In 1808 he started five hundred clocks at once,—an undertaking which was considered foolhardy. People argued that there weren't enough people in the colonies to buy so many clocks, but nevertheless the clocks sold rapidly. In 1810 Terry sold out to Seth Thomas and Silas Hoadley, two of his head workmen. The new company was a leader in colonial clock manufacturing for a number of years, until competition brought the prices of clocks down to five and ten dollars.
All these years Terry had been experimenting, and in 1814 he introduced his pillar scroll top case. This upset the clock trade to such an extent that the old-fashioned hanging, wooden clocks, which hitherto had been the leading type, were forced out of existence. The shape of the scroll top case is rectangular, the case, with small feet and top, standing about twenty-five inches high. On the front edges of the case are pillars, twenty-one inches long, three quarters of an inch in diameter at the base, and three eighths at the top, having, as a rule, square bases. The dial, which takes up a half or more of the whole front, is eleven inches square, while below is a tablet about seven by eleven inches. The dial is not over-ornamental and has suitable spandrels in the corners. The scroll top is found plain as well as highly carved, but always the idea of the scroll is present.
Terry sold the right to manufacture the clock to Seth Thomas for a thousand dollars. At first they each made about six thousand clocks a year, but later increased the output to twelve thousand. The clocks were great favorites and sold easily for fifteen dollars each.
Another conservatism of the colonial clock-makers was the sharp division which they made between the use of wood and brass in the manufacture of the movements. The one-day clocks were made of wood throughout, and this prevented their use on water or even their exportation, because the works would swell in the dampness and render the clock useless. The eight-day clocks were made of brass, but the extra cost of the movements sufficient to make the clock run eight days excluded many people, who had to remain content with the one-day clock.
It was not till 1837 that it occurred to any of these ingenious makers of timepieces to produce a one-day clock out of brass. To Chauncey Jerome, the first exporter of clocks from America to England in the year 1824, the honor was reserved of applying the principle of the cheap wire pinion to the brass, one-day clock. Thus began the revolution of American clock manufacturing, which has placed this country before all the world as a leader in cheap and accurate watch and clock making.
The whirr and bustle of hundreds of factories of to-day, which manufacture watches and clocks at an output of thousands per year, is a strong contrast to the slow and laborious construction of the old colonial clocks. And not only is there a contrast in their manufacture, but when one compares the finished products of the year 1700 and 1900 side by side, one is conscious of conflicting emotions. There is naturally a decided feeling of admiration for the artistically designed timepiece of the twentieth century on the one hand, and, on the other, an irresistibly sentimental sensation when standing before a dignified, ancient, tall clock, on the door of which one reads:—
"I am old and worn as my face appears,
For I have walked on time for a hundred years,
Many have fallen since my race began,
Many will fall ere my race is run.
I have buried the World with its hopes and fears
In my long, long march of a hundred years."