unimportant to our story 

 through the directories until 1877, in wiiich year the 

 name is dro]3ped from the Boston directory, not to re- 

 appear until the directory of 1880, where he is listed 

 at "Herald Building, watches and timers." This 

 was apparently the sales office. The .\ewton directory 

 of 1877 drops its previous listing of coal after Mr. 

 Fowle's name and first mentions the .\ui:)urndal(' 

 Watch Co. 2" In 1866 Mr. Fowlc established his 

 home, Tanglewood, in .Auburndale, a village in 

 Newton not far from his boyhood home at West 

 Newton and on the bank of the Charles River about 

 two miles upstream from the Waltham Watch Co. 

 He served the town of Newton as selectman from 

 1869 through 1871, was an alderman in 1877, and 

 mayor in 1878 and 1879.-'- 



" 5/im/iion'x Boston directory, 1840. 



'» Adams' new directory of the City of Boston, 1847 -48, 1849-50, 

 1851. 



^ Records of Veterans .Administration, pension application 

 666 675, National Archives, Washington, D. C. 



" The Newton directory at this time was issued biennially on 

 odd numbered years. 



" S. F. Smith, History oj Newton, Massachusetts, Boston 1880, 

 p. 833. 



Figure I2. — .\ 24-HouR Di.\i. for tlie rotary walch. 

 (In the author's colicclion.) 



William Atherton Wales of New ^'ork is credited 

 with introducing Mr. Fowlc to the Hopkins watch. 

 No clue has come to li^lu on what connection there 

 was between Hopkins and Wales, who had been a 

 partner in the large watch-importing liouse of Giles, 

 Wales and Co., in New Wnk and later a large stock- 

 holder in the United States Watch Co. of Marion, 

 New Jersey, which had only ceased operation in 1874. 

 A patent -' had been issued to Fayette S. Giles of 

 New York, the leading figure in the United States 

 W'atch Co., for an improvement in stem-winding 

 watches. This had presumably been available to 

 his company. In this winding mechanism a crown 

 ])inion driven by a clutch on the stem engages with 

 a large ring gear, having 1 10 internal teeth, which in 

 turn drives a gear on the barrel arbor. The author 

 has seen no watch, exce]3t the patent model, -^ con- 

 taining this device, but the pillar plate of many of 

 the United States Watch Co. movements were cut 

 out, apparently to receive this ring gear. 



The expense of cutting so many internal teeth in 

 steel seems reason enous^h to explain why this patent 

 did not become the basis for all their stem-wound 

 models. Steel is far more difficult to cut than brass, 

 resulting in a much greater consimiption of time and 

 cutters, both of which re[iresent money to the manu- 

 facturer. In the patent model these ring-gear teeth 

 have been cut by a milling ciuter which did not pass 



s' U. .S. patent 65208, issued May 28, 1867, all rii;hts assigned 

 to Giles, Wales and Co., March 4, 1867 and recorded March 8, 

 1867, at U. .S. Patent Office, liber G9, p. 100. 



-' In the U. .S. National Museum, cat. no. 309021. 



58 



BULLETIN 218: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF ^lSrOR^■ .AND TECHNOLOGY 



