Instruments of Metal
Pre-Revolutionary Immigrant Makers
According to present evidence, only a few makers of metal instruments emigrated from England to the Colonies before the beginning of the Revolutionary War. A slightly larger number emigrated after the war had ended. In almost every instance, the immigrant instrument makers settled in the major cities, which were the shipping centers of the new country. The reason is obvious: in these cities there was the greatest demand for nautical and other instruments.
One of the earliest immigrant instrument makers arrived in Boston in 1739. According to an advertisement that appeared in The Boston Gazette in the issue of July 16-23, 1739, there had
Arriv’d here by Capt. Gerry from London John Dabney, junr. who serv’d his time to Mr. Jonathan Sisson, Mathematical Instrument Maker to his Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales. Makes and sells all sorts of Mathematical Instruments, in Silver, Brass, or Ivory, at Reasonable Rates, at Mr. Rowland Houghton’s Shop the north side of the Town Huse in Boston.
N.B. Said Dabney, sets Loadstones to a greater Perfection than any heretofore.
Dabney’s master, Jonathan Sisson (1694-1749) originally of Lincolnshire, with a shop in the Strand, London, was a well-known maker of optical and mathematical instruments in the early decades of the 18th century. He was particularly noted for the exact division of scales, and examples of his work are to be found in the major collections.
Dabney’s name appeared again several years later, in the Supplement to the Boston Evening Post for December 12, 1743, and again in the Boston Evening Post for December 19 of the same year, with the following advertisement:
To be shown by John Dabney, Mathematical Instrument maker, in Milk Street, Boston, on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday Evenings, from five to eight o’clock, for the Entertainment of the Curious, the Magic Lanthorn an Optick Machine, which exhibits a great Number of wonderful and surprising Figures, prodigious large, and vivid, at Half a Crown each, Old Tenor.
In New York City, one of the earliest immigrant instrument makers was Charles Walpole, who established a shop at a corner in Wall Street, according to a notice in the May 26, 1746, issue of the New York Evening Post. The announcement stated that Walpole was a “citizen of London” and that at his shop “all sorts of Mathematical Instruments, whether in silver or brass, are made and mended....”
In the May 21, 1753, issue of The New York Gazette or The Weekly Post Boy there was an announcement by the widow of Balthaser Sommer who lived on Pot-Baker’s Hill in Smith Street in New York City and who advertised herself as a “grinder of all sorts of optic glasses, spying glasses, of all lengths, spectacles, reading glasses for near-sighted people or others; also spying glasses of 3 feet long which are to set on a common Walking-Cane and yet be carried as a Pocket-Book.”
John Benson emigrated from Birmingham, England, and established a lapidary and optical store in May 1793 at 12 Princess Street in New York, where he produced miniatures, lockets, rings, glasses, “as well as Spectacles, single reading and burning glasses, and where he also polished scratch’d glasses.” In July 1797 he moved to 106 Pearl Street where he sold green goggles, thermometers, and opera and spy glasses, in addition to an assortment of jewelry. In September 1798 he was established at a new location, 147 Pearl Street, “At the sign of The Green Spectacles” where he specialized in optical goods. He featured for rent or sale a “Portable Camera Obscura” for the use of artists in drawing landscapes. His advertisements chronicled each change in location in the issues of The New York Daily Advertiser.
A craftsman whose name is well known in scientific circles was Anthony Lamb, who advertised in 1753 as a mathematical instrument maker living on Hunter’s Key, New York. He claimed that he could furnish
Godfrey’s newly invented quadrant, for taking the latitude or other altitudes at sea; hydrometers for trying the exact strength of spirits, large surveying instruments in a more curious manner than usual; which may be used in any weather without exception, small ditto which may be fixed on the end of a walking stick, and lengthened to a commodious height, gauging instruments as now in use, according to an act of assembly with all other mathematical instruments for sea or land, by wholesale or retail at reasonable rates.15
Lamb had served an apprenticeship with Henry Carter, a mathematical instrument maker in London. In July 1724 he became an accomplice of Jack Sheppard, a notorious burglar, and was arrested and sentenced to the gallows in 1724. As he was awaiting execution on the gallows at Tyburn, his sentence was commuted to transportation to Virginia for a period of seven years, inasmuch as this was his first offence. After he had completed his term of seven years in Virginia he moved to Philadelphia, where he opened a shop as an instrument maker and a private school for teaching technical subjects. The curriculum included surveying, navigation, and mathematics. Although his enterprises prospered, he moved to New York. There he married a Miss Ham and established himself in a respectable position. Lamb’s first advertisement in New York appeared on January 23, 1749. He died on December 11, 1784, at the age of 81, and two days later he was eulogized in The New York Packet where he was mentioned as “a steady friend to the liberties of America.”
John Lamb (1735-1800), Anthony’s son, learned and practiced his father’s craft for a time and worked as a partner in the firm of A. Lamb & Son. He subsequently became a wine and sugar merchant, achieved considerable wealth, married well, and was accepted by the gentry of the city. He was a firm patriot and from 1765 he was active as the leader of the Sons of Liberty. He served in several major engagements in the American Revolution and in 1783 was brevetted a brigadier-general.16
The immigrant instrument makers were not confined to those working in glass, however. One of the earlier immigrant craftsmen was Charles Blundy, a London watchmaker who established himself on Church Street in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1753. He notified the public that in addition to watches he sold thermometers of all sizes and types. Presumably his merchandise was imported from England.17 He was absent from the city between 1753 and 1760 but returned and continued in business in the latter year.
