r 



Figure 14. — Escape Wheel and Pallets of an 

 Auburndale timer. With four pins in the escape 

 wheel, this particular one beats eighths of a second. 

 (In author's collection.) 



'I'his id\llic [sasloral scttini; .surely must have been a 

 joy to all connected with the little watch factory. It 

 seems to typify the atmosphere of wealth and leisure 

 into which the infant indiLstry was brought without 

 adequate study of the jiroblcuLS it would be called 

 upon to surmount. 



The Auburndale maehinery came from the United 

 States Watch Co. factory at Marion, New Jersey, 

 which, as we have seen, was closed in 1874. William 

 A. \Vales, who was associated with Fowle in the Au- 

 burndale "adventure," had been secretary, treasurer, 

 and director of this company. Most of the machinery 

 came from George E. Hart and Co., of Newark, which 

 had taken over much of the Company's equipment, 

 eventually selling it to other factories. Warren E. 

 Ray, a neighbor of Mr. Fowle's, commenced as mana- 

 ger of the factory in July 1876, and died suddenly of 

 heart disease about October 1 of that year. He was 

 soon succeeded by Mr. James H. Gerry, who had gone 

 from Waltham to Newark in 1863 to superintend the 

 building of the original machines for the United States 

 factory. 



The employees were chief!)' drawn from other fac- 

 tories, principally the neighboring American Watch 

 Co. at Waltham, and the defunct United States Watch 

 Co., while some who needed no specific watchmaking 

 skills perhaps never had worked in a watch factory be- 

 fore. Names, not already mentioned, that have been 

 preserved are: George H. Bourne, L. C. Brown, Abra- 

 ham Craig, Frederick H. Eaves, Henry B. Fowle, Ben- 

 jamin F. Gerry, William H. Guest, Jose Guinan, Sadie 

 Hewes, Isaac Kilduff (the watchman), Justin Hinds, 

 E. Moebus, James O'Connell (the stationary engi- 



neer), Edwin I 1, I'ciiA, Frank \. Robbius. John Rose, 

 Thomas W. She|)hard, William H. A. Sinunons, Al- 

 fred Simpson, Thomas Steele, Oscar L. Strout, and 

 George Wood. These, compiled from several sources,^ 

 represent only a few of the men who contributed their 

 knowledge and skill to the enterprise; they are listed 

 in alphabetical order because it has been found impos- 

 sible to arrange them accurately according to position, 

 magnitude of contribution, or length of service. 



Of the five Hopkins patents '" the first and the last 

 are the ones covering the essential elements used in 

 the Auburndale product. The two patents assigned 

 in half to William D. Colt apparently were never used, 

 nor does the device shown in figure 6 seem to have 

 been used, although these unused patents are listed on 

 the Auburndale movements. Now that the watch was 

 in the hands of men accustomed to making watches, 

 some modifications dictated by their e.xjieriencc and 



-° The sources used were Grossman, op. cil. (footnote 8), De- 

 cember 1887; Henry G. Abbot, Watch Jactories of America, Chi- 

 cago, 1888, pp. 93-95: Newton direclory (or 1375, 1877, 1879, 1881, 

 1883, 1884-85, and 1885; VValtham-Watirtown directory ior 1877- 

 78, 1880, 1882, 1884; and William B. Fowle, "Cash book" (see 

 footnote 14). 



3" U. S. patents 161513, applied for November 13, 1873, is- 

 sued March 30, 1875; 165830, applied for July 14, 1875, issued 

 July 20, 1875; 163831, applied for June 9, 1875, issued July 20, 

 1875; 179019, applied for May 25, 1876, issued June 20, 1876; 

 and 186838, applied for January 12, 1876, issued January 30, 

 1877. A French patent was issued to Hopkins on September 

 12, 1876, and a Belgian patent on September 30, 1876. For 

 lack of records neither has been positively identified but pre- 

 sumably they are for the same device covered in U. .S. patent 

 179019. 



Figure 15. — \'ERaE and Lever for an Auburndale 

 timer. The one on the left beats eighths of a second; 

 thai on the right beats cpiarters, (In author's 

 collection.) 



60 



BULLETIN 218: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MI'SEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



