EARLY AMERICAN
SCIENTIFIC
INSTRUMENTS

and Their Makers

SILVIO A. BEDINI

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 231

WASHINGTON, D.C.

1964

Publications of the United States National Museum

The scholarly publications of the United States National Museum include two series, Proceedings of the United States National Museum and United States National Museum Bulletin.

In these series are published original articles and monographs dealing with the collections and work of the Museum and setting forth newly acquired facts in the fields of anthropology, biology, geology, history, and technology. Copies of each publication are distributed to libraries and scientific organizations and to specialists and others interested in the various subjects.

The Proceedings, begun in 1878, are intended for the publication, in separate form, of shorter papers. These are gathered in volumes, octavo in size, with the publication date of each paper recorded in the table of contents of the volume.

In the Bulletin series, the first of which was issued in 1875, appear longer, separate publications consisting of monographs (occasionally in several parts) and volumes in which are collected works on related subjects. Bulletins are either octavo or quarto in size, depending on the needs of the presentation. Since 1902 papers relating to the botanical collections of the Museum have been published in the Bulletin series under the heading Contributions from the United States National Herbarium.

Frank A. Taylor,
Director, United States National Museum.

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C., 20402—Price $1.00 (Paper Cover)

Frontispiece.—"Washington as a Surveyor." Engraving reproduced from Washington Irving's Life of George Washington (New York: 1857, vol. 1).

EARLY AMERICAN
SCIENTIFIC
INSTRUMENTS

and Their Makers

SILVIO A. BEDINI

Curator of Mechanical and Civil Engineering

MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

WASHINGTON, 1964

Contents

Acknowledgments

The writer wishes to acknowledge his great indebtedness to the various compilations relating to clockmakers and instruments which have been consulted in the preparation of this work, and which have provided an invaluable basis for it.

He is especially grateful for the generous and interested assistance of the many who have cooperated in making this work possible. Particular credit must be given to Mrs. H. Ropes Cabot of the Bostonian Society; Mrs. Mary W. Phillips of the Department of Science and Technology of the U.S. National Museum; Prof. Derek J. de Solla Price, Avalon Professor of the History of Science at Yale University; Mr. Stephen T. Riley, Director of the Massachusetts Historical Society; and Mr. Charles E. Smart of Troy, New York.

Preface

Within recent years fairly exhaustive studies have been made on many aspects of American science and technology. For example, there have been numerous works relating to clocks and clockmakers, so that the collector and horological student have a number of useful sources on which to rely. More recently there has been a series of publications on the development of American tools and their makers. Until now, however, no systematic study has been attempted of the scientific instruments used in the United States from its colonial beginnings. While several useful regional lists of instrument makers in early America have been compiled from advertisements in contemporary newspapers and published as short articles, these, however, are fragmentary, and are inadequate to the need for documentation in this field.

With the rapidly growing interest in the history of science, it becomes necessary to have a more complete background for the student and the historian alike. It is desirable to have a more comprehensive picture of the work of the scientific practitioners of the earlier periods of American scientific development, and of their tools. At the same time it is essential to have a history of the development and distribution and use of scientific instruments by others than the practitioners and teachers. The role of the instrument maker in the American Colonies was an important one—as it was in each epoch of the history of science in Europe—and it deserves to be reported.

To make a comprehensive study of American scientific instruments and instrument makers in the American Colonies is no simple matter, partly because of an indifference to the subject in the past, and partly because of the great volume of sources that must be sifted to accomplish it. Such a project would require an organized search of all published reference works relating to the field and associated topics, of all contemporary newspapers for advertisements and notices, of civil records filed in state and community archives, of business account-books and records that have been preserved, and of business directories of the period under consideration. In addition, such a study would require the compilation of an inventory of all surviving instruments in private and public collections, and a correlation of all the data that could be assembled from these sources.

The present study attempts only in part to accomplish this aim, being no more than a preliminary compilation of the scientific instruments known to have been used during the first two centuries of American colonial existence. It merely attempts to assemble all the data that is presently available in scattered sources, and to organize it in a usable form for the student and historian of American science. A supplement relating to 19th-century instruments and instrument makers is in progress.

The most that is hoped for the present work is that it will be of temporary assistance, serving to bring forth additional information on the subject from sources not previously available or known.

February 1, 1964 S.A.B.

EARLY AMERICAN
SCIENTIFIC
INSTRUMENTS

and Their Makers

The Tools of Science

Philosophical and Practical Instruments

Development of the sciences in the American Colonies was critically dependent upon the available tools—scientific instruments—and the men who made and used them. These tools may be separated into two groups. The first group consists of philosophical instruments and scientific teaching apparatus produced and employed for experimentation and teaching in educational institutions. The second includes the so-called "mathematical instruments" of practical use, which were employed by mathematical practitioners and laymen alike for the mensural and nautical needs of the Colonies. It is particularly with this second group that the present study is concerned.

It has been generally assumed that scientific instruments, as well as the instrument makers, of the first two centuries of American colonization were imported from England, and that the movement declined by the beginning of the 19th century with the development of skilled native craftsmen.[1] This assumption is basically true for those instruments grouped under philosophical and scientific apparatus for experimentation and teaching. Almost all of these items were in fact imported from England and France until well into the 19th century.

Likewise, the very earliest examples of mathematical instruments for surveying and navigation in the Colonies were imported with the settlers from England. It was not long after the establishment of the first settlements, however, that the settlers, and later the first generation of native Americans, began to produce their own instruments. Records derived from historical archives and from the instruments themselves reveal that a considerable number of the instruments available and used in the Colonies before 1800 were of native production. Apparently, relatively few instrument makers immigrated to the American continent before the end of the Revolutionary War. Later, with the beginning of the 19th century, makers of and dealers in instruments in England and France became aware of the growing new market, and emigrated in numbers to establish shops in the major cities of commerce in the United States.

Quite possibly the few instrument makers trained in England who immigrated to the Colonies in the early epoch of Colonial development may have in turn trained others in their communities, although no evidence has yet been found. Perhaps more data on this aspect of the subject will eventually come to light.

There is reason to believe that a few mathematical practitioners and instrument makers lived and worked in the New England colonies as early as the first century of colonization.

The evidence, frankly meager, consists of two items. The first is a reference relating to James Halsie of Boston. In a land deed made out to him in 1674 he was referred to as a "Mathematician."[2] Halsie was listed as a freeman of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1690. He apparently was the forbear of the several members of the Halsy family of instrument makers of Boston of the 18th century, mentioned later in this study. It is uncertain whether the use of the term "mathematician" in this connection meant an artisan, but if not it may be inferred that Halsie was a practitioner.

The second piece of evidence is even more slender; it consists of an inscription upon a dialing rule (fig. 1) for making sundials and charts. The instrument is of cast brass, 20-7/16 inches long and 1-11/16 inches wide. The date "1674" is inscribed on the rule together with the name of its original owner, "Arthur Willis." The instrument almost certainly was produced by the school of Henry Sutton, the notable English instrument maker who worked in Threadneedle Street in London from about 1637 through 1665. The name and date inscriptions are consistent and contemporary with the workmanship of the rule, and were probably inscribed by the maker for the original owner. It is conceivable that Arthur Willis was an Englishman and that the rule was brought into this country even in relatively recent times. However, it is claimed that the rule was owned and used by Nathaniel Footes, surveyor of Springfield, Massachusetts. Nathaniel Footes, believed to have been originally from Salem, subsequently moved from Springfield to Wethersfield, Conn. The instrument was later owned and used in Connecticut not later than the early 19th century[3] by the forbears of Mr. Newton C. Brainard of Hartford, Connecticut. If records relating to Willis as a resident of the New England colonies can be recovered, it may then be possible to establish whether he worked in the Colonies as a mathematical practitioner in the 17th century. His name is included on a tentative basis.

Figure 1.—Dialing rule made of brass and inscribed with the name "Arthur Willis" and the date "1674." Allegedly used by Nathaniel Footes, surveyor of Springfield, Massachusetts. Photo courtesy Newton C. Brainard, Hartford, Connecticut, and the Connecticut Historical Society.