Another pre-Revolution immigrant was Thomas Harland (1735-1807), a clock maker who settled in Norwich, Connecticut, in 1773. It is claimed that he sailed from England on one of the ships carrying the tea destroyed by the Boston Tea Party. Over the course of the years his business prospered to such a degree that he hired from ten to twelve apprentices at one time. Some of the leading American 18th-century clockmakers served apprenticeships with Harland. In 1802 his newspaper notice stated that he had for sale “Surveyors Compasses, with agate centre needles; chains and Protractors...”18
A most interesting instrument that has recently come to light is a brass sundial made in Philadelphia in 1764. The dial, about 10-1/2 inches in diameter, is signed by the maker, “Daniel Jay Philada. fecit.” It is dated 1764 and inscribed with the name of the person for whom it was made, “James Pemberton.” In the center is “Lat. 40,” which coincides with the latitude for Philadelphia. The style of the dial is very much in the English tradition of the period, indicating that Jay was probably an emigrant trained in England.
Post-Revolutionary Immigrant Makers
A large proportion of the English craftsmen who came to the American Colonies after the Revolution settled in Philadelphia, There was John Gould for instance, a mathematical instrument maker from London who had opened a shop at 47 Water Street by 1794. He sold nautical, surveying, and optical instruments as well as mirrors, presumably all imported from England. He moved to 70 South Front Street “At the Sign of the Quadrant” in 1796. He was succeeded in business in 1798 by Thomas Whitney, another emigrant from London. Whitney made and sold instruments (see fig. 85) in Gould’s former shop, and featured also a vast array of department store merchandise. John Whitney, who may have been his son, was listed at the same address in the Philadelphia directory of 1801 as a “Mathematical Instrument Maker and Optician.”19
In the Philadelphia directory and register for 1821 Thomas Whitney advertised that he
... presents his sincere thanks to his friends and the public and respectfully soliciting the continuation of their favors, wishes to inform them that he has devoted his attention principally to the making of surveying compasses for 16 years past, and has made 500 of them; the good qualities of which are well known to many surveyors, in at least 16 of the States and Territories of the Union... [he also makes] many other instruments, protractors, gunner’s Calibers and quadrants, etc.
George Evans was another instrument maker who arrived from London after the end of the Revolution. He established himself in a shop at 33 North Front Street in 1796, where he sold imported instruments as well as stationery, Bibles, and cloth. He died in 1798.20
Thomas Dring, who migrated from England, settled in Westtown Township of Chester County, Pennsylvania, where he was first noted in the tax records of 1786. He married Hanna Griffith, a native of the region, and their son, Jeptha Dring, subsequently was mentioned as a carpenter by trade, and a vagrant by inclination, who could quote Shakespeare from memory. According to local legend, Dring raised money from a number of townspeople for the purpose of purchasing clocks for them in England. He set sail for his homeland in about 1798 and never returned.
Although the tax records for 1796 described Dring as an “Optician” he was also a clockmaker and maker of scientific instruments. At least three of his tall-case clocks have survived, and a stick type of barometer which he made for Edward and Hannah Hicks in 1796. The instrument is now in the collection of the Chester County Historical Society. It measures 39 inches in height, and is signed on the thermometer dial THOMAS DRING/West Chester. This instrument (fig. 14) is one of the very rare barometers produced in America in the 18th century.
Another craftsman who emigrated from England was Robert Clark, who opened a shop at 5-1/2 Church Street in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1785. In that year he announced himself as a
Math., Optical and Philosophical Instruments maker and Clockmaker from London... As the Advertiser has lately had an opportunity of working and receiving instruction under the first masters in the above branches in Great Britain, flatters himself that he shall give satisfaction to those who may be pleased to favor him with their orders... for Surveyors compasses, Quadrants, Telescopes, Microscopes, Spirit Levels, etc.21
W. Fosbrook was another craftsman originally from London. He was a cutler and maker of surgical instruments, with a shop in Beekman’s Slip in New York City in 1786 or earlier. He specialized in leg irons and rupture trusses, and he made instruments and files for setting the teeth as well as standard items for surgeons.22
Several immigrant instrument makers established themselves in Philadelphia during the same period. John Denegan (or Donegan), stated to have been “late from Italy,” moved his shop in March 1787 to the corner of Race and Fourth Streets at “the sign of the Seven Stars”.23 There he made barometers and thermometers as well as glasses for philosophical experiments. It seems too much of a coincidence that in October 1787 an instrument maker named Joseph Donegany established a shop at 54 Smith Street in New York City,24 where—according to an advertisement in the October 17, 1787, issue of The New York Daily Advertiser—he made “thermometers, barometers and sold hydrostatic Bubbles and hygrometers for proving spirits, and also... glasses for experimental purposes.” It is probable that Denegan and Donegany were one and the same; since Denegan was stated to have been of Italian origin, the name may originally have been “De Negani.”
Joseph Gatty advertised himself as an “Artist from Italy” with a shop at 341 Pearl Street in New York City where he “made and sold every simple and compound form of barometer and thermometer as well as curious Hygrometers for assaying spirits which show the actual strength with the greatest precision and are not liable to be corroded, in addition to several new Philosophical Instruments of his own invention, and all types of artificial fireworks.”25 By 1796 Gatty (or Gatti?) had moved to Philadelphia where he had a shop at 79 South Front Street and advertised the same items that had appeared in his advertisements in New York. The Philadelphia directory for 1800 listed Gatty as a “Weather Glass Maker.”26
Native American Makers
Comparatively speaking, the greater proportion of the early American instrument makers were native born. Among these were to be found a substantial number of artisans trained as clockmakers who subsequently produced scientific instruments to meet the surveying and nautical needs of their communities. Together with the other craftsmen throughout the colonies who established and advertised themselves specifically as instrument makers, they produced a large number of the mathematical instruments used in the American Colonies in the 18th century. A careful study of their regional distribution reveals that most of them were concentrated in the major coastal cities of commerce.
