E. Howard and Company Astronomical Regulator
date: label: Date made
content: 1855-1859
name: label: manufacturer
content: E. Howard & Co.
notes: label: Description
content: Most nineteenth century American clocks were cheaply made for the mass market and domestic use. But a few firms made finely finished precision clocks for applications where accuracy was vital: determining the time of scientific observations, for example, or regulating other clocks and watches. One such firm was E. Howard and Company of Boston, specialists in quality clocks, watches, and scales since 1842.
label: Description
content: Howard's 1860 catalog featured this clock. It was advertised as an "astronomical clock" available in various styles, sizes, and prices, and recommended for observatories, watchmakers' shops, and railroad depots. Such a clock is today called a regulator, a particularly accurate timepiece designed exclusively for keeping time. Nonessential complications like striking mechanisms, calendar work, and moon dials are omitted. The case is likewise unadorned. This particular clock has a sixteen-inch silvered dial that indicates hours, minutes, and seconds separately. The steel pendulum rod carries two glass jars filled with mercury. The expansion and contraction of the mercury compensates for changes in the rod's length as the room temperature rises and falls.
label: Description
content: About 1855, E. Howard and Company sold this clock to James Allan and Company, a Charleston, South Carolina, jewelry firm whose name is engraved on the dial. The regulator stood in the same Allan family store (called Charles Kerrison Company after 1960) from 1865 until it came to the Smithsonian in 1977, except for one brief period. On August 31, 1886, the regulator fell over when an earthquake rocked Charleston, and it briefly returned to the Howard factory for repairs.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Boston
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanisms
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Elizabeth H. Allan, Richard H. Allan, Mary Stewart Allan, Eleanor A. Hanson,
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: ME.335723
label: catalog number
content: 335723
label: accession number
content: 1977.0507
objectType: label: Object Name
content: regulator, E.Howard & Co., Boston
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: clock: 93 in x 22 1/4 in x 14 1/2 in; 236.22 cm x 56.515 cm x 36.83 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: crate: 98 in x 59 in x 42 in; 248.92 cm x 149.86 cm x 106.68 cm
label: Measurements
content: case: 85 1/4 in x 22 in x 15 in; 216.535 cm x 55.88 cm x 38.1 cm
label: Measurements
content: bezel and glass: 28 in x 20 1/4 in x 2 1/4 in; 71.12 cm x 51.435 cm x 5.715 cm
label: Measurements
content: door panel and glass: 27 in x 14 in x 1 19/32 in; 68.58 cm x 35.56 cm x 4.064 cm
label: Measurements
content: beatscale: 6 in x 1 1/2 in x 3/16 in; 15.24 cm x 3.81 cm x .508 cm
label: Measurements
content: beatscale screws (2): 2 in x 1/4 in; 5.08 cm x .635 cm
label: Measurements
content: weight: 8 in x 2 3/32 in; 20.32 cm x 5.334 cm
label: Measurements
content: weight pulley: 4 in x 2 1/2 in x 3/4 in; 10.16 cm x 6.35 cm x 1.905 cm
label: Measurements
content: case key: 1 3/4 in x 11/16 in x 1/4 in; 4.445 cm x 1.778 cm x .6096 cm
label: Measurements
content: bezel screws (2): 2 3/32 in x 1/4 in; 5.334 cm x .635 cm
label: Measurements
content: bezel screw: 3/4 in x 1/4 in; 1.905 cm x .635 cm
label: Measurements
content: broken endstone and setting: 5/16 in; .762 cm
label: Measurements
content: beatscale stand: 7 1/2 in x 5 19/32 in x 5/16 in; 19.05 cm x 14.224 cm x .762 cm
label: Measurements
content: presentation plaque: 5 in x 4 1/2 in x 3/16 in; 12.7 cm x 11.43 cm x .508 cm
label: Measurements
content: wood fragment: 3/4 in x 1/2 in x 1/4 in; 1.905 cm x 1.27 cm x .635 cm
label: Measurements
content: winding crank #1: 2 3/4 in x 2 1/4 in x 1/4 in; 6.985 cm x 5.715 cm x .6604 cm
label: Measurements
content: winding crank #2: 2 13/32 in x 2 1/2 in x 1/4 in; 6.096 cm x 6.35 cm x .635 cm