The statesman., 1900-01-27
OUR CLOCKS ABROAD.
TIMEPIECES SENT TO EVERY
QUARTER OF THE GLOBE.
Demand For Cheap Goods so Great the
Manufacturers Cannot Meet It-Peculi-
arItIes of the Trade-ROund Clocks
for China


are now shipped direct from this port
to every quarter of the globe where
civilization has made or is making its
way, says the New York Evening Post.
They are for the most part of kind
with the nickel alarm clock and the
dollar nickel -machine-made
goods, with which the foreign manu-
facturer cannot compete. The export
demand of last year has been the
greatest the manufacturers have
known; they have not resources sufi-
cient to supply the whole of it. The
shipments in the ten months ending
October aggregate in value nearly ST.
100000; which is the same as saying
about million and a quarter clocks
and watches. In 1878 the exports were
valued at about S1,000,000; in 1889, at
about S1,300,00O, and it is estimated
that for 1899 the value will reach about
$1,700,000. The clocks go to Hong
kong, Buenos Ayres, Bombay, London,
Cape Town, Manila, Arabia, northern
Africa-everywhere; even, in some
considerable quantity, to Switzerland.
The clockmaking industry in the
United States is just as old as the CEN
tury. 1t is on record, however, that
Eli Terry patented and manufactured
an equation clock in 1897. In 1907 this
same Terry entered into a contract
with clockmaker of Waterbury to
make 1000 thirty-hour clocks with sec
onds pendulum, dial and hands, and
all for 81 each. He was given three
years to complete his contract. There
was then a clockmaker at Plymouth,
another at Salem Bridge and another
at RoXbury-all distinguished in their
profession. In 1911 Terry perfected
thirty-hour clock of a new construc-
tion and at once all the makers took
it up successfully.
Since then the industry has rapidly
developed until now one concern, the
Ansonia Clock company makes eight
clocks and cheap watches a minute, or
5000 a day or 100000 a year; and
another, the Seth Thomas Clock COM
pany, makes, of clocks alone, two a
minute, or 1.200 a day, or 400 900 a
year. 1t may be said, in passing that
the cheapest nickel clock requires 450
landings" to complete.
Il estimate said a manufacturer,
that about 10000 clocks a day are
made in the United States. That this
enormous supply continues is simply
1oin oIn fah
will keep good time for about two
years. Then the oil dries and clogs
the wheels; and the owner buys new
one rather than go to the expense of
having the old one repaired. Here's a
little clock called the bee 1t was in
vented in twenty minutes, it has gone
all over the world, and I shouldn't
wonder if it held its own in the mar
ket until 2O,0O0,000 are sold. You must
know that clockmaking some time ago
reached point in progress near per-
fection. The important improvements
of recent years have been few"
In ten months of 1898 S11 900 worth
of clocks and watches were exported
to China and $4,000 worth to Japan.
The Japanese are teaching themselves
clockmaking; in the corresponding ten
months of this year only $4,000 worth
of clocks and watches were exported
to that country. The demand in China
however, has increased; and it is pc
culiar concerning it that nothing but
round or octagon clocks can be sold to
the Chinese merchants-old fashioned
wooden large dial clocks, such as have
hung in country schoolrooms and
churches for years, and which now
must be made to supply this demand
The Chinese are beginning to make
the cases for themselves, as the Japan
ese did long ago; for the most part
only the movements to fit are sent to
these countries. The amount saved to
the buyer is extremely small The
manufacturers have tried .inly to in
troduce clocks of an improved form
and movement; but there is practical
ly no sale for anything other than the
octagon style, which can be shipped in
any position, and therefore first made
their way so far east.
The nickel alarm clcck goes to the
mining camps of Alaska and the Hud-
son bay posts of British North Amer
lea and to North Africa and Arabia
even to the tents of the Bedouins. In
the orient, however, the sale is small,
as it is to all indolent peoples. Queer
orders come to the man tIrers
from such places. The catalogues OF
the various FIR drift through many
countries. beinS carried 10 this place by
a commission salesman and to that by
a travelling merchant, being lost and
found and traded and sold, gathering
business for the firm all the time. Often
orders arrive in New York that were
put in the mail in some out-of-the-way
corner of the world six or nine months
before. 1t turns out usually that the
selection is made from long out-of-
date catalogus. and etimes it hap
pens that the clocks ere out of date,
too. being made no more at all. When
such orders are filled the packing cases
are wired tightly, as they arc in all
shipments to eastern countries; for the
thieves are many and find it easy to
loosen a board and abstract clocks
from the cases in transit.