New Hampshire
Among the artisans who combined clockmaking with instrument making before the beginning of the 19th century was Benjamin C. Gilman (1763-1835) of Exeter, New Hampshire. He made mathematical instruments and clocks in addition to working as a silversmith, clockmaker, and hydraulic engineer.
Vermont
A New England instrument maker who had a most unusual career was James Wilson (1763-1855) of Bradford, Vermont. He was a native of Francestown, New Hampshire, where he was born in a log cabin and brought up on a farm. In 1796 he purchased his own farm, at Bradford.
When a young man of 36 he saw a pair of globes at Dartmouth College in neighboring Hanover and tried to duplicate them. He made balls of wood turned from solid blocks, covered them with paper, and finished them off with lines and drawings. He later improved this method by coating the wooden balls thickly with layers of paper pasted together. He then cut the globes into hemispheres, removed the wooden molds, and joined the paper shells to make the globes.
Wilson next proceeded to procure copper plates of the necessary sizes for his globes, and he projected his maps on them in sections. He received a few lessons in engraving from Amos Doolittle of New Haven, but he was otherwise completely self-taught.
Wilson exhibited the first edition of his globes in Boston in 1814. They created a sensation, and many persons asked to see the maker, but Wilson was reluctant to come forward because of his coarse clothing and rustic manners. He was greatly encouraged, however, by the public interest in his work, and he continued to make globes in Bradford (see fig. 16). In about 1815 Wilson and his three sons, all of whom were as ingenious as the father, formed a company to manufacture globes in Albany. There they produced terrestrial and celestial globes, the latter showing as many as 5,000 stars. Wilson produced a new set of plates in 1826 and made globes in several sizes. Even after he had reached the age of 83 years he constructed an excellent planetarium, engraving the large copperplate himself.
Wilson was married three times and was the father of 14 children. He died at the age of 92 in March 1855 at Bradford.27
Massachusetts
A surprisingly small number of the Massachusetts craftsmen working before the end of the 18th century produced scientific instruments. Among the very earliest were several members of the King family of Salem. Daniel King (1704-1790) was born in Salem on November 17, 1704. At the time of his death Rev. William Bentley spoke of him as a “maker of Mathematical Instruments” and a “teacher of Mathematics.”28
Following Daniel’s death, his business in instruments was inherited by his son Benjamin King (1740-1804), of Salem. Benjamin specialized in producing nautical instruments, and several of his Davis quadrants have survived in public collections. When he died on December 26, 1804, Reverend Bentley wrote that King was “... a Mathematical Instrument maker, in that branch which immediately regarded practical navigation by quadrant and compass. He supported a very good character through life & was much esteemed.”29
Another of the very early mathematical instrument makers in Massachusetts was Stephen Greenleaf (see fig. 17), who kept a shop on Queen Street opposite the prison in Boston where
He makes and Mends all Sorts of Mathematical Instruments, as Theodolites, Spirit Levels, Semicircles, Circumferences, and Protractors, Horizontal and Equinoctial Sun Dials, Azimuth and Amplitude Compasses, Elliptical and Triangular Compasses, and all sorts of Common Compasses... N.B. He sets Load Stones on Silver or Brass, after the best manner.30
Jonathan Dakin worked as a mathematical balance-maker “at the Sign of the Hand & Beam, opposite to Dr. Colman’s Meeting House” where he made a variety of scale beams in 1745.31
An interesting advertisement by Rowland Houghton appeared in the January 17-24, 1737, issue of the Boston Gazette. Houghton announced that he had “lately improv’d on his new Theodolite, by which the Art of Surveying is rendered more plain & easy than heretofore.” Houghton was active in the political scene in Boston, as evidenced by the fact that in various issues of the Boston Gazette for January and February 1739 he is listed variously as “Commissioner,” “Proprietors’ Clerk” and as “Collector.”
Isaac Greenwood, Jr. (1730-1803), was born at Cambridge, where he married Mary I’ams in 1757. He maintained a shop where he combined the business of mathematical instrument maker and ivory turner, and also imported hardware. After the Revolution, he engaged in dentistry, specializing in making artificial teeth and in the manufacture of “umbrilloes.” Paul Revere apparently did printing for him on five different occasions between 1762 and 1774, and in about 1771 engraved his trade card, which read:
ISAAC GREENWOOD, Ivory Turner Next door to Doctor John Clark’s at the North End Boston. Turns all sorts of work in Ivory, Silver, Brass, Iron, Horn, Wood, etc. Such as Billiard Balls, Tea Boards, Scallopd and Plain Salvers, Decanters...32
Isaac’s father, Isaac Greenwood, Sr., was “Professor of Mathematicks and Natural and Experimental Philosophy” at Harvard. In the Boston Gazette for February 19-26, 1728, there appeared the following notice of his installation:
On the 13th of this Month at Ten in the Morning, The Honorable & Reverend Overseers of the College at Cambridge, met the Corporation in the College Hall, to Inaugurate Mr. Isaac Greenwood into the Office of Professor of the Mathematicks, and Natural and Experimental Philosophy, lately founded by that great and living Benefactor to this Society, Mr. Thomas Hollis of London Merchant. The Rev. President being detain’d by illness, Mr. Flint the Senior Fellow perform’d the part of Moderator, began with Prayer, and then Pronounc’d a Latin Oration proper to the Occasion: Mr. Wiggleworth Divinity Professor, read the Founders Instructions. Mr. Greenwood took the Oaths and made the Declarations required in them: and pronounc’d a Latin Oration. The Rev. Mr. Appleton Pray’d: and Singing part of the 104 Psalm concluded the Solemnity. After which the Overseers & Corporation repair’d to the Library; till the Publick Dinner in the Hall was ready, where all the Gentlemen Spectators of the Solemnity were hansomely Entertained.
