History of the American Clock Business for the Past Sixty Years, and Life of Chauncey Jerome Part 4

The manufacture of carriages is here carried on, on a grand scale, and its yearly productions are probably larger than of any other city in the Union. There are more than sixty establishments in full operation at the present time, many of them of great extent and completeness, and turn out work justly celebrated for its beauty and substantial value wherever they are known. I live in the immediate vicinity of the largest carriage manufactury in the world, which turns out a finished carriage every hour; much of the work being done by machinery and systematized in much the same manner as the clock-making. American carriages are fast following American clocks to foreign countries, to the West Indies, Australia and the Sandwich Islands, Mexico and South America, and I believe the day is not far distant when they will be exported to Europe in large quant.i.ties, and the present prospect seems far more favorable for them than it did for me when I introduced my first cargo of clocks into England.

When I first saw this city in 1812, its population was less than five thousand, and it looked to me like a country town. I wandered about the streets early one morning with a bundle of clothes and some bread and cheese in my hands little dreaming that I should live to see so great a change, or that it ever would be my home. I remember seeing the loads of wood and chips for family use lying in front of the houses, and acres of land then in cornfields and valued at a small sum, are now covered with fine buildings and stores and factories in about the heart of the city.

When I moved my case making business to New Haven, the project was ridiculed by other clock-makers, of going to a city to manufacture by steam power, and yet it seems to have been the commencement of manufacturers in the country, coming to New Haven to carry on their business. Numbers came to me to get my opinion and learn the advantages it had over manufacturing in the country, which I always informed them in a heavy business was very great, the item of transportation alone over-balancing the difference between water and steam power. The facilities for procuring stock and of s.h.i.+pping, being also an important item. Not one of the good citizens will deny that this great business of clock-making which I first brought to New Haven has been of immense advantage and of great importance to the city. Through its agency millions of money has been brought here, adding materially to the general prosperity and wealth, besides bringing it into notice wherever its productions are sent. I have been told that there is nothing in the eastern world that attracts the attention of the inhabitants like a Yankee clock. It has this moment come into my mind of several years ago giving a dozen bra.s.s clocks to a missionary at Jerusalem; they were s.h.i.+pped from London to Alexandria in Egypt, from there to Joppa, and thence about forty miles on the backs of Camels to Jerusalem, where they arrived safe to the great joy of the missionary and others interested, and attracted a great deal of attention and admiration. I also sent my clocks to China, and two men to introduce them more than twenty years ago.

I will here say what I truly believe as to the future of this business; there is no place on the earth where it can be started and compete with New Haven, there are no other factories where they can possibly be made so cheap. I have heard men ask the question, "why can't clocks be made in Europe on such a scale, where labor is so cheap?" If a company could in any part of the old world get their labor ten years for nothing, I do not believe they could compete with the Yankees in this business. They can be made in New Haven and sent into any part of the world for more than a hundred years to come for less than one half of what they could be made for in any part of the old world. I was many years in systematizing this business, and these things I know to be facts, though it might appear as strong language. No man has ever lived that has given so much time and attention to this subject as myself. For more than fifty years, by day and by night, clocks have been uppermost in my mind.

The ticking of a clock is music to me, and although many of my experiences as a business man have been trying and bitter, I have the satisfaction of knowing that I have lived the life of an honest man, and have been of some use to my fellow men.

APPENDIX.

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR KEEPING CLOCKS IN ORDER.

Pendulum clocks are the oldest style, and are more generally introduced than any other kind. I will give a few simple suggestions essential for keeping this clock in good order as a time-keeper. In the first place, a clock must be plumb (that is level;) and what I mean by plumb, is not treing up the case to a level, but it is to put the case in a position so that the beats or sounds of the wheel-teeth striking the verge are equal. It is not necessary to go by the sound, if the face is taken off so that you can see the verge. You can then notice and see whether the verge holds on to the teeth at each end the same length of time; or (in other words) whether the vibrations are equal as they should be. Clocks are often condemned because they stop, or because they do not keep good time, while these points and others are not in beat, the vibrations are not regular; hence it will not divide the time equally, and it is called a poor time-keeper, when the difficulty may be that it is not properly set up. A clock which will run when it is much out of beat, is a very good one, and it must run very easily, because it has a great disadvantage to overcome, viz: a greater distance from a perpendicular line one way than the other in order that the verge may escape the teeth. A clock may be set up in perfect beat, but the shelf is liable to settle or warp, and get out of beat so gradually, that it might not be remarked by one not suspecting it, unless special notice was taken of it. This matter should be looked to when the clock stops.

