Eli Terry Mass-Produced Box Clock
date: label: Date made
content: ca 1816
name: label: maker
content: Terry, Eli
notes: label: Description
content: In the opening years of the 19th century, a handful of Connecticut inventors and entrepreneurs transformed the way clocks were made in the United States. Recognizing a vast potential market for low-cost domestic clocks, Eli Terry and his associates Seth Thomas and Silas Hoadley applied water-powered machinery to clockmaking. One of the proving grounds of the American Industrial Revolution, clockmaking changed from a craft to a factory process in which machines mass-produced uniform, interchangeable clock parts. This manufacturing technique appeared in other industries about this time and became known as "the American system" of manufacturing.
label: Description
content: The process called for a whole new kind of clock. The first mass-produced clocks had movements of wood, instead of scarce and expensive brass. Although the earliest of these wooden clocks had long pendulums and fitted into traditional tall cases, about 1816 Eli Terry designed a distinctly American clock small enough to set on a mantel or shelf. Sold largely to rural buyers by itinerant merchants, these clocks played an early and significant role in transforming the rural North from overwhelmingly agricultural to a modern market society.
label: Description
content: This clock demonstrates Terry's determination to make his clocks as economical as possible. The case is a simple wooden box and the glass door bears reverse-painted numbers that served as a dial. Terry's success spawned imitators eager to capture part of the market for machine-made clocks. By 1830, western Connecticut was home to over a hundred firms, large and small, making clocks with wooden movements.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanisms
label: See more items in
content: Industry & Manufacturing
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Kendrick, Kathleen M. and Peter C. Liebhold. Smithsonian Treasures of American History
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: ME.317044
label: catalog number
content: 317044
label: accession number
content: 233061
objectType: label: Object Name
content: clock, box
label: Other Terms
content: Clock; Eli Terry mass-produced box clock; clock, box; Mechanical, Weight-Driven; Shelf Clock
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: glass (case material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (dial material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (case material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (dial material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (movement material)
label: Physical Description
content: lead (weights material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (label material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 21 in x 14 in x 3 1/2 in; 53.34 cm x 35.56 cm x 8.89 cm