Greenwood continued to teach privately for a decade. In various issues of The Boston Gazette of 1738 and 1739 he featured an advertisement, the text of which always stated:
Such as are desirous of learning any Part of Practical or Theoretical Mathematics may be taught by Isaac Greenwood, A.M. &c. in Clark’s Square, near the North Meeting House, where Attendance will be given between the Hours of 9 and 12 in the Forenoon, and 2 and 5 in the Afternoons.
N.B. Instructions may also be had in any Branch of Natural Philosophy, when there is a sufficient Number to attend.33
John Bailey II (1752-1823) of Hanover and Lynn, Massachusetts worked as a clockmaker from about 1770. His father, John Bailey I, and his brothers Calvin and Lebbeus also were clockmakers. Bailey married Mary Hall of Berwick, Maine, and settled in Hanover where he made scientific instruments and clocks. A brass surveying compass in the collection of the New York Historical Society is inscribed “J. BAILEY HANOVER 1804.”34
Undoubtedly the best known instrument maker in Massachusetts was Joseph Pope (1750-1826), of Boston, who was described by contemporaries as the “local mathematician, watch-maker and mechanical genius.” In 1787 he completed the construction of a gear-driven orrery displaying the motions of the solar system in a horizontal plane with eccentric and inclined orbits. At each of the twelve corners were mounted cast bronze figures, claimed to have been carved in wood by Simeon Skillin and cast in bronze by Paul Revere. Although the instrument was made for Harvard, the university lacked funds for its purchase. Accordingly, it held a public lottery which realized a substantial sum in excess of the £450.3.0 paid to Pope, and the orrery was delivered in December 1788.35 The orrery (fig. 18) has survived and is part of the collection of historical scientific instruments at Harvard University.
According to a statement in the Boston Gazette for February 16, 1789, an apparatus for displaying planets in their proper orbits by means of wires was made and exhibited in Boston by Bartholomew Burges.
Mention must also be made of several members of the Folger family of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Peter Folger (1617-1690), founder of the American branch of the family, emigrated from Norfolk, England, in 1635 and occupied himself in Nantucket as blacksmith, schoolmaster, watchmaker, and surveyor. He was a grandfather of Benjamin Franklin. Another notable descendant was Maria Mitchell (1818-1889), professor of astronomy and director of the observatory at Vassar College.
The best known member of the family was Walter Folger, Jr. (1765-1849), a self-taught clockmaker and watchmaker with great interest in the sciences. A telescope that he produced about 1818 was considered to be the finest in the country at that time. His greatest achievement was a tall case astronomical clock that he devised and constructed; it was completed in 1790 and is considered to be the most complicated domestic clock on record.36 Folger also produced quadrants and compasses, and made astronomical observations. His observations of the solar eclipse of September 17, 1811, were published in 1815 in Memoirs of the Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Probably one of the most significant of the surviving early American scientific instruments is a pair of gunners’ calipers made and used by PAUL REVERE (1735-1818) of Boston. The calipers are made of incised brass, measuring 7 inches in length and 1-3/4 inches in width. They are signed on the reverse side with the name “Revere” in the style of script signature used by this maker in many of his engravings. The design of the instrument is substantially different from that which is commonly found in English, French, and German gunners’ calipers of the period, and was probably Revere’s own. (See figs. 19, 20.)
It is believed that these calipers, which are preserved in the collection of the Bostonian Society in Boston, were probably used by Revere in 1775-1776. This was the period during which he was in charge of ordnance repairs for the Continental Army, and involved in various ventures for the manufacture of gunpowder and the casting of cannon. There is no evidence of other scientific instruments made by Revere, lending some weight to the belief that these calipers were made for his own use.
Other Massachusetts instrument makers include Gideon Fairman (1774-1827) of Newburyport who was a partner of William Hooker in the firm of Hooker & Fairman, which dealt in mathematical instruments before 1810.37 Fairman later moved to Philadelphia, where he was associated with the engraving firm of Draper, Murray & Fairman.
At the end of the 18th century Samuel Emery was making mathematical instruments in Salem, at the same time that John Jayne was engaged in the same work in that community.38
John Potter of Brookfield, Massachusetts, produced surveying instruments in the last quarter of the 18th century. A graphometer signed with his name and dated 1785 is in the collection of the firm of W. & L. E. Gurley in Troy, New York.
Rhode Island
One of the earliest and most important of the instrument makers of Rhode Island was Benjamin King (1707-1786), of Newport. He was the son of Capt. Samuel King of Salem, Massachusetts, where he was born and baptized on March 13, 1707. He was a brother of Daniel King of Salem. Benjamin eventually moved to Newport, where he married Mary Hagger in July 1742. They had four children: Benjamin, Mehitable, Samuel, and Mary. He established himself as a respectable businessman in the community, and in 1759 or 1760 he became the senior partner in the importing and retailing firm of King & Hagger, “near the sign of Mr. Pitt,” dealing in general merchandise, mathematical and nautical instruments, and stationery. William Hagger was probably the junior partner, and may have been King’s brother-in-law. King began making his own instruments for sale, surviving examples dated as early as 1762. The partnership was dissolved early in the 1760’s. In 1766 Benjamin King was importing, making, and selling quadrants and other instruments “At the Sign of the Mathematical Instruments” next to the Golden Eagle on Thames Street. His son Samuel King occupied the same premises, where he dealt in paints and artists supplies.