The Need for Instruments

The production and use of scientific instruments in the American Colonies reflected colonial development in education and in territorial and economic expansion, and closely paralleled the same development in England, where the first mathematical practitioners were the teachers of navigational and commercial arithmetic and the surveyors employed in the redistribution of land following the dissolution of the monasteries. As the communities became established and the settlers gained a foothold on the soil, their attention naturally turned to improving their lot by expanding the land under cultivation and by trading their products for other needs. The growth of the communities became increasingly rapid from the end of the 17th century, and the land expansion closely paralleled the development of trade. The educational institutions placed greater emphasis on the sciences as their curriculums developed. Particularly there was a greater preoccupation with the sciences on the part of the layman because of the need for knowledge of surveying and navigation.

The colonial school curriculum was accordingly designed from the practical point of view to emphasize practical mathematics, and there was an increasing demand for instruction in all aspects of the subject. One of the earliest advertisements of this nature appeared in The Boston Gazette in March 1719. In the issue of February 19 to March 7 the advertisement stated that:

This day Mr. Samuel Grainger opens his school at the House formerly Sir Charles Hobby's, where will be taught Grammar Writing after a free and easy manner in all the usual Hands, Arithmetick in a concise and Practical Method, Merchants Accompts, and the Mathematicks.

He hopes that more thinking People will in no wise be discouraged from sending their children thither, on the account of the reports newly reviv'd, because these dancing Phaenomena's were never seen nor heard of in School Hours.

The advertisement was further amplified in its second appearance, in the issue of March 21-22, 1719:

At the house formerly Sir Charles Hobby's are taught grammar, writing, after a free & easy manner in all hands usually practiced, Arithmetick Vulgar and Decimal in a concise and Practical Method, Merchants Accompts, Geometry, Algebra, Mensuration, Geography, Trigonometry, Astronomy, Navigation and other parts of the Mathematicks, with the use of the Globes and other Mathematical Instruments, by Samuel Grainger.

They whose business won't permit 'em to attend the usual School Hours, shall be carefully attended and Instructed in the Evenings.

R. F. Seybold[4] has noted that: "In advertisements of 1753 and 1754, John Lewis, of New York City, announced 'What is called a New Method of Navigation, is an excellent Method of Trigonometry here particularly applied to Navigation; But it is of great use in all kinds of measuring and in solving many Arithmetical Questions.' James Cosgrove, of Philadelphia, in 1755, taught 'geometry, trigonometry, and their application in surveying, navigation, etc.,' and Alexander Power, in 1766, 'With their Application to Surveying, Navigation, Geography, and Astronomy'." These subjects were featured also in the evening schools of the colonial period, maintained by private schoolmasters in some of the larger communities for the education of those who could not attend school in the daytime.

According to Seybold, surveying and navigation were the most popular mathematical subjects taught. Some explanation is to be derived from the statement by Schoen[5] that: "In the days when the 'bounds' of great wilderness tracts were being marked off by deep-cut blazes in the trees along a line, a knowledge of land surveying was a useful skill, and many a boy learned its elements by following the 'boundsgoer' in his work of 'running the line.' And those who did not actually take part in running the line must have attended many a gay springtime 'processioning' when neighbors made a festive occasion out of 'perambulating the bounds'." "Vague land grants and inaccurate surveys," he adds, "made the subject of boundary lines a prime issue in the everyday life of colonial homes."

At the same time there was interest in the other aspects of the mathematical sciences. As early as 1743, for instance, a Harvard mathematician named Nathan Prince advertised in Boston that if he were given "suitable Encouragement" he would establish a school to teach "Geography and Astronomy, With the Use of the Globes, and the several kinds of Projecting the Sphere" among other things.[6] A decade later, Theophilus Grew, professor in the academy at Philadelphia which has become the University of Pennsylvania, published a treatise on globes, with the title:

The Description and Use of the Globes, Celestial and Terrestrial; With Variety for Examples for the Learner's Exercises: Intended for the Use of Such Persons as would attain to the Knowledge of those Instruments; But Chiefly designed for the Instruction of the young Gentlemen at the Academy in Philadelphia. To which is added Rules for working all the Cases in Plain and Spherical Triangles without a Scheme. By Theophilus Grew, Mathematical Professor. Germantown, Printed by Christopher Sower, 1753.[7]

Thus, the need for practical mathematical instruments for the surveyor and navigator became critical in proportion to the need for men to make and use them, and it is not surprising to discover that the majority of the instruments produced and advertised by early American makers were for surveying, with nautical instruments in second place. Generally, the surveyors were not professionals; they were farmers, tradesmen, or craftsmen with a sound knowledge of basic arithmetic and occasionally with some advanced study of the subject as taught in the evening schools. The surveying of provincial and intercolonial boundaries required greater skill, however, as well as a knowledge of astronomy, and this work was relegated to the scientific men of the period.

As the increasing preoccupation with subdivision of land and with surveying led to a greater demand for suitable instruments, it was the skilled craftsmen of the community, such as the clockmaker and the silversmith, that were called upon to produce them. Superb examples also were produced by the advanced scientific men, or "mathematical practitioners," of the period.

Colonial Training in Instrument Making

One may well ask, where did these native craftsmen acquire the knowledge that enabled them to produce so skillfully the accurate and often delicate mathematical instruments? There were a number of possible sources for this knowledge. The first source lies in England, where some of these craftsmen could have studied or served apprenticeships. After completing their apprenticeship with English mathematical practitioners, they may have immigrated to the Colonies and taught the craft to others. This seems to be entirely plausible, and was probably true, for example, of Thomas Harland the clockmaker, Anthony Lamb, and perhaps several others. However, these were the exceptions instead of the rule, since a biographical study of the instrument makers in general reveals that they were for the most part native to America. It is not likely that the one or two isolated practitioners that had been trained in England could have taught so many others who worked in the same epoch.

Figure 2.—Title page of The Surveyor by Aaron Rathborne, published in London in 1616. The book was one of the sources of information for American makers of mathematical instruments.

Another source for this knowledge of instrument making was probably the reference works on the subject that had been published in England and in France. As an example, Nicolas Bion's Traitè de la Construction et des Principaux Usages des Instruments de Mathematique, which had been first published in 1686, was translated into English by Edmund Stone in 1723, and went into several English editions. Copies of this work in English undoubtedly found their way to America soon after publication. Other popular works were Aaron Rathbone's The Surveyor, which appeared in London in 1616 (see fig. 2); William Leybourn's The Compleat Surveyor, in 1653; and George Atwell's Faithfull Surveyour, in 1662. Other works popular in the Colonies were R. Norwood's Epitome, or The Doctrine of Triangles (London, 1659) and J. Love's Geodasia, or the Art of Surveying (London, 1688).

These works undoubtedly inspired similar publications in America, for many books on surveying and navigation appeared there before the beginning of the 19th century. Chief among them were S. Moore's An Accurate System of Surveying (Litchfield, Conn., 1796), Z. Jess's A Compendious System of Practical Surveying (Wilmington, 1799), Abel Flint's Surveying (Hartford, 1804), and J. Day's Principles of Navigation and Surveying (New Haven, 1817).

The published works were unquestionably responsible for much of the training in the making of mathematical instruments in America, although no documentary evidence has yet been recovered to prove it.

Another important influence on early American instrument-making which must be noted was that of the clockmaker as an artisan. A comprehensive study of surviving instruments and related records has revealed that only a few of the many clockmakers working in the American Colonies in the 18th century made mathematical instruments. Yet, a large proportion of the surviving surveying and nautical instruments produced before 1800 were the work of clockmakers. Classic among these must be noted the instruments produced by the brothers David and Benjamin Rittenhouse (see p. 15 and figs. 3 and 4), as well as the fine surveying instruments made by four separate members of the Chandlee family, whose clockmaking traditions began early in the 17th century (see p. 54).

Figure 3.—Transit telescope made by David Rittenhouse and used by him for the observation of the transit of Venus in 1769. Brass, 33-1/2-in. tube on a 25-in. axis, with an aperture of 1-3/4 in. and a focal length of 32 in. Photo courtesy the American Philosophical Society.

Figure 4.—Surveying compass marked "Potts and Rittenhouse." Believed to be the work of David Rittenhouse in partnership with Thomas Potts. Photo courtesy the American Philosophical Society.

Finally, one must not overlook the fact that examples of English and other European instruments were available in the Colonies, and that at least some of the early colonial makers undoubtedly copied them. It is apparent from some surviving early American instruments that the materials, designs, dimensions, and details of European prototypes had been deliberately copied. It is possible to see in public collections, for instance, a Davis quadrant of English manufacture exhibited beside a later example, signed by a New England maker, which comes extraordinarily close to duplicating it in every feature.

