David Rittenhouse Tall Case Clock
date: label: Date made
content: ca 1770
name: label: maker
content: Rittenhouse, David
notes: label: Description
content: David Rittenhouse (1732-1796) was eighteenth-century Pennsylvania's most accomplished clock- and instrument-maker. An avid astronomer, he built complicated astronomical clocks and orreries, or planetary models, that not only kept time but predicted celestial events. These major works, coupled with his notable and widely publicized observations of Venus passing between Earth and the Sun in 1769, established him as a scientific leader and secured him an eminent place in the history of American science.
label: Description
content: Rittenhouse was also a prominent citizen of Philadelphia, politically active on behalf of the Revolution and the new American nation. He conducted boundary surveys in the Middle Atlantic states and the Northwest Territory, succeeded Benjamin Franklin as President of the American Philosophical Society, and served as first director of the U.S. Mint.
label: Description
content: This eight-day clock in a plain walnut case, made about 1770, reminds us, though, that Rittenhouse spent more than twenty years—from about 1750 until the Revolution—making clocks for a living. Largely self-taught, he incorporated standard English features in this timekeeper: the movement has cast brass plates and steel pinions; a seconds pendulum; an anchor escapement; a rack-and-snail striking mechanism; a second hand on the escape wheel arbor; and a calendar. The dial is engraved "David Rittenhouse/Philadelphia."
label: Description
content: The lead weights, according to oral tradition, survived the Revolution while most others did not. Probably because they sympathized with the British, the family that owned the clock hid the weights in a well to avoid having them melted down for shot. Ironically, Rittenhouse was one of those responsible for the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety's drive to procure ammunition during the war. His duties included collecting the lead clock weights commonly in use and replacing them with iron ones.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanisms
label: See more items in
content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of New York University
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1984.0416.007
label: catalog number
content: 1984.0416.007
label: accession number
content: 1984.0416
objectType: label: Object Name
content: tall clock, Rittenhouse
label: Object Name
content: tall case clock, rittenhouse
label: Object Name
content: clock
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 96 in x 19 in x 10 in; 243.84 cm x 48.26 cm x 25.4 cm
label: Measurements
content: movement: 17 1/2 in x 13 in x 6 1/2 in; 44.45 cm x 33.02 cm x 16.51 cm
label: Measurements
content: hood: 27 in x 20 in x 10 1/4 in; 68.58 cm x 50.8 cm x 26.035 cm
label: Measurements
content: winding crank: 4 1/4 in x 3 1/2 in x 1 in; 10.795 cm x 8.89 cm x 2.54 cm
label: Measurements
content: "s" hook for weight: 1 3/16 in x 1/16 in x 3/32 in; 3.048 cm x .1905 cm x .254 cm
label: Measurements
content: weight #1 marked "xi": 4 in x 3 in; 10.16 cm x 7.62 cm
label: Measurements
content: weight #2 marked "xii": 4 1/4 in x 3 in; 10.795 cm x 7.62 cm
label: Measurements
content: crate: 15: 101 in x 43 in x 34 in; 256.54 cm x 109.22 cm x 86.36 cm
label: Measurements
content: pendulum: 34 in x 4 1/2 in; 86.36 cm x 11.43 cm