When the British occupied Newport, King moved to North Kingstown, but he returned after the British vacated the city. He was 79 when he died in 1786, and his son Samuel King succeeded him in business.39
William Guyse Hagger (c. 1744-1830?), born in Newport, is believed to have been the son of William Hagar and Mary Knowlton. He was a quadrant maker (see fig. 21). In 1774 he headed a household that consisted of his wife, five children, and a colored servant. Whether it was he or his father who was the partner of Benjamin King cannot be determined with certainty. When Newport was occupied by the British, Hagger moved to Cranston, where he joined the Pawtuxet Rangers and served as a sentinel at Pawtuxet Fort in 1778. No members of the Hagger family appear in the 1790 census of Newport, but a William Hager is reported as having died in Boston in 1830 at the age of 82. It seems likely from the age and dates that it was William Hagger the elder who worked as a partner in the firm of King & Hagger, which was established in 1759 or 1760.40
Another instrument maker of Rhode Island was William Hamlin (1772-1869). He had established himself in Providence by the beginning of the 19th century in the manufacturing and repairing of mathematical and nautical instruments, for which there was an active market in that city. Hamlin was one of the first engravers in America and the first in Rhode Island. He designed and engraved banknotes for many banks in the State and for other institutions. At the same time he carried on a general trade in the sale of musical instruments. Hamlin moved his shop several times, but from 1847 until his death he worked at “The Sign of the Quadrant” (see fig. 22) at 131 South Water Street. He was equally interested in optics and astronomy, and it has been claimed that he constructed the first telescope in America. It is well established that he worked for many years to perfect a reflecting telescope for his own use.41
Instruments were made also by Paul Pease, who may have been the husband of the daughter of Nathaniel Folger of Nantucket. This Elizabeth Folger Pease, wife of a Paul Pease, was born in 1720 and died in 1795. Little is known about Pease except for the name “Paul Pease 1750” inscribed on a quadrant in the collection of the Rhode Island Historical Society.42
Connecticut
The clockmakers who worked in Connecticut during the span of the 18th century numbered almost a hundred. Yet only a half dozen appear on record to have made or sold instruments in addition to clocks. Among these were several members of the Doolittle family, including Isaac Doolittle (1721-1800) of New Haven. In 1763 he advertised that he sold surveying compasses in addition to clocks, watches, bar iron, and chocolate.43 His son Isaac Doolittle, Jr. (1759-1821), also of New Haven, established a shop of his own, which he advertised in 1781 as having
Compasses of all kinds, both for sea and land, surveyors scales, and protractors, gauging rods, walking sticks, silver and plated buttons, turned upon horn; also clocks and watches made and repaired...44
Although not very active as a clockmaker, Isaac Jr. appears to have specialized more in the production of surveying and nautical instruments. He took over his father’s business just before the latter’s death, and in 1799 he advertised45:
The subscriber having commenced business at the shop lately occupied by Mr. Isaac Doolittle, in Chapel Street, where he repairs watches, makes and repairs Surveyors Compasses and Chains, Brass Amplitude, plain brass and common Ship’s Compasses, Gauging Rods, Quadrants, repair’d &c. every favor gratefully received by the public’s humble servant, Isaac Doolittle, jun.
Enos Doolittle (1751-1806), a nephew of Isaac Doolittle, Sr., made, sold, cleaned, and repaired clocks and surveying and marine compasses from 1772 through 1788 at his shop in Hartford. He also sold these items through agents in Saybrook and Middleton.46
One of the best known of the Connecticut clockmakers was Peregrine White (1747-1834), of Woodstock. White was a descendant of the first Pilgrim child, and a native of Boston. After serving an apprenticeship, he worked as a clockmaker and silversmith in Boston. He was accused of forging silver spoons and left the city to settle in Woodstock. He established his own shop west of Muddy Brook Village.47 In addition to fine tall-case clocks, for which he was noted, White also produced surveying compasses, one of which is in the collection of the U.S. National Museum (fig. 23). A similar specimen in Old Sturbridge Village is reputed to have been used for surveying the town of Southbridge, Mass.
Benjamin Hanks (1755-1824), of Mansfield and Litchfield, inserted a notice in a newspaper in 1808 to notify the public that he and his son Truman Hanks, in partnership, had “surveyors compasses upon the Rittenhouse improved plan” in addition to such other commodities as brass cannon, bells from their own foundry, clocks, goldsmith’s items, and stocking looms.48
Ziba Blakslee (1768-1834), of Newton, worked as a clockmaker, goldsmith, and bell founder and he advertised that he made and sold surveying instruments.49
In New Haven, Clark Sibley and Simeon Marble organized the firm of Sibley & Marble and advertised that in addition to repairing swords and cutlasses, clocks and watches, they also repaired mathematical and surgical instruments.50
One of the instrument makers of New England who has remained relatively unknown was Benjamin Platt (1757-1833), who was born in Danbury, Connecticut, on January 3, 1757.51 He married Adah Fairchild of the same city in 1776, and it is believed that he must have completed his apprenticeship by that date inasmuch as apprentices usually were not allowed to marry.
It is not known how long Platt worked in his native city, but by 1780 he had moved to Litchfield, where he worked in gold, silver, and brass. He became established as a clockmaker and produced tall case clocks and other types. In 1787 he was in New Milford, a town adjacent to Danbury, where he produced surveying compasses (see fig. 24). Three years later, in 1790, he was at Milford, where he invented a “Compass for measuring distance in hilly country.” In 1793 he returned to New Milford, where he made a clock to order for Eli Todd, and by 1800 he had moved to Lanesboro, Massachusetts.
Ohio
Benjamin Platt was the migratory type. In 1817 he migrated from Lanesboro to Columbus, Ohio. His son, Augustus Platt (1793-1886), also made mathematical instruments (see fig. 25) in Columbus. In 1809 a grandson, named William Augustus Platt was born. When the child’s mother died, Benjamin and Adah Platt adopted the boy, and when he came of age he went into the watchmaking trade. William Platt married Fanny Hayes, sister of President Hayes.52 His shop was listed in the 1843 city directory; it was the first jewelry and clock and watch store in the community.
