Early American Scientific Instruments and Their Makers

by Silvio A. Bedini

Figure 65.—Advertisement of Gurdon Huntington (1763-1804) in The Connecticut Gazette, June 11, 1784. In collection of Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford.

Figure 66.—Views of wooden surveying compass made by Gurdon Huntington, clockmaker in Walpole, New Hampshire, between 1789-1804. Made of cherry with folding brass sighting bars, the instrument is 14 in. long and 5-1/2 in. wide. In collection of the writer.

Several examples of Huntington's clocks are known to exist in private collections in the United States. However, only one example of his scientific instruments appears to have survived. This is a surveying compass (fig. 66) made of wood, with brass sighting bars and a painted dial under glass with a steel needle. The dial is inscribed "G. HUNTINGTON/WALPOLE." The instrument, which is in the collection of the writer, is made of cherry wood, with a riveted ball-and-socket joint of brass for insertion on a tripod.

Jedidiah Baldwin

Jedidiah Baldwin (fl. 1790's) was another early New England clock and instrument maker, but little is known of his early life. He was a brother of Jabes Baldwin (c. 1777-1829), who worked as a clockmaker in Salem and Boston after serving an apprenticeship with Thomas Harland in Norwich, Connecticut.

Jedidiah Baldwin also served an apprenticeship with Harland. In 1791 he was working in Northampton, Massachusetts, as a member of the firm of Stiles and Baldwin, and from 1792 to 1794 he was a member of the firm of Stiles and Storrs, in partnership with Nathan Storrs.[123] In about 1794 Baldwin moved to Hanover, New Hampshire, where he became the local postmaster, and where Dartmouth College records his death.

Only one existing instrument is known to have been made by Baldwin; it is a wooden surveying compass with a brass dial having two scales, one for degrees and one for eight divisions per 90°. The dial is inscribed "JED BALDWIN/HANOVER." According to its present owner, Mr. Worth Shampeny of Rochester, Vermont, the compass was used for surveying in Vermont during the early 1800's.

Another Jedidiah Baldwin worked as a clockmaker in Morrisville, New York, from 1818-1820 and then in Fairfield, New York; he appears also in the city directory of Rochester, New York, as a clockmaker during the years 1834-1844. He may have been a son or grandson of the first Jedidiah, or a nephew.