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]
Figure 23.—Brass surveying compass made about 1790 by Peregrine White (1747-1834) of Woodstock, Connecticut. USNM 388993.
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.