PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 411 



later deprived us of all the interesting details concerning the early efforts 

 of this inventive genius. From 1193 to 1807 Mr. Terry was constantly 

 engaged in making clocks by hand. These clocks were put up without 

 cases on the wall of the house, and were afterwards known as the old 

 fashioned hang-up clocks; they were carried on horseback to the farmer 

 and sold at his door. The clock maker started on his peddling tour with a 

 full load, that is two in the saddlebags and one behind him. The best 

 market in those days was across the North river, in the State of New York. 

 Terry's business increased so as to justify him in bu^nng an old mill in the 

 year 1807, and adapting it to the manufacture of clocks, the most important 

 part of which was the circular saw. Terrj'' took out a patent for his man- 

 tle clock in 1816, and for additional improvements one patent in 1822, two 

 patents in 1825, and three in 1826. 



It should here be noted that many of the fine tools and mechanism for 

 working in wood, which have given American mechanics a world-wide 

 reputation, have been devised in the manufactories of the wooden clock 

 and the wooden pump, both of which, owing to the abundance of wood and 

 scarcity of metal, were in general use for many years, but have within the 

 last thirty years gradually disappeared. 



It would be interesting to know who first constructed the machines and 

 implements now used in making the brass clock. Doubtless there are 

 many worthy men in Connecticut who have devoted their lives to the per- 

 fection of this kind of machinery; they certainly have a better claim to the 

 praise of posterity than those who have amassed wealth from the product 

 of their genius and industry. Among the patentees of clocks are found 

 the well known names of Harrison Gr. Dyer, Thomas A. Davis, James 

 'Bogardus and Rufus Porter. The improvements in machinery for making 

 a clock are of more importance than in the parts of which it is composed. 

 WitJi a machine three men can make all the wheels for 500 clocks in one 

 day. To what further extent this rapidity of manufacture is to be carried, 

 probably American ingenuity alone will determine. A gentleman will now 

 address you who is thoroughly conversant with the subject under dis- 

 cussion. 



Mr. Dudley W, Bradley exhibited specimens of the movements of the 

 different styles of American clocks, which he explained, and gave the fol- 

 lowing history of the clock business of the United States: 



Wooden Clocks. 



The Yankee clock business was born, reared, and attained its present 

 growth in the little State of Connecticut, and, I might add, all within a 

 circuit of twenty-five or perhaps thirty miles. Eli Terry I might call the 

 father, and money, or rather the want of money, the mother. Eli Terry 

 was born in East Windsor, in 1772, and, during his minority, made several 

 wood clocks for his immediate neighbors with the aid of a saw and a jack- 

 knife; the latter tool being the principal one. In 1793 he moved into tho 

 town of Plymouth, and commenced clock-making as a business, but working 

 alone and in a very small way. About 1800, he seems to have enlarged 

 his business so much as to employ a boy or two to assist him. They 

 would begin a dozen or two at a time, cutting all the teeth with a fine saw 