I have explained the mode of setting up a clock with reference to putting it in beat, etc. Another essential point to be attended to is that the rod should hang in the centre or very near the centre of the loop in the crutch wire which is connected with the verge, and for this reason, if it rubs the front or back end of the loop, the friction will cause it to stop. To prevent this, set the clock case so that it will lean back a little or forward, as it requires. It sometimes happens that the dial (if it is made of zinc) gets bent in, and the loop of the crutch wire rubs as it pa.s.ses back and forth. This should be attended to. It should be noticed also, whether the crutch wire gets misplaced so that it rubs any kind of a dial; the least impediment here will stop a clock. The centre of the dial should next be noticed. It sometimes happens that the warping moves it from its place, so that the sockets of the pointers rub, and many times it is the cause of the clock's stopping; this can be remedied by pareing out the centre on the side required.

Soft verges are no uncommon cause of clocks stopping, and those who travel to repair clocks generally overlook this trouble. A clock with a soft verge will run but a short time, because the teeth will dent into the face of the verge and cause a roughness that will certainly stop it.

The way to ascertain this, is to try a file on the end of the verge; if you can file it it is soft; they are intended to be so hard that a file will not cut them. They can be hardened without taking off the bra.s.s ears or crutch wires, if you are careful in heating them; but the roughness on the faces caused by the teeth must be taken out in finis.h.i.+ng. They must be polished nicely, and the polish lines should run parallel with the verge: this may not seem to some necessary, but if the polished lines run crosswise you can hear it rub distinctly and it would cause it to stop.

It is very common to hear a clock make a creaking noise, and this leads inexperienced persons to think it has become dry inside. This is not so, and you will always find it to be caused by the loop of the crutch wire where it touches the rod; apply a little oil and it will cure it.

Some think that a clock must be cleaned and oiled often, but if the foregoing directions are carefully pursued it is not necessary. I could show the reader several thirty-four hour bra.s.s clocks of my first and second years' manufacture (about twenty-two years since) which have been taken apart and cleaned but once--perhaps some of them twice. I have been told that they run as well as they did the first year. Now these are the directions which I should lay down for you to save your money, and your clocks from untimely wearing out. If you see any signs of their stopping--such as a faint beat, or if on a very cold night they stop, take the dial off, and the verge from the pin, wipe the pin that the verge hangs on, the hole in the ears of the verge, and the pieces that act on the wheel; also the loop of the verge wire where it connects with the rod, and the rod itself where the loop acts. Previous to taking off the verge, oil all the pivots in front; let the clock be wound up about half way, then take off the verge, and let it run down as rapidly as it will, in order to work out the gummy oil: then wipe off the black oil that has worked out and it is not necessary to add any more to the pivots. Then oil the parts as above described connected with the verge and be very sparing of the oil, for too little is better than too much.

I never use any but watch oil. You may think that the other oils are good because you have tried them; but I venture to say that all the good they effected was temporary and after a short time the clock was more gummed up than it was before. Watch oil is made from the porpoise' jaw, and I have not seen anything to equal it. You may say why not oil the back pivots? They do not need it as often as the front ones, because they are not so much exposed, and hence, they do not catch the dust which pa.s.ses through the sash and through the key holes that causes the pivots to be gummy and gritty. The front pivot holes wear largest first.

A few pennys' worth of oil will last many years.

It is necessary to occasionally oil the pulleys on the top of the case which the cord pa.s.ses over. If this is not done the hole becomes irregular, and a part of the power is lost to the clock. Common oil will answer for them. With regard to balance-wheel clocks, it is more difficult to explain the mode of repairing, to the inexperienced. With reference to oiling, use none but watch oil.