As with the presumed influence of published works, the practice of copying imported instruments cannot be documented, but it must have been engaged in by many of the unschooled New England instrument makers. By this means some may even have profited to the degree that they became professional craftsmen without benefit of formal apprenticeship.

Yet it is remarkable that although numerous instruments were produced by native artisans, in addition to the substantial number which were imported before the end of the 18th century, relatively few specimens have survived in public collections as well as in private hands. Despite the exhaustive combing of attics and barns throughout the country by dealers in antiques and by avid collectors during the past several decades, the number of surviving instruments now known is incredibly small in comparison with the numbers known to have been made locally or imported before the beginning of the 19th century. Since instruments are not items which would ordinarily be deliberately discarded or destroyed, or melted down for the recovery of the metal, this small percentage of survival presents a puzzle which has not been resolved.

Figure 5.—David Rittenhouse. Engraving from portrait by Charles Wilson Peale.

The Mathematical Practitioners

The Rittenhouse Brothers

Notable among the American practitioners was David Rittenhouse (1732-1796) of Norristown and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who was established as a clockmaker and surveyor in Philadelphia by 1749. He surveyed the boundary between Pennsylvania and Delaware in 1763 with instruments of his own design and construction. Six years later, in 1769, he successfully calculated the transit of Venus and later observed that planet with astronomical instruments he had constructed himself. In the following year, 1770, he built the first American astronomical observatory, in Philadelphia. Two orreries that he designed and built—at the University of Pennsylvania and at Princeton University—survive as outstanding examples of American craftsmanship.[8] Several of his surveying and astronomical instruments are exhibited in the collections of the U.S. National Museum. David Rittenhouse is credited with being the originator of a declination arc on the surveying compass, a feature to be copied by a number of later instrument makers.

David's brother, Benjamin Rittenhouse (1740-c.1820), served in the Revolution and was wounded at Brandywine. He superintended the Government's gunlock factory at Philadelphia in 1778 and achieved recognition as a maker of clocks and surveying instruments (see fig. 8).[9] During one period of his career he worked in partnership with his brother David. An interesting advertisement appeared in the May 14, 1785, issue of The Pennsylvania Packet:

WANTED, An ingenious Lad not exceeding 14 years of age, of a reputable family, as an Apprentice to learn the Art and Mistery of making Clocks and Surveying Instruments. Any lad inclining to go an apprentice to the above Trade, the terms on which he will be taken may [be] known by enquiring of Mr. David Rittenhouse, in Philadelphia, or at the subscriber's house in Worcester township, Montgomery county. Benjamin Rittenhouse.

Figure 6.—Astronomical clock made by David Rittenhouse for his observatory at Norristown, Pa., and used by him for the observation of the transit of Venus in 1769. Unembellished pine case 83-1/2 in. high, 13-1/4 in. wide at the waist with a silvered brass dial 10-5/8 in. diameter. Photo courtesy the American Philosophical Society.

Figure 7.—Orrery built by David Rittenhouse for the University of Pennsylvania. The center section shows the motions of the planets and their satellites and the right-hand section the eclipses of the Sun and Moon. The case, considered to be an outstanding example of colonial cabinet-work, was made by John Folwell.

Figure 8.—Brass surveying compass inscribed "Made by Benjamin Rittenhouse, 1787." Photo courtesy Ohio State Museum, Columbus, Ohio.

Figure 9.—Portrait of Andrew Ellicott (1754-1820) by unknown artist.

Andrew Ellicott

A name closely associated with that of the Rittenhouse brothers was that of Andrew Ellicott (1754-1820) of Solebury, Pennsylvania, and Ellicotts Mills, Maryland. Andrew was the son of Joseph Ellicott, the clockmaker and pioneer industrialist who founded Ellicotts Mills. Although a Quaker, Andrew (fig. 9) served in the Revolution, and he became one of the most distinguished engineers of the new republic. He worked as a clockmaker and instrument maker from 1774 to 1780. In 1784 he ran the boundary between Virginia and Pennsylvania and in the following year he was a member of the survey that continued Mason and Dixon's line. In 1785 and 1786 he served on the Pennsylvania commissions that surveyed the western and northern boundaries of the state, and in 1789 he served on the commission that fixed the boundary between New York and Pennsylvania. Between 1791 and 1793 he surveyed the site of the city of Washington, D.C., and redrew L'Enfant's plan for the city.

In early 1793 Ellicott was appointed commissioner by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the project of viewing and locating a road from Reading to Presque Isle, now Erie. It was an extremely difficult undertaking, but Ellicott completed the work by the autumn of 1796, including laying out the towns of Erie, Warren, and Franklin.

In May 1796 Ellicott was commissioned by President Washington to survey and mark the boundary line between the United States and the Spanish Province of Florida in accordance with the provisions of the Pinkney-Godoy Treaty of October 27, 1795. This line was to begin at the point where the 31st parallel of north latitude intersected the Mississippi River, and to proceed thence along that parallel eastward to the Appalachicola River for about 400 miles.

In 1801 Ellicott was offered the position of surveyor general of the United States by President Jefferson. Ellicott declined, but subsequently accepted the secretaryship of the land office of Pennsylvania, a post he held until 1808.

In 1811 Ellicott became commissioner to represent Georgia in locating the Georgia-North Carolina boundary, a project on which he was engaged for the major part of the following year.

In 1815 President Madison appointed Ellicott professor of mathematics at West Point, with the rank of major. This is an appointment he kept until his death in 1820. It was interrupted in 1817 when the Government required his services as astronomer to locate a portion of the United States-Canadian boundary in accordance with the fifth article of the Treaty of Ghent.

Figure 10.—Transit and equal-altitude instrument (left) made by Ellicott in 1789 and used by him in the survey of the boundary between the United States and Florida and in other surveys. USNM 152080.
Figure 11.—Zenith sector with focal length of 6 ft., made by David Rittenhouse and revised by Andrew Ellicott. Described in Journal of Andrew Ellicott (Philadelphia, 1803). USNM 152078.

Ellicott was a member of a number of learned societies, including the American Philosophical Society, the Society for the Promotion of Useful Arts of Albany, and of the National Institute of France.

Ellicott constructed a number of instruments for surveying and astronomical observation, and he designed and used others that were produced by his friend David Rittenhouse[10] (see figs. 10, 11). Of particular interest in connection with Ellicott's career as a clockmaker and instrument maker are two advertisements that appeared in the Baltimore newspapers. The first one was in the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Daily Advertiser on April 7, 1778:

Ellicott's Upper Mills, April 4, 1778. Wanted, a person acquainted with the Clock-Making business, and able to work by directions. Such a person will meet with good encouragement by applying to Andrew Ellicott, sen.

The second advertisement, in the same vein, appeared in the May 16, 1780, issue of the Maryland Journal:

Good Encouragement will be given to either Clock or Mathematical instrument makers, by the subscriber, living in Baltimore-Town. Andrew Ellicott.

Owen Biddle

Another mathematical practitioner associated with David Rittenhouse in his observations of the transit of Venus was Owen Biddle (1737-1799) of the North Ward, Philadelphia.

In early life Biddle was an apothecary and a clock- and watch-maker. In his shop "next door to Roberts warehouse" he sold clock and watch parts and tools. From 1764 to 1770 he advertised himself as "Clockmaker, and scientist, statesman and patriot." As a Quaker, he participated actively in civic and patriotic affairs of Philadelphia. During the American Revolution, in spite of his religious affiliation, he fought for the defense of the Colonies and was appointed Deputy Commissioner of Forage. Evidencing sincere repentance, he was permitted to rejoin the Society of Friends.

In 1769 Biddle took an active part in the preparations made by the American Philosophical Society for the observation of the transit of Venus. With Joel Baily he was sent to Cape Henlopen, Delaware, with a large reflecting telescope borrowed from the Library Company. The expedition was described in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society in 1771 in an article entitled "An Account of the Transit of Venus, over the Sun's Disk, as observed near Cape Henlopen, on Delaware Bay, June 3rd, 1769 by Owen Biddle, Joel Baily and (Richard Thomas) Drawn by Owen Biddle." In addition to his trade in clocks and watches, Biddle also made mathematical instruments and was well known in his native city as a merchant, inventor, and ironmaster.