An interesting account of instrument making in Ohio is found in the report of a missionary, John Heckewelder. He mentioned the brothers Joseph and Francois Devacht who worked as watchmakers and instrument makers in Gallipolis, Ohio. Writing in 1792, Heckewelder stated that “the most interesting shops of the Workmen [in Gallipolis] were those of the Goldsmiths and Watchmakers. They showed us work on watches, compasses, sundials finer than I have ever beheld.”
New York
There were relatively few makers of mathematical instruments in New York City before the end of the 18th century. Perhaps the earliest was John Bailey, who moved from Fredericksburg, Virginia, to Fishkill, New York, in 1778. He was a cutler by trade, and he made and sold surgical instruments.53
“Bulmain & Dennies” at 59 Water Street in New York were the appointed agents to sell the “Perpetual Log or Distance Clock to find a ship’s way at sea.” The device had been patented in the United States, and one of the instruments was displayed at the bar of the Tontine Coffee House, according to an advertisement in the July 23, 1799, issue of the New York Gazette and General Advertiser.
H. Caritat, at 153 Broadway in New York, imported and sold “The Planispherical Planetarium.” This item was described in an advertisement54 as “a graphic representation of the earth, in twelve particular positions during its revolutionary course around the sun, as also of the Moon’s revolution around the earth, together with literal description of parts and motions, etc.” The advertisement also stated that Caritat sold “Carey’s newly improved Terrestrial and Celestial Globes which omitted the Constellary Configurations.”
In 1785 M. Morris of New York City made and sold his own invention of a “Nautical Protractor for the price of One Dollar.” In an advertisement in The Independent Journal or the General Advertiser of May 25, 1785, he explained that the device was for use in the construction of globular maps and Mercator charts. He also made another protractor for attaching to the end of a ruler for measuring distances on charts. He planned to publish a treatise on the subject of his inventions.
James Youle, a cutler and mechanician with a shop located first on Fly Street and then at 64 Water Street “at the Sign of the Cross-Knives and Gun,” sold a large variety of cutlery and hardware for gun repair. He also made surgical instruments. He died in February 1786 at the age of 46 as the result of an injury to his chest from a breaking grindstone while working in his shop. He was survived by a widow and nine children and was succeeded in business by his son John Youle.55
New Jersey
One of the few instrument makers known to have worked in New Jersey was Aaron Miller of “Elizabeth-town.” He was first noted in the New York newspapers in 1748 when he notified the public that, in addition to clocks, he made compasses, chains for surveyors, and church bells, for which he maintained his own foundry. When he died in 1771 he left all his tools to a son-in-law, Isaac Brokaw.56
Another craftsman who is entitled to being included as an instrument maker was Richard Wistar. When Casper Wistar died in 1752, his son Richard succeeded him as owner of the famous glass works. In addition to window glass and glassware, Richard Wistar also produced such special products as retorts for use in chemistry and “electerizing globes and tubes,” as well as bottles for Leyden jars that Benjamin Franklin had urged him to attempt in the early 1750’s.57
Delaware
George Crow (ca. 1725-1771/72) of Wilmington, Delaware, was apparently well established as a clockmaker in the community by the time of his marriage in 1746 to Mary Laudonet. They had four children, and Crow’s two sons followed his trade. George Crow was active in civic affairs, and in addition to clocks, he produced surveying compasses, several of which have survived.58
Maryland and Virginia
Brief mention has already been made of the Chandlee family of clockmakers and instrument makers of the 18th century. The founder of the line and first of interest was Benjamin Chandlee, Sr., who migrated in 1702 from Ireland to Philadelphia, where he was apprenticed to Abel Cottey, clockmaker, and eventually married his daughter. His son Benjamin Chandlee, Jr. (1723-1791), worked as a clockmaker in Nottingham, Maryland, where he produced instruments as well as clocks. A fine example of a brass surveying compass—inscribed with his name, and which is believed to have been made for the Gilpin family in about 1761—is on exhibition in the Chester County Historical Society. He had four sons, and a few years before his death he established the firm of Chandlee & Sons, the name of which was changed to Ellis Chandlee & Brothers a year before he died.
The oldest of Benjamin Jr.’s four sons was Goldsmith Chandlee (c.1746-1821). After serving an apprenticeship with his father, Goldsmith moved to Virginia and worked near Stephensburg (now Stephens City). He eventually established himself at Winchester and built a brass foundry and a shop where he produced clocks, surveying compasses, sundials, apothecary and money scales, surgical instruments, compasses, telescopes, and other items in metal. Numerous examples of his clocks and instruments have survived. Their fine quality attests to the claim that he was one of the foremost craftsmen of the 18th century. Several of his surveying compasses exist in modern collections. An instrument (fig. 26) that he made about 1794 for a surveyor named Robert Lyle is in the writer’s collection; an almost identical instrument that Chandlee made for Lawrence Augustine Washington, George Washington’s nephew, is exhibited in the library at Mount Vernon, Virginia.
Ellis Chandlee (1755-1816) also was apprenticed to his father, and he worked with his brothers in the shop. He established the firm of Ellis Chandlee & Brothers, in 1790, shortly before his father’s death. The firm was dissolved in 1797 when the youngest brother, John Chandlee, left the firm. Ellis continued in partnership with his other brother, Isaac Chandlee (1760-1813), until about 1804, producing clocks, surveying instruments, and other metal articles. Their products were signed “Ellis and Isaac Chandlee, Nottingham,” or, in the case of a surveying compass in the collection of the Chester County Historical Society, “E. & I. Chandlee, Nottingham.” Isaac Chandlee also produced clocks and instruments under his own name only, for there are a number of surviving clocks and surveying compasses signed in such manner (see fig. 28).59
One of the most important craftsmen of Maryland was Frederick A. Heisely (1759-1839). A native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he served an apprenticeship there with John Hoff, the master clockmaker, from 1777 to 1783. Heisely served in the Revolution. In 1783, presumably upon the completion of his apprenticeship, he married Catherine Hoff, the clockmaker’s daughter. He moved to Frederick, Maryland, where he established his own clockmaking shop and where he specialized in making mathematical instruments. A tower clock made in Frederick is in the collection of the U.S. National Museum. Heisely returned to Lancaster to become Hoff’s partner, and worked with him until 1802. He then moved his shop to Harrisburg and worked there until 1820. He moved once more, this time to Pittsburgh where he advertised himself as a “Clock, Watch and Instrument Maker,” with a shop at No. 6 St. Clair Street.
