Eli Terry Tall Case Clock
date: label: date made
content: ca 1795
name: label: maker
content: Terry, Eli
notes: label: Description
content: Between roughly 1790 and 1820, American clockmaking changed from a handicraft to an industry. The principal setting for this transformation was western Connecticut, the principal product was the wooden clock movement, and the main character was Eli Terry (1772-1852).
label: Description
content: Terry began his clockworking career traditionally enough. He acquired the metalworking skills to make brass movements during an apprenticeship with Daniel Burnap of East Windsor, who in turn had been apprenticed to the British immigrant clockmaker Thomas Harland. Terry's teachers for wooden movements were probably Timothy or Benjamin Cheney, clockmaking brothers from East Hartford.
label: Description
content: Once on his own, Terry specialized in thirty-hour wooden movements for tall case clocks, although he accepted commissions for brass movements as well. Over a period of years, he experimented with many variations of thirty-hour movements, one of which is in this clock. The town of Plymouth, Connecticut, named on the dial, was incorporated in 1795; Terry made this clock some time between 1795 and 1807. After 1807 Terry's wooden movements had different characteristics. In that year he introduced large-scale factory methods and water-powered machinery into the manufacture of wooden tall case-clock movements. His pioneering application of mass-production technology to the clock industry and his highly successful mass-produced shelf-clock won Terry a prominent place in American history.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Connecticut, Plymouth
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanisms
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content: Industry & Manufacturing
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content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: James Arthur Collection, New York University
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1984.0416.006
label: accession number
content: 1984.0416
label: catalog number
content: 1984.0416.006
objectType: label: Object Name
content: tall case clock
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: cherry (movement, wheels material)
label: Physical Description
content: oak (movement, plates material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (movement, pins material)
label: Physical Description
content: silver-plated brass (dial plate material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 84 1/4 in x 18 in x 12 1/4 in; 213.995 cm x 45.72 cm x 31.115 cm
label: Measurements
content: weight: 7 in x 2 1/4 in; 17.78 cm x 5.715 cm
label: Measurements
content: weight: 7 3/4 in x 2 in; 19.685 cm x 5.08 cm
label: Measurements
content: pendulum bob: 5 1/2 in x 3 1/4 in x 1/2 in; 13.97 cm x 8.255 cm x 1.27 cm
label: Measurements
content: pendulum rod: 36 3/4 in x 1/2 in x 3/16 in; 93.345 cm x 1.27 cm x .508 cm
label: Measurements
content: weight, donut: 1/2 in x 1 3/4 in; 1.27 cm x 4.445 cm
label: Measurements
content: weight, donut: 1/2 in x 1 3/4 in; 1.27 cm x 4.445 cm
label: Measurements
content: seat board screw: 1 1/2 in x 3/16 in; 3.81 cm x .508 cm
label: Measurements
content: movement dand dial: 16 1/2 in x 12 in x 7 1/2 in; 41.91 cm x 30.48 cm x 19.05 cm
label: Measurements
content: hood: 23 in x 18 1/4 in x 11 1/4 in; 58.42 cm x 46.355 cm x 28.575 cm
label: Measurements
content: small bag of sand from weight: 7 in x 4 in; 17.78 cm x 10.16 cm