Benjamin Banneker

A name that is too often ignored in the history of science in colonial America is that of a free Negro, Benjamin Banneker (c. 1734-1806) of Baltimore. A farmer by occupation, Banneker was the son of a native African slave and a free mulatto woman. In his spare time he attended the school of a Quaker farmer; the only book he owned was the Bible. When he was a young man he acquired a watch from a trader, and from it he developed his love of science and instruments. Although he had never seen a clock, he constructed one based on drawings he made from the watch. Banneker was called upon to assist in the construction of the mills for the Ellicotts, and it was natural that his clock, which was the marvel of the Negro settlement, should come to the attention of Joseph Ellicott. Ellicott became interested in Banneker's thirst for knowledge and allowed him the use of his tools, scientific instruments, and technical books. Among the books were Mayer's Tables, James Ferguson's Astronomy, and Leadbeater's Lunar Tables. Banneker absorbed these and other works that he borrowed and went on to explore the wonderful new world they opened up for him. He pursued astronomical studies, and within three years he began to make calculations (fig. 12) for an almanac. After completing the calculations for the year 1791, he went on to produce a set of calculations for 1792. During this period he mastered the use of surveying instruments and made a firsthand study of tides in the region. His great opportunity came when Andrew Ellicott was chosen to make a survey for the city of Washington and hired Banneker as an assistant. While thus employed, Banneker completed his almanac and gave it to George Ellicott, Andrew's cousin, as a subject of possible interest. Apparently George Ellicott turned it over to the Honorable James McHenry of Baltimore, who in turned submitted it to the Philadelphia firm of Goddard & Angell, who published it (fig. 13). Banneker mailed a copy of his Benjamin Banneker's Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia And Maryland Almanac and Ephemeris For the Year of Our Lord, 1792 to Thomas Jefferson, who was so impressed with it that he forwarded it to the Marquis de Condorcet, secretary of the French Academy of Sciences. After his work with Ellicott had been completed, Banneker retired to his farm to produce almanacs annually until 1802. When he died in 1806 he was eulogized before the French Academy by the Marquis de Condorcet, and William Pitt placed his name in the records of the English Parliament.[11]

Figure 12.—Letter from Benjamin Banneker to George Ellicott dated October 13, 1789, regarding astronomical data for the compilation of Banneker's almanac. Photo courtesy Maryland Historical Society.

Figure 13.—Title page of one of Banneker's almanacs. The portrait of Banneker was made by Timothy Woods in 1793 for the publisher and reproduced by woodcut. Banneker's first almanac was published in Philadelphia in 1792.

Joel Baily

Still another 18th-century practitioner was Joel Baily (1732-1797), a Quaker of West Bradford, Pennsylvania. In addition to his trade as a clockmaker and gunsmith, Baily achieved local eminence as an astronomer, mathematician, and surveyor.[12]

In 1764, at the time that Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon established their headquarters near his farm, Baily was the local surveyor. Obtaining employment with the expedition, he worked with Mason and Dixon until the completion of their survey in 1768. Baily was subsequently employed by Mason and Dixon to build pine frames for carrying the 20-foot rods to be used in the second measurement of courses from the Stargazers' Stone southward.

In 1769 Baily was appointed by the American Philosophical Society to work with Owen Biddle in setting up the station at Cape Henlopen for observation of the transit of Venus. In 1770 he again worked with Biddle in taking the courses and distances from the New Castle Court House to the State House Observatory in Philadelphia for determining the latitude and longitude of each. In the same year Baily was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society.

Reverend John Prince

Another noteworthy mathematical practitioner of the period was the Reverend John Prince (1751-1836) of Salem, Massachusetts. The son of a hatter and mechanic, Prince studied natural philosophy under John Winthrop at Harvard and received his B.A. degree in 1776. He was a student of divinity under Samuel Williams and was ordained in 1779 at the First Church in Salem. Although an amateur of the sciences, Prince became a skilled maker of scientific instruments. He made, sold, and repaired instruments for the use of numerous colleges, schools, and academies, including Brown, Dartmouth, Rutgers, Harvard, Union, Amherst, and Williams. Among other accomplishments, he effected "improvements" on the lucernal microscope and the air pump.[13]

Amasa Holcomb

Although he was born in the 18th century, Amasa Holcomb (1787-1875) properly belongs to a later period. An astronomer and telescope maker of Southwick, Massachusetts, Holcomb became a surveyor in 1808. An autobiographical sketch noted that "he manufactured about this time a good many sets of surveyors instruments—compasses, chains, scales, protractors and dividers, some for his pupils and some for others."[14]

Instruments of Metal

Pre-Revolutionary Immigrant Makers

According to present evidence, only a few makers of metal instruments emigrated from England to the Colonies before the beginning of the Revolutionary War. A slightly larger number emigrated after the war had ended. In almost every instance, the immigrant instrument makers settled in the major cities, which were the shipping centers of the new country. The reason is obvious: in these cities there was the greatest demand for nautical and other instruments.

One of the earliest immigrant instrument makers arrived in Boston in 1739. According to an advertisement that appeared in The Boston Gazette in the issue of July 16-23, 1739, there had

Arriv'd here by Capt. Gerry from London John Dabney, junr. who serv'd his time to Mr. Jonathan Sisson, Mathematical Instrument Maker to his Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales. Makes and sells all sorts of Mathematical Instruments, in Silver, Brass, or Ivory, at Reasonable Rates, at Mr. Rowland Houghton's Shop the north side of the Town Huse in Boston.

N.B. Said Dabney, sets Loadstones to a greater Perfection than any heretofore.

Dabney's master, Jonathan Sisson (1694-1749) originally of Lincolnshire, with a shop in the Strand, London, was a well-known maker of optical and mathematical instruments in the early decades of the 18th century. He was particularly noted for the exact division of scales, and examples of his work are to be found in the major collections.

Dabney's name appeared again several years later, in the Supplement to the Boston Evening Post for December 12, 1743, and again in the Boston Evening Post for December 19 of the same year, with the following advertisement:

To be shown by John Dabney, Mathematical Instrument maker, in Milk Street, Boston, on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday Evenings, from five to eight o'clock, for the Entertainment of the Curious, the Magic Lanthorn an Optick Machine, which exhibits a great Number of wonderful and surprising Figures, prodigious large, and vivid, at Half a Crown each, Old Tenor.

In New York City, one of the earliest immigrant instrument makers was Charles Walpole, who established a shop at a corner in Wall Street, according to a notice in the May 26, 1746, issue of the New York Evening Post. The announcement stated that Walpole was a "citizen of London" and that at his shop "all sorts of Mathematical Instruments, whether in silver or brass, are made and mended...."

In the May 21, 1753, issue of The New York Gazette or The Weekly Post Boy there was an announcement by the widow of Balthaser Sommer who lived on Pot-Baker's Hill in Smith Street in New York City and who advertised herself as a "grinder of all sorts of optic glasses, spying glasses, of all lengths, spectacles, reading glasses for near-sighted people or others; also spying glasses of 3 feet long which are to set on a common Walking-Cane and yet be carried as a Pocket-Book."

John Benson emigrated from Birmingham, England, and established a lapidary and optical store in May 1793 at 12 Princess Street in New York, where he produced miniatures, lockets, rings, glasses, "as well as Spectacles, single reading and burning glasses, and where he also polished scratch'd glasses." In July 1797 he moved to 106 Pearl Street where he sold green goggles, thermometers, and opera and spy glasses, in addition to an assortment of jewelry. In September 1798 he was established at a new location, 147 Pearl Street, "At the sign of The Green Spectacles" where he specialized in optical goods. He featured for rent or sale a "Portable Camera Obscura" for the use of artists in drawing landscapes. His advertisements chronicled each change in location in the issues of The New York Daily Advertiser.

A craftsman whose name is well known in scientific circles was Anthony Lamb, who advertised in 1753 as a mathematical instrument maker living on Hunter's Key, New York. He claimed that he could furnish

Godfrey's newly invented quadrant, for taking the latitude or other altitudes at sea; hydrometers for trying the exact strength of spirits, large surveying instruments in a more curious manner than usual; which may be used in any weather without exception, small ditto which may be fixed on the end of a walking stick, and lengthened to a commodious height, gauging instruments as now in use, according to an act of assembly with all other mathematical instruments for sea or land, by wholesale or retail at reasonable rates.[15]

Lamb had served an apprenticeship with Henry Carter, a mathematical instrument maker in London. In July 1724 he became an accomplice of Jack Sheppard, a notorious burglar, and was arrested and sentenced to the gallows in 1724. As he was awaiting execution on the gallows at Tyburn, his sentence was commuted to transportation to Virginia for a period of seven years, inasmuch as this was his first offence. After he had completed his term of seven years in Virginia he moved to Philadelphia, where he opened a shop as an instrument maker and a private school for teaching technical subjects. The curriculum included surveying, navigation, and mathematics. Although his enterprises prospered, he moved to New York. There he married a Miss Ham and established himself in a respectable position. Lamb's first advertisement in New York appeared on January 23, 1749. He died on December 11, 1784, at the age of 81, and two days later he was eulogized in The New York Packet where he was mentioned as "a steady friend to the liberties of America."