George Heisely (1789-1880), Frederick’s son, who was born at Frederick, Maryland, achieved note in his own right as a maker of clocks and instruments. He worked at Second and Walnut Streets in Harrisburg. He is credited with being the person who selected the melody of “To Anacreon in Heaven” for “The Star-Spangled Banner,” while he was serving as a member of the Pennsylvania State Militia.60
Pennsylvania
A number of instrument makers worked in Philadelphia, which was one of the important shipping centers during the 18th century and consequently one of the important markets for nautical instruments.
Probably the earliest Philadelphia instrument maker of record was Thomas Godfrey (1704-1749) who was born in Bristol Township. After serving an apprenticeship, Godfrey developed his own business as a glazier and plumber. He is stated to have done the major part of the glazing of the State House in 1732, as well as similar work on Christ Church. He also worked for Andrew Hamilton and for James Logan.
Godfrey had a natural inclination and interest in science and mathematics, which may have been further encouraged by his friendship with Benjamin Franklin, who resided in the same house. Godfrey was also a fellow member of Franklin’s Junto.
In 1730 Godfrey invented an improved backstaff or Davis quadrant, and loaned the instrument to Joshua Fisher to be used in the latter’s survey of Delaware Bay. It is claimed that the location of Cape Henlopen was established on Fisher’s map (published in London in 1756) by means of Godfrey’s instrument. James Logan became interested in the improved backstaff invented by Godfrey and at Logan’s request, the instrument was taken on a voyage to the West Indies by a Captain Wright for the purpose of testing it.61
At the same time Logan sent a description of the instrument to London to the Royal Astronomer, Edmund Halley. No acknowledgment was made, and in 1734 Logan sent a second description to Sir Hans Sloane and to Peter Collison for forwarding to the Royal Society. The arrival of this description coincided with the submission of the description of a similar instrument to the Society by its vice president, James Hadley. The Royal Society decided in favor of both inventors, and Godfrey was awarded the equivalent of 200 pounds in household furniture.
Godfrey is often confused with his son, also named Thomas Godfrey (1736-1763), who worked as a watchmaker in Philadelphia, and subsequently became active in literary arts.
Benjamin Condy (fl. 1756-1792, d. 1798) was an instrument maker with a shop on South Front Street in Philadelphia. As early as 1756 he worked for most of the merchant shippers of the port, supplying them with a considerable number of sand glasses that ranged from the quarter-minute to the two-hour varieties. Although he made his own mathematical instruments, it is likely that he imported the sand glasses. According to Customs House clearances of 1789, he had imported from London on the ship Pigou “three cases of merchandise” valued at £160/17/6 with a duty of $32.19, which may have included sand glasses.62
When Condy retired in 1792 he was succeeded in business by Thomas Biggs at the same address. Biggs had originally served an apprenticeship with Condy, and then fought for the American cause in the Revolution for five years. Following the termination of his military service he had engaged in instrument making in New York for eight years before returning to Philadelphia, his native city. Biggs prospered and his advertisements continued until early in 1795.
Thomas Pryor made instruments in a shop on Chestnut Street in 1778, but he evidently retired from business in the 1790’s because the city directory of 1795 listed him merely as “gentleman.” He is reported to have been one of those who, from the State House Yard, witnessed the transit of Venus.63
Among the early makers of mathematical instruments in Philadelphia was William Dean (?-1797), who is believed to have been working in that city as early as 1778. His name first appears in local directories in June 1792, where his shop address was listed as No. 43 South Front Street. Later he advertised that he made and sold “Surveying instruments—Telescopes, Sextants, Quadrants—and every article requisite for navigation, surveying, levelling, &c....”
According to details which were noted in his last will, which was dated June 1, 1797, and filed and proved in the following month, Dean’s death appears to have been preceded by a long illness. He designated his two sisters as his executrices, and the fact that his will specified the appointment of a Mr. Thomas Yardley, Jr., as guardian of his three children indicates that he may have been a widower at the time of his death.
A surveying compass by this maker was recently brought to light in, the Clark County Historical Society, Springfield, Ohio, by Dr. Donald A. Hutzlar of the Ohio State Museum. The instrument is a plain compass in brass without levels, 13-1/2 inches in length, and with a 5-inch needle. The dial is marked “DEAN PHILADa.” The wooden cover for the instrument is marked with the names of previous owners and dates, as follows:
Jno. C. Symes, Aug. 10, 1778
I. Ludlow, 1791
Henry Donnel, July 24, 1794
Jonathan Donnel, 1796
John Dyherty
Thomas J. Kizer, 1838
David J. Kizer, ’78.
A description of this instrument in “The History of Clark County, Ohio” by A. P. Steele, published in 1881 by the W. H. Beers Co. of Chicago, adds considerably to its interest as a historical record of American scientific instruments and their use: “Col. Thomas Kizer, the veteran surveyor, has in his possession a compass made by Dean of Philadelphia; this instrument was owned and used by his father, David Kizer, who obtained it from John Dougherty about 1813; Dougherty got it from Jonathan Donnel. This relic is marked I. Ludlow, 1791; Henry Donnel, 1794; J. Donnel, 1796, John Dougherty, 1799; these marks are rudely scratched upon the cover of the instrument, and bear every evidence of being genuine; there is no doubt but that this old compass was used in making the first surveys in this county, or that it is the identical instrument used by John Dougherty, in laying off Demint’s first plat of Springfield, and by Jonathan Donnel on the survey of ‘New Boston.’” It is to be noted that some discrepancies exist in the listing of names and dates of the previous owners between Steele’s History and those which actually appear on the cover of the instrument. Steele apparently made the changes he deemed necessary in his account of the instrument.
