TIME TELLING
through the Ages
BY
Harry C. Brearley
decoration
Published by
Doubleday, Page & Co.
for Robert H. Ingersoll & Brothers.
NEW YORK, 1919
PREPARED
under the direction of
The Brearley Service Organization
BSO NY
Copyright 1919
Robt. H. Ingersoll & Brothers.
NEW YORK
[5]
PREFACE
In the midst of the world war, when ordinary forms of celebration seemed unsuitable, this book was conceived by Robt. H. Ingersoll & Bro., as a fitting memento of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of their entrance into the watch industry, and is offered as a contribution to horological art and science. Its publication was deferred until after the signing of the peace covenant.
The research work for fact material was performed with devoted fidelity and discrimination by Mrs. Katherine Morrissey Dodge, who consulted libraries, trade publications, horological schools and authorities in leading watch companies. The following were helpfully kind to her: New York Public Library, New York City; The Congressional Library, Washington, D. C.; Newark Public Library, Newark, New Jersey; The Jewelers' Circular, New York City; Keystone Publishing Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Mr. John J. Bowman, Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Major Paul M. Chamberlain, Chicago, Illinois; Hamilton Watch Company, Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Mr. Henry G. Abbott, of the Calculagraph Company, New York City, and others.
Credit is also due to Mr. Walter D. Teague, the well-known artist of New York City, who acted as art editor and supervised the preparation of illustrations, typography and other art and mechanical features.
[6]
The photographic compositions are the result of the enthusiasm, the understanding and the art of Mr. Lejaren a' Hiller, of New York City. In this connection the courtesy of Mr. Henry W. Kent, Secretary of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, in permitting the use of collections of the museum in the preparation of illustrations, is appreciated.
Harry C. Brearley
[7]
CONTENTS
PAGE
Foreword 11
Chapter i, The Man Animal and Nature's Time Pieces 15
Chapter ii, The Land Between the Rivers 21
Chapter iii, How Man Began to Model After Nature 36
Chapter iv, Telling Time by the "Water Thief" 49
Chapter v, How Father Time Got his Hour Glass 59
Chapter vi, The Clocks Which Named Themselves 66
Chapter vii, The Modern Clock and Its Creators 77
Chapter viii, The Watch That Was Hatched From The Nuremburg Egg 94
Chapter ix, How a Mechanical Toy Became a Scientific Time Piece 106
Chapter x, The "Worshipful Company" and English Watchmaking 118
Chapter xi, What Happened in France and Switzerland 131
Chapter xii, How an American Industry Came on Horseback 147
Chapter xiii, America Learns to Make Watches 161
Chapter xiv, Checkered History 176
Chapter xv, "The Watch That Wound Forever" 184
Chapter xvi, "The Watch That Made The Dollar Famous" 196
Chapter xvii, Putting Fifty Million Watches Into Service 206[8]
Chapter xviii, The End of the Journey 218
Appendix A, How it Works 230
Appendix B, Bibliography 235
Appendix C, American Watch Manufacturers (Chronology) 241
Appendix D, Well Known Watch Collections 250
Appendix E, Encyclopedic Dictionary 253
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ILLUSTRATIONS
TO FACE PAGE
The Spirit of Time
The Cave Man and the Moving Shadow 16
Time Telling in the "Land Between the Rivers" 32
The First Recorded Sun Dial 40
The Clepsydra, or Water Clock 56
Types of the Earliest Time Tellers 64
Galileo Discovering the Principle of the Pendulum 72
A Time Piece of the Middle Ages 80
Ancestors of the Watch 88
The First Pocket Time Piece 96
The "Nuremburg Egg," the First Real Watch 104
First Forms of the Watch 112
Sixteenth Century Watches 120
Late—In Spite of His Two Watches 128
Seventeenth Century Watches 136
The Swiss "Manufacturer" and a Craftsman 144
The First Yankee Clock Maker 152
"Grandfather's Clocks" 160
Eighteenth Century Watches 168
"Quantity Production" in 1850 176
A Glimpse of a Giant Industry 200
Twentieth Century Watches 208
Time Telling in the Dark 216
Time Pieces Vital to Industry 224