John Lamb (1735-1800), Anthony's son, learned and practiced his father's craft for a time and worked as a partner in the firm of A. Lamb & Son. He subsequently became a wine and sugar merchant, achieved considerable wealth, married well, and was accepted by the gentry of the city. He was a firm patriot and from 1765 he was active as the leader of the Sons of Liberty. He served in several major engagements in the American Revolution and in 1783 was brevetted a brigadier-general.[16]

The immigrant instrument makers were not confined to those working in glass, however. One of the earlier immigrant craftsmen was Charles Blundy, a London watchmaker who established himself on Church Street in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1753. He notified the public that in addition to watches he sold thermometers of all sizes and types. Presumably his merchandise was imported from England.[17] He was absent from the city between 1753 and 1760 but returned and continued in business in the latter year.

Another pre-Revolution immigrant was Thomas Harland (1735-1807), a clock maker who settled in Norwich, Connecticut, in 1773. It is claimed that he sailed from England on one of the ships carrying the tea destroyed by the Boston Tea Party. Over the course of the years his business prospered to such a degree that he hired from ten to twelve apprentices at one time. Some of the leading American 18th-century clockmakers served apprenticeships with Harland. In 1802 his newspaper notice stated that he had for sale "Surveyors Compasses, with agate centre needles; chains and Protractors ..."[18]

A most interesting instrument that has recently come to light is a brass sundial made in Philadelphia in 1764. The dial, about 10-1/2 inches in diameter, is signed by the maker, "Daniel Jay Philad^a. fecit." It is dated 1764 and inscribed with the name of the person for whom it was made, "James Pemberton." In the center is "Lat. 40," which coincides with the latitude for Philadelphia. The style of the dial is very much in the English tradition of the period, indicating that Jay was probably an emigrant trained in England.

Post-Revolutionary Immigrant Makers

A large proportion of the English craftsmen who came to the American Colonies after the Revolution settled in Philadelphia, There was John Gould for instance, a mathematical instrument maker from London who had opened a shop at 47 Water Street by 1794. He sold nautical, surveying, and optical instruments as well as mirrors, presumably all imported from England. He moved to 70 South Front Street "At the Sign of the Quadrant" in 1796. He was succeeded in business in 1798 by Thomas Whitney, another emigrant from London. Whitney made and sold instruments (see fig. 85) in Gould's former shop, and featured also a vast array of department store merchandise. John Whitney, who may have been his son, was listed at the same address in the Philadelphia directory of 1801 as a "Mathematical Instrument Maker and Optician."[19]

In the Philadelphia directory and register for 1821 Thomas Whitney advertised that he

... presents his sincere thanks to his friends and the public and respectfully soliciting the continuation of their favors, wishes to inform them that he has devoted his attention principally to the making of surveying compasses for 16 years past, and has made 500 of them; the good qualities of which are well known to many surveyors, in at least 16 of the States and Territories of the Union ... [he also makes] many other instruments, protractors, gunner's Calibers and quadrants, etc.

George Evans was another instrument maker who arrived from London after the end of the Revolution. He established himself in a shop at 33 North Front Street in 1796, where he sold imported instruments as well as stationery, Bibles, and cloth. He died in 1798.[20]

Thomas Dring, who migrated from England, settled in Westtown Township of Chester County, Pennsylvania, where he was first noted in the tax records of 1786. He married Hanna Griffith, a native of the region, and their son, Jeptha Dring, subsequently was mentioned as a carpenter by trade, and a vagrant by inclination, who could quote Shakespeare from memory. According to local legend, Dring raised money from a number of townspeople for the purpose of purchasing clocks for them in England. He set sail for his homeland in about 1798 and never returned.

Although the tax records for 1796 described Dring as an "Optician" he was also a clockmaker and maker of scientific instruments. At least three of his tall-case clocks have survived, and a stick type of barometer which he made for Edward and Hannah Hicks in 1796. The instrument is now in the collection of the Chester County Historical Society. It measures 39 inches in height, and is signed on the thermometer dial THOMAS DRING/West Chester. This instrument (fig. 14) is one of the very rare barometers produced in America in the 18th century.

Another craftsman who emigrated from England was Robert Clark, who opened a shop at 5-1/2 Church Street in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1785. In that year he announced himself as a

Math., Optical and Philosophical Instruments maker and Clockmaker from London ... As the Advertiser has lately had an opportunity of working and receiving instruction under the first masters in the above branches in Great Britain, flatters himself that he shall give satisfaction to those who may be pleased to favor him with their orders ... for Surveyors compasses, Quadrants, Telescopes, Microscopes, Spirit Levels, etc.[21]

W. Fosbrook was another craftsman originally from London. He was a cutler and maker of surgical instruments, with a shop in Beekman's Slip in New York City in 1786 or earlier. He specialized in leg irons and rupture trusses, and he made instruments and files for setting the teeth as well as standard items for surgeons.[22]

Figure 14.—Barometer made in 1796 by Thomas Dring of West Chester, Pa., for Edward and Hannah Hicks. Photo courtesy the Chester County Historical Society.

Several immigrant instrument makers established themselves in Philadelphia during the same period. John Denegan (or Donegan), stated to have been "late from Italy," moved his shop in March 1787 to the corner of Race and Fourth Streets at "the sign of the Seven Stars".[23] There he made barometers and thermometers as well as glasses for philosophical experiments. It seems too much of a coincidence that in October 1787 an instrument maker named Joseph Donegany established a shop at 54 Smith Street in New York City,[24] where—according to an advertisement in the October 17, 1787, issue of The New York Daily Advertiser—he made "thermometers, barometers and sold hydrostatic Bubbles and hygrometers for proving spirits, and also ... glasses for experimental purposes." It is probable that Denegan and Donegany were one and the same; since Denegan was stated to have been of Italian origin, the name may originally have been "De Negani."

Joseph Gatty advertised himself as an "Artist from Italy" with a shop at 341 Pearl Street in New York City where he "made and sold every simple and compound form of barometer and thermometer as well as curious Hygrometers for assaying spirits which show the actual strength with the greatest precision and are not liable to be corroded, in addition to several new Philosophical Instruments of his own invention, and all types of artificial fireworks."[25] By 1796 Gatty (or Gatti?) had moved to Philadelphia where he had a shop at 79 South Front Street and advertised the same items that had appeared in his advertisements in New York. The Philadelphia directory for 1800 listed Gatty as a "Weather Glass Maker."[26]

Native American Makers

Comparatively speaking, the greater proportion of the early American instrument makers were native born. Among these were to be found a substantial number of artisans trained as clockmakers who subsequently produced scientific instruments to meet the surveying and nautical needs of their communities. Together with the other craftsmen throughout the colonies who established and advertised themselves specifically as instrument makers, they produced a large number of the mathematical instruments used in the American Colonies in the 18th century. A careful study of their regional distribution reveals that most of them were concentrated in the major coastal cities of commerce.

Figure 15.—James Wilson, first American maker of globes. From a sketch by John Ross Dix in Ballou's Pictorial Drawing Room Companion (Boston, 1857), vol. 12, p. 156.

New Hampshire

Among the artisans who combined clockmaking with instrument making before the beginning of the 19th century was Benjamin C. Gilman (1763-1835) of Exeter, New Hampshire. He made mathematical instruments and clocks in addition to working as a silversmith, clockmaker, and hydraulic engineer.

Vermont

A New England instrument maker who had a most unusual career was James Wilson (1763-1855) of Bradford, Vermont. He was a native of Francestown, New Hampshire, where he was born in a log cabin and brought up on a farm. In 1796 he purchased his own farm, at Bradford.

Figure 16.—Globe made by James Wilson (1763-1855) of Bradford, Vermont. Diameter is 13 in. Photo courtesy Houghton Library, Harvard University.