Between 1791 and 1795 the same address was also occupied by a cooper named Michael Davenport, and from 1797 to 1801 by “the Widow Davenport,” presumably widow of Michael. From 1802 to 1804 the same address is listed for William Davenport, “Mathematical Instrument Maker,” apprentice to William Dean, and believed to be the son of Michael. During the next ten years Davenport’s address was 45 South Front Street, and then, to 1820, was 25 South Front Street.64 Several brass surveying compasses bearing his name have survived.
Another maker of mathematical instruments about whom nothing further is known is Charles Taws, who was listed in this manner in the Philadelphia directory of 1795.
The making of instruments in glass appears to have been a specialized business in the Colonies, because those who worked in this field do not appear to have produced instruments in other materials. One of these makers of glass instruments—specifically barometers, thermometers and “Glass Bubbles to prove spirits, of different kinds”—was Alloysius Ketterer. He maintained a shop in the house of a Charles Kugler at “the sign of the Seven Stars,” corner of Race and Fourth Streets in Philadelphia, in 1789. He moved to another address in Race Street in 1790 and was eventually succeeded in business by Martin Fisher, who increased the number of types of glass instruments made and sold at the shop.65
Henry Voight (1738-1814) was a man with a varied career. Of German ancestry, he was trained as a clock-and watchmaker, and he was a skilled mechanic. He operated a wire mill in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1780 and moved shortly thereafter to Philadelphia, where he established a clockmaker’s shop on Second Street. He became a close friend of the inventor John Fitch in about 1786, and in the following year he became a shareholder in Fitch’s company for producing steamboats. In 1792 he entered into a short-lived partnership with Fitch to manufacture steam engines. In 1793 he invented a process for making steel from bar iron. In the same year President Washington appointed Voight to the position of chief coiner of the Philadelphia Mint, and he continued in that position until his death in 1814. He was closely associated with David Rittenhouse, Andrew Ellicott, Edward Duffield, and others.
Although there is no record of Voight’s career as an instrument maker, there is nevertheless some evidence that he worked in that field. In the collection of the U.S. National Museum there is a brass equal-altitude telescope (fig. 31) made about 1790, that is signed “Henry Voigt.” His name was spelled “Voigt” and “Voight” interchangeably.
Henry’s son Thomas Voight worked as a clockmaker on North Seventh Street in Philadelphia around 1811. He was the maker of a tall case clock, ordered by Thomas Jefferson, that Jefferson’s daughter presented in 1826 to her father’s physician, Dr. Dunglison, for settlement of medical services.66
There were several instrument makers in provincial Pennsylvania, but the majority of such craftsmen worked in Philadelphia. Dr. Christopher Witt (1675-1765), an emigrant from England, worked in Germantown from about 1710 to 1765. He was well known locally as a medical doctor, scientist, “hexmeister”, clockmaker, and teacher. It is traditionally claimed that he produced mathematical instruments in addition to timepieces. He described the great comet of 1743 and built his own 8-foot telescope. One of his apprentices may have been Christopher Sower (1693-1740), of Germantown and Philadelphia, who achieved renown as a doctor, farmer, author, printer, papermaker, and clockmaker. He also produced mathematical instruments.67
George Wall, Jr., of Bucks County, was the author of a pamphlet on the subject of “a newly invented Surveying Instrument, called the Trigonometer.” The instrument was described and illustrated in the pamphlet, which was published in Philadelphia in 1788. Washington’s own copy, bearing the inscription “To the President of the United States from the Author” is in the collection of the Boston Athenaeum.
George Ford of Lancaster maintained a shop on West King Street, probably from the end of the 18th century until 1840. There he made tall case and other clocks, surveying compasses, and other instruments for the retail trade. However, he “did not push the business of Watchmaking and Clockmaking so hard, for the manufacture of nautical instruments and surveyors instruments was a more important part of his business.”68 Upon his death in 1842 he was succeeded by his son George Ford II.
Thomas Mendenhall repaired clocks and mathematical instruments in a shop on King and Queen Streets in the borough of Lancaster in 1775.69
John Wood of Philadelphia was a wholesale supplier of parts for clockmakers and watchmakers. According to a notice in the May 7, 1790, issue of Pennsylvania Packet, he had “pocket compasses, steel magnets, Surveying compass needles, surveyors chains, etc.” Since no mention was made of making or mending instruments, it is probable that Wood was merely importer and wholesaler.
Another instrument maker of Philadelphia about whom little is known is Bryan Gilmur, who worked at the close of the 18th century making instruments and, possibly, clocks.70
James Jacks (also listed as James Jack) first worked as clockmaker and watchmaker in Charleston, South Carolina, in the 1780’s; he later moved to Philadelphia where he maintained a shop on Market Street where he sold a variety of instruments. In the June 5, 1797, issue of The Federal Gazette he announced that, in addition to jewelry, clocks and watches, he “also had for sale mathematical instruments in cases very compleat; Surveyors Compasses and Theodolites; ship’s Quadrants; Fishing Rods and Reels; Billiard Balls and sheet ivory; silver and plated coach, chaise and chair Whips.”
Figure 31.—Equal altitude telescope, 17 in. long, made and signed by Henry Voight (1738-1814) of Philadelphia. USNM 311772.
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