Figure 22 (above). — Albur.ndale Thermometer, 

 about 1% inches in diameter. (In author's collec- 

 tion.) 



Figure 23 (right). — AubuRiNd.ale Counter. Pres- 

 sure on the projecting stem indexes the inner 

 dial, showing through the window, at the same 

 time ringing a bell. This dial is numbered from 

 zero through six. The outside hand is held in 

 place by friction and is manually set as desired. 

 There is no connection \sith ihe inner mechanism. 



or perhaps only the as.scmbly on a small scale cjf parts 

 previously manufactured. The Directory of 1889 lists 

 Fowle as an accountant on Ash Street, .Auburndalc. 

 He had bought this property in 1887, presumably 

 after disposing of "Tanglewood" which now would 

 be too large for his needs. In the editions of 1891 and 

 1893 he is listed as United States collector of internal 

 revenue, with an office at the Post Office building. 

 Boston. In 1895 he appears as an accountant at the 

 same address and from then to his death in 1902 he is 

 listed as an accountant at his home address in .\ubin-n- 

 dale. 



Jason R. Hopkins, inventor of ihc tirsi .\uburndale 

 product, passed away in Washington late the same 

 year, 1902, having spent all the intervening years as 

 a watchmaker. 



The Lesson 



The life of a ])i()neer has always been arduous. The 

 story we have just reviewed illustrates this. Hopkins 

 was a successful workman with clever and novel 

 ideas. Fowle had been very successful in an entirely 



I'.M'Kk 4: .\I_BLRNUAI.E WATCH COMPANY 

 471274—59 6 



unrelated field. Wales had been very successful in 

 importing and selling watches but the watch factory 

 which he had owned in part had failed, the fault more 

 probably that of the times than of the man. The 

 various superintendents and foremen were first-class 

 men with ample background in making conventional 

 watches. .•\t the time no one could have had ex- 

 perience in manufacturing exactly the grade and 

 type of watch being attempted, for this was the 

 pioneer effort. 



The country was in the grip of a long, lingering 

 depression following the Civil War. Money was 

 tight. The Auburndale Rotary was conceived as a 

 very low |)riccd watch which would at the same time 

 include the desirable and unusual feature of close 

 timekeeping. Could these ideals have been adhered 

 to. there is little reason to question that it would have 

 foimd a market, even in hard times. 



We have seen that every effort to improve the origi- 

 nal watch added to its cost, and here lies the real 

 reason why it failed to w'in acceptance. By the time 

 it reached the market it was no longer priced below 

 conventional watches and at least some specimens 

 were not reliable in performance. To make matters 

 even worse, the best features of Hopkins' rotary watch 

 had been incorporated by Locke and Merrill into a 

 competing rotary watch much better engineered for 

 cheap mass production. 



At this point the only hope for the factory seemed 

 to be the manufacture of some other watch or similar 

 small mechanism. The .Auburndale timer, with the 

 exception perhaps of the split-second model, was a 

 triumph mechanically and it returned a profit, but 

 not enough to meet the financial needs of its sponsors. 

 Much the same ni.n Iw <.\\(\ n{ :\\\ the- I.iir-r Xiibiini- 

 dale products. 



67 