When a young man of 36 he saw a pair of globes at Dartmouth College in neighboring Hanover and tried to duplicate them. He made balls of wood turned from solid blocks, covered them with paper, and finished them off with lines and drawings. He later improved this method by coating the wooden balls thickly with layers of paper pasted together. He then cut the globes into hemispheres, removed the wooden molds, and joined the paper shells to make the globes.

Wilson next proceeded to procure copper plates of the necessary sizes for his globes, and he projected his maps on them in sections. He received a few lessons in engraving from Amos Doolittle of New Haven, but he was otherwise completely self-taught.

Wilson exhibited the first edition of his globes in Boston in 1814. They created a sensation, and many persons asked to see the maker, but Wilson was reluctant to come forward because of his coarse clothing and rustic manners. He was greatly encouraged, however, by the public interest in his work, and he continued to make globes in Bradford (see fig. 16). In about 1815 Wilson and his three sons, all of whom were as ingenious as the father, formed a company to manufacture globes in Albany. There they produced terrestrial and celestial globes, the latter showing as many as 5,000 stars. Wilson produced a new set of plates in 1826 and made globes in several sizes. Even after he had reached the age of 83 years he constructed an excellent planetarium, engraving the large copperplate himself.

Wilson was married three times and was the father of 14 children. He died at the age of 92 in March 1855 at Bradford.[27]

Massachusetts

A surprisingly small number of the Massachusetts craftsmen working before the end of the 18th century produced scientific instruments. Among the very earliest were several members of the King family of Salem. Daniel King (1704-1790) was born in Salem on November 17, 1704. At the time of his death Rev. William Bentley spoke of him as a "maker of Mathematical Instruments" and a "teacher of Mathematics."[28]

Figure 17.—Brass surveying compass made by Stephen Greenleaf (fl. 1745) of Boston. Photo courtesy New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord.

Following Daniel's death, his business in instruments was inherited by his son Benjamin King (1740-1804), of Salem. Benjamin specialized in producing nautical instruments, and several of his Davis quadrants have survived in public collections. When he died on December 26, 1804, Reverend Bentley wrote that King was " ... a Mathematical Instrument maker, in that branch which immediately regarded practical navigation by quadrant and compass. He supported a very good character through life & was much esteemed."[29]

Another of the very early mathematical instrument makers in Massachusetts was Stephen Greenleaf (see fig. 17), who kept a shop on Queen Street opposite the prison in Boston where

He makes and Mends all Sorts of Mathematical Instruments, as Theodolites, Spirit Levels, Semicircles, Circumferences, and Protractors, Horizontal and Equinoctial Sun Dials, Azimuth and Amplitude Compasses, Elliptical and Triangular Compasses, and all sorts of Common Compasses ... N.B. He sets Load Stones on Silver or Brass, after the best manner.[30]

Jonathan Dakin worked as a mathematical balance-maker "at the Sign of the Hand & Beam, opposite to Dr. Colman's Meeting House" where he made a variety of scale beams in 1745.[31]

An interesting advertisement by Rowland Houghton appeared in the January 17-24, 1737, issue of the Boston Gazette. Houghton announced that he had "lately improv'd on his new Theodolite, by which the Art of Surveying is rendered more plain & easy than heretofore." Houghton was active in the political scene in Boston, as evidenced by the fact that in various issues of the Boston Gazette for January and February 1739 he is listed variously as "Commissioner," "Proprietors' Clerk" and as "Collector."

Isaac Greenwood, Jr. (1730-1803), was born at Cambridge, where he married Mary I'ams in 1757. He maintained a shop where he combined the business of mathematical instrument maker and ivory turner, and also imported hardware. After the Revolution, he engaged in dentistry, specializing in making artificial teeth and in the manufacture of "umbrilloes." Paul Revere apparently did printing for him on five different occasions between 1762 and 1774, and in about 1771 engraved his trade card, which read:

ISAAC GREENWOOD, Ivory Turner Next door to Doctor John Clark's at the North End Boston. Turns all sorts of work in Ivory, Silver, Brass, Iron, Horn, Wood, etc. Such as Billiard Balls, Tea Boards, Scallop^d and Plain Salvers, Decanters ...[32]

Isaac's father, Isaac Greenwood, Sr., was "Professor of Mathematicks and Natural and Experimental Philosophy" at Harvard. In the Boston Gazette for February 19-26, 1728, there appeared the following notice of his installation:

On the 13th of this Month at Ten in the Morning, The Honorable & Reverend Overseers of the College at Cambridge, met the Corporation in the College Hall, to Inaugurate Mr. Isaac Greenwood into the Office of Professor of the Mathematicks, and Natural and Experimental Philosophy, lately founded by that great and living Benefactor to this Society, Mr. Thomas Hollis of London Merchant. The Rev. President being detain'd by illness, Mr. Flint the Senior Fellow perform'd the part of Moderator, began with Prayer, and then Pronounc'd a Latin Oration proper to the Occasion: Mr. Wiggleworth Divinity Professor, read the Founders Instructions. Mr. Greenwood took the Oaths and made the Declarations required in them: and pronounc'd a Latin Oration. The Rev. Mr. Appleton Pray'd: and Singing part of the 104 Psalm concluded the Solemnity. After which the Overseers & Corporation repair'd to the Library; till the Publick Dinner in the Hall was ready, where all the Gentlemen Spectators of the Solemnity were hansomely Entertained.

Greenwood continued to teach privately for a decade. In various issues of The Boston Gazette of 1738 and 1739 he featured an advertisement, the text of which always stated:

Such as are desirous of learning any Part of Practical or Theoretical Mathematics may be taught by Isaac Greenwood, A.M. &c. in Clark's Square, near the North Meeting House, where Attendance will be given between the Hours of 9 and 12 in the Forenoon, and 2 and 5 in the Afternoons.

N.B. Instructions may also be had in any Branch of Natural Philosophy, when there is a sufficient Number to attend.[33]

John Bailey II (1752-1823) of Hanover and Lynn, Massachusetts worked as a clockmaker from about 1770. His father, John Bailey I, and his brothers Calvin and Lebbeus also were clockmakers. Bailey married Mary Hall of Berwick, Maine, and settled in Hanover where he made scientific instruments and clocks. A brass surveying compass in the collection of the New York Historical Society is inscribed "J. BAILEY HANOVER 1804."[34]

Undoubtedly the best known instrument maker in Massachusetts was Joseph Pope (1750-1826), of Boston, who was described by contemporaries as the "local mathematician, watch-maker and mechanical genius." In 1787 he completed the construction of a gear-driven orrery displaying the motions of the solar system in a horizontal plane with eccentric and inclined orbits. At each of the twelve corners were mounted cast bronze figures, claimed to have been carved in wood by Simeon Skillin and cast in bronze by Paul Revere. Although the instrument was made for Harvard, the university lacked funds for its purchase. Accordingly, it held a public lottery which realized a substantial sum in excess of the £450.3.0 paid to Pope, and the orrery was delivered in December 1788.[35] The orrery (fig. 18) has survived and is part of the collection of historical scientific instruments at Harvard University.

According to a statement in the Boston Gazette for February 16, 1789, an apparatus for displaying planets in their proper orbits by means of wires was made and exhibited in Boston by Bartholomew Burges.

Mention must also be made of several members of the Folger family of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Peter Folger (1617-1690), founder of the American branch of the family, emigrated from Norfolk, England, in 1635 and occupied himself in Nantucket as blacksmith, schoolmaster, watchmaker, and surveyor. He was a grandfather of Benjamin Franklin. Another notable descendant was Maria Mitchell (1818-1889), professor of astronomy and director of the observatory at Vassar College.

The best known member of the family was Walter Folger, Jr. (1765-1849), a self-taught clockmaker and watchmaker with great interest in the sciences. A telescope that he produced about 1818 was considered to be the finest in the country at that time. His greatest achievement was a tall case astronomical clock that he devised and constructed; it was completed in 1790 and is considered to be the most complicated domestic clock on record.[36] Folger also produced quadrants and compasses, and made astronomical observations. His observations of the solar eclipse of September 17, 1811, were published in 1815 in Memoirs of the Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Probably one of the most significant of the surviving early American scientific instruments is a pair of gunners' calipers made and used by PAUL REVERE (1735-1818) of Boston. The calipers are made of incised brass, measuring 7 inches in length and 1-3/4 inches in width. They are signed on the reverse side with the name "Revere" in the style of script signature used by this maker in many of his engravings. The design of the instrument is substantially different from that which is commonly found in English, French, and German gunners' calipers of the period, and was probably Revere's own. (See figs. 19, 20.)

