Terry's factory was the first to use standardized parts in clock-making and the first to use machinery to create clocks. He received the first clock patent granted by the United States Patent Office in 1797 for his 'equation clock.' It was signed by President John Adams and was the first of 10 patents awarded to him in his lifetime.Įli Terry’s Pillar Scroll Top Case clock was widely used and copied.Īround 1800, clockmakers would begin one or two dozen at a time, using no machinery, first marking out with a square and compass then cutting the wheels and teeth with a saw and jack-knife, a very slow and tedious process, says Chauncey Jerome in his 1860 book History of the American Clock Business. He was considered a great man and a natural philosopher with exceptional mechanical ingenuity. Terry soon started his own clock-making factory using wood for the gears since it was a locally abundant material. At that time, clocks were made by hand, and his mentor had begun creating standardized parts for clocks. He grew up in Plymouth and there completed an apprenticeship with a master clockmaker. One town, Terryville, takes its name from the father of mass-production clock making, Eli Terry (1772 – 1852), who had factories there and is one of the United States' most famous horologists,one who studies timekeeping and timekeepers. Clockmakers had such a large impact on the region that today, towns around Plymouth still bear the names of successful townsmen who were in the clock-making business.

Around the time of the Revolutionary War, Connecticut was the epicenter of clock-making in the United States.

Eli terry clockmaker