Figure 18.—Orrery by Joseph Pope completed in 1787 for Harvard University. Engraved plates and bronze figures were made by Paul Revere. The orrery is 6-1/2 ft. in diameter and 6-1/2 ft. high. The twelve figures at the corners are said to have been carved in wood by Simeon Skillin and cast in bronze by Paul Revere. Photo courtesy Harvard University.

It is believed that these calipers, which are preserved in the collection of the Bostonian Society in Boston, were probably used by Revere in 1775-1776. This was the period during which he was in charge of ordnance repairs for the Continental Army, and involved in various ventures for the manufacture of gunpowder and the casting of cannon. There is no evidence of other scientific instruments made by Revere, lending some weight to the belief that these calipers were made for his own use.

Figure 19.—Brass gunnery calipers made and probably used by Paul Revere (1735-1818). The calipers are 7 in. long and 1-3/4 in. wide.

Figure 20.—Reverse side of gunnery calipers, showing the inscribed signature. Photos courtesy the Bostonian Society, Boston, Mass.

Other Massachusetts instrument makers include Gideon Fairman (1774-1827) of Newburyport who was a partner of William Hooker in the firm of Hooker & Fairman, which dealt in mathematical instruments before 1810.[37] Fairman later moved to Philadelphia, where he was associated with the engraving firm of Draper, Murray & Fairman.

At the end of the 18th century Samuel Emery was making mathematical instruments in Salem, at the same time that John Jayne was engaged in the same work in that community.[38]

John Potter of Brookfield, Massachusetts, produced surveying instruments in the last quarter of the 18th century. A graphometer signed with his name and dated 1785 is in the collection of the firm of W. & L. E. Gurley in Troy, New York.

Rhode Island

One of the earliest and most important of the instrument makers of Rhode Island was Benjamin King (1707-1786), of Newport. He was the son of Capt. Samuel King of Salem, Massachusetts, where he was born and baptized on March 13, 1707. He was a brother of Daniel King of Salem. Benjamin eventually moved to Newport, where he married Mary Hagger in July 1742. They had four children: Benjamin, Mehitable, Samuel, and Mary. He established himself as a respectable businessman in the community, and in 1759 or 1760 he became the senior partner in the importing and retailing firm of King & Hagger, "near the sign of Mr. Pitt," dealing in general merchandise, mathematical and nautical instruments, and stationery. William Hagger was probably the junior partner, and may have been King's brother-in-law. King began making his own instruments for sale, surviving examples dated as early as 1762. The partnership was dissolved early in the 1760's. In 1766 Benjamin King was importing, making, and selling quadrants and other instruments "At the Sign of the Mathematical Instruments" next to the Golden Eagle on Thames Street. His son Samuel King occupied the same premises, where he dealt in paints and artists supplies.

When the British occupied Newport, King moved to North Kingstown, but he returned after the British vacated the city. He was 79 when he died in 1786, and his son Samuel King succeeded him in business.[39]

William Guyse Hagger (c. 1744-1830?), born in Newport, is believed to have been the son of William Hagar and Mary Knowlton. He was a quadrant maker (see fig. 21). In 1774 he headed a household that consisted of his wife, five children, and a colored servant. Whether it was he or his father who was the partner of Benjamin King cannot be determined with certainty. When Newport was occupied by the British, Hagger moved to Cranston, where he joined the Pawtuxet Rangers and served as a sentinel at Pawtuxet Fort in 1778. No members of the Hagger family appear in the 1790 census of Newport, but a William Hager is reported as having died in Boston in 1830 at the age of 82. It seems likely from the age and dates that it was William Hagger the elder who worked as a partner in the firm of King & Hagger, which was established in 1759 or 1760.[40]

Figure 21.—Davis quadrant or backstaff made and signed by William Guyse Hagger of Newport, Rhode Island, about 1760-1770. USNM 319029.

Another instrument maker of Rhode Island was William Hamlin (1772-1869). He had established himself in Providence by the beginning of the 19th century in the manufacturing and repairing of mathematical and nautical instruments, for which there was an active market in that city. Hamlin was one of the first engravers in America and the first in Rhode Island. He designed and engraved banknotes for many banks in the State and for other institutions. At the same time he carried on a general trade in the sale of musical instruments. Hamlin moved his shop several times, but from 1847 until his death he worked at "The Sign of the Quadrant" (see fig. 22) at 131 South Water Street. He was equally interested in optics and astronomy, and it has been claimed that he constructed the first telescope in America. It is well established that he worked for many years to perfect a reflecting telescope for his own use.[41]

Instruments were made also by Paul Pease, who may have been the husband of the daughter of Nathaniel Folger of Nantucket. This Elizabeth Folger Pease, wife of a Paul Pease, was born in 1720 and died in 1795. Little is known about Pease except for the name "Paul Pease 1750" inscribed on a quadrant in the collection of the Rhode Island Historical Society.[42]

Connecticut

The clockmakers who worked in Connecticut during the span of the 18th century numbered almost a hundred. Yet only a half dozen appear on record to have made or sold instruments in addition to clocks. Among these were several members of the Doolittle family, including Isaac Doolittle (1721-1800) of New Haven. In 1763 he advertised that he sold surveying compasses in addition to clocks, watches, bar iron, and chocolate.[43] His son Isaac Doolittle, Jr. (1759-1821), also of New Haven, established a shop of his own, which he advertised in 1781 as having

Compasses of all kinds, both for sea and land, surveyors scales, and protractors, gauging rods, walking sticks, silver and plated buttons, turned upon horn; also clocks and watches made and repaired ...[44]

Although not very active as a clockmaker, Isaac Jr. appears to have specialized more in the production of surveying and nautical instruments. He took over his father's business just before the latter's death, and in 1799 he advertised[45]:

Figure 22.—Trade cards of William Hamlin (1772-1869), engraver and instrument maker of Providence, Rhode Island. In collection of Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence.

The subscriber having commenced business at the shop lately occupied by Mr. Isaac Doolittle, in Chapel Street, where he repairs watches, makes and repairs Surveyors Compasses and Chains, Brass Amplitude, plain brass and common Ship's Compasses, Gauging Rods, Quadrants, repair'd &c. every favor gratefully received by the public's humble servant, Isaac Doolittle, jun.

Enos Doolittle (1751-1806), a nephew of Isaac Doolittle, Sr., made, sold, cleaned, and repaired clocks and surveying and marine compasses from 1772 through 1788 at his shop in Hartford. He also sold these items through agents in Saybrook and Middleton.[46]

One of the best known of the Connecticut clockmakers was Peregrine White (1747-1834), of Woodstock. White was a descendant of the first Pilgrim child, and a native of Boston. After serving an apprenticeship, he worked as a clockmaker and silversmith in Boston. He was accused of forging silver spoons and left the city to settle in Woodstock. He established his own shop west of Muddy Brook Village.[47] In addition to fine tall-case clocks, for which he was noted, White also produced surveying compasses, one of which is in the collection of the U.S. National Museum (fig. 23). A similar specimen in Old Sturbridge Village is reputed to have been used for surveying the town of Southbridge, Mass.

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.

Ohio

Benjamin Platt was the migratory type. In 1817 he migrated from Lanesboro to Columbus, Ohio. His son, Augustus Platt (1793-1886), also made mathematical instruments (see fig. 25) in Columbus. In 1809 a grandson, named William Augustus Platt was born. When the child's mother died, Benjamin and Adah Platt adopted the boy, and when he came of age he went into the watchmaking trade. William Platt married Fanny Hayes, sister of President Hayes.[52] His shop was listed in the 1843 city directory; it was the first jewelry and clock and watch store in the community.

An interesting account of instrument making in Ohio is found in the report of a missionary, John Heckewelder. He mentioned the brothers Joseph and Francois Devacht who worked as watchmakers and instrument makers in Gallipolis, Ohio. Writing in 1792, Heckewelder stated that "the most interesting shops of the Workmen [in Gallipolis] were those of the Goldsmiths and Watchmakers. They showed us work on watches, compasses, sundials finer than I have ever beheld."

Figure 24.—Brass surveying compass made by Benjamin Platt (1757-1833) of New Milford, Connecticut, about 1795-1800. Shown in original wooden case and separately (opposite page). Photos courtesy Ohio State Museum.

New York

There were relatively few makers of mathematical instruments in New York City before the end of the 18th century. Perhaps the earliest was John Bailey, who moved from Fredericksburg, Virginia, to Fishkill, New York, in 1778. He was a cutler by trade, and he made and sold surgical instruments.[53]

"Bulmain & Dennies" at 59 Water Street in New York were the appointed agents to sell the "Perpetual Log or Distance Clock to find a ship's way at sea." The device had been patented in the United States, and one of the instruments was displayed at the bar of the Tontine Coffee House, according to an advertisement in the July 23, 1799, issue of the New York Gazette and General Advertiser.

H. Caritat, at 153 Broadway in New York, imported and sold "The Planispherical Planetarium." This item was described in an advertisement[54] as "a graphic representation of the earth, in twelve particular positions during its revolutionary course around the sun, as also of the Moon's revolution around the earth, together with literal description of parts and motions, etc." The advertisement also stated that Caritat sold "Carey's newly improved Terrestrial and Celestial Globes which omitted the Constellary Configurations."

Figure 25.—Surveying theodolite made by Augustus Platt (1793-1886) of Columbus, Ohio, in the early 19th century. Photo courtesy Ohio State Museum.

In 1785 M. Morris of New York City made and sold his own invention of a "Nautical Protractor for the price of One Dollar." In an advertisement in The Independent Journal or the General Advertiser of May 25, 1785, he explained that the device was for use in the construction of globular maps and Mercator charts. He also made another protractor for attaching to the end of a ruler for measuring distances on charts. He planned to publish a treatise on the subject of his inventions.

James Youle, a cutler and mechanician with a shop located first on Fly Street and then at 64 Water Street "at the Sign of the Cross-Knives and Gun," sold a large variety of cutlery and hardware for gun repair. He also made surgical instruments. He died in February 1786 at the age of 46 as the result of an injury to his chest from a breaking grindstone while working in his shop. He was survived by a widow and nine children and was succeeded in business by his son John Youle.[55]

New Jersey

One of the few instrument makers known to have worked in New Jersey was Aaron Miller of "Elizabeth-town." He was first noted in the New York newspapers in 1748 when he notified the public that, in addition to clocks, he made compasses, chains for surveyors, and church bells, for which he maintained his own foundry. When he died in 1771 he left all his tools to a son-in-law, Isaac Brokaw.[56]

Another craftsman who is entitled to being included as an instrument maker was Richard Wistar. When Casper Wistar died in 1752, his son Richard succeeded him as owner of the famous glass works. In addition to window glass and glassware, Richard Wistar also produced such special products as retorts for use in chemistry and "electerizing globes and tubes," as well as bottles for Leyden jars that Benjamin Franklin had urged him to attempt in the early 1750's.[57]

Delaware

George Crow (ca. 1725-1771/72) of Wilmington, Delaware, was apparently well established as a clockmaker in the community by the time of his marriage in 1746 to Mary Laudonet. They had four children, and Crow's two sons followed his trade. George Crow was active in civic affairs, and in addition to clocks, he produced surveying compasses, several of which have survived.[58]

Maryland and Virginia

Brief mention has already been made of the Chandlee family of clockmakers and instrument makers of the 18th century. The founder of the line and first of interest was Benjamin Chandlee, Sr., who migrated in 1702 from Ireland to Philadelphia, where he was apprenticed to Abel Cottey, clockmaker, and eventually married his daughter. His son Benjamin Chandlee, Jr. (1723-1791), worked as a clockmaker in Nottingham, Maryland, where he produced instruments as well as clocks. A fine example of a brass surveying compass—inscribed with his name, and which is believed to have been made for the Gilpin family in about 1761—is on exhibition in the Chester County Historical Society. He had four sons, and a few years before his death he established the firm of Chandlee & Sons, the name of which was changed to Ellis Chandlee & Brothers a year before he died.

The oldest of Benjamin Jr.'s four sons was Goldsmith Chandlee (c.1746-1821). After serving an apprenticeship with his father, Goldsmith moved to Virginia and worked near Stephensburg (now Stephens City). He eventually established himself at Winchester and built a brass foundry and a shop where he produced clocks, surveying compasses, sundials, apothecary and money scales, surgical instruments, compasses, telescopes, and other items in metal. Numerous examples of his clocks and instruments have survived. Their fine quality attests to the claim that he was one of the foremost craftsmen of the 18th century. Several of his surveying compasses exist in modern collections. An instrument (fig. 26) that he made about 1794 for a surveyor named Robert Lyle is in the writer's collection; an almost identical instrument that Chandlee made for Lawrence Augustine Washington, George Washington's nephew, is exhibited in the library at Mount Vernon, Virginia.

Figure 26.—The label of Goldsmith Chandlee. In the collection of Ohio Historical Society, Ohio State Museum.

Ellis Chandlee (1755-1816) also was apprenticed to his father, and he worked with his brothers in the shop. He established the firm of Ellis Chandlee & Brothers, in 1790, shortly before his father's death. The firm was dissolved in 1797 when the youngest brother, John Chandlee, left the firm. Ellis continued in partnership with his other brother, Isaac Chandlee (1760-1813), until about 1804, producing clocks, surveying instruments, and other metal articles. Their products were signed "Ellis and Isaac Chandlee, Nottingham," or, in the case of a surveying compass in the collection of the Chester County Historical Society, "E. & I. Chandlee, Nottingham." Isaac Chandlee also produced clocks and instruments under his own name only, for there are a number of surviving clocks and surveying compasses signed in such manner (see fig. 28).[59]

Figure 27.—Brass surveying compass with outkeeper made by Goldsmith Chandlee (c. 1746-1821) of Winchester, Virginia, for Robert Lyle. Over-all length, 14-1/2 in.; diameter, 7 in. Instrument, in original wooden case, bears ink signature of Robert Lyle. In collection of the writer.

One of the most important craftsmen of Maryland was Frederick A. Heisely (1759-1839). A native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he served an apprenticeship there with John Hoff, the master clockmaker, from 1777 to 1783. Heisely served in the Revolution. In 1783, presumably upon the completion of his apprenticeship, he married Catherine Hoff, the clockmaker's daughter. He moved to Frederick, Maryland, where he established his own clockmaking shop and where he specialized in making mathematical instruments. A tower clock made in Frederick is in the collection of the U.S. National Museum. Heisely returned to Lancaster to become Hoff's partner, and worked with him until 1802. He then moved his shop to Harrisburg and worked there until 1820. He moved once more, this time to Pittsburgh where he advertised himself as a "Clock, Watch and Instrument Maker," with a shop at No. 6 St. Clair Street.

Figure 28.—Brass surveying compass made by Goldsmith Chandlee for Laurence Augustine Washington in about 1795. In the library at Mount Vernon. Photo courtesy the Mount Vernon Ladies Association of the Union.

George Heisely (1789-1880), Frederick's son, who was born at Frederick, Maryland, achieved note in his own right as a maker of clocks and instruments. He worked at Second and Walnut Streets in Harrisburg. He is credited with being the person who selected the melody of "To Anacreon in Heaven" for "The Star-Spangled Banner," while he was serving as a member of the Pennsylvania State Militia.[60]

Pennsylvania

A number of instrument makers worked in Philadelphia, which was one of the important shipping centers during the 18th century and consequently one of the important markets for nautical instruments.

Probably the earliest Philadelphia instrument maker of record was Thomas Godfrey (1704-1749) who was born in Bristol Township. After serving an apprenticeship, Godfrey developed his own business as a glazier and plumber. He is stated to have done the major part of the glazing of the State House in 1732, as well as similar work on Christ Church. He also worked for Andrew Hamilton and for James Logan.

Godfrey had a natural inclination and interest in science and mathematics, which may have been further encouraged by his friendship with Benjamin Franklin, who resided in the same house. Godfrey was also a fellow member of Franklin's Junto.

In 1730 Godfrey invented an improved backstaff or Davis quadrant, and loaned the instrument to Joshua Fisher to be used in the latter's survey of Delaware Bay. It is claimed that the location of Cape Henlopen was established on Fisher's map (published in London in 1756) by means of Godfrey's instrument. James Logan became interested in the improved backstaff invented by Godfrey and at Logan's request, the instrument was taken on a voyage to the West Indies by a Captain Wright for the purpose of testing it.[61]