Clocks at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

I have been to New York City many times and love the city. I love the hustle bustle of the city and its true, "the city never sleeps". There is so much to see and do. I always get to a Broadway show and do a lot of walking. On all my trips I just never had enough time to see the museums. On my last visit a couple years ago I did finally make it to the Guggenheim Museum. The building appears to be artwork itself and is an architectural marvel to me. I saw works of art by Lautrec, Monet, Picasso and Chazan.

I have always wanted to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I came across some information that back in 1954(the year I was born) the museum opened a gallery devoted to Horology. It was the largest concentrated group of watches and clocks at that time for any major American Museum. Based on the museum's website it does not sound like they still have the collection in one central place. It appears the clocks are now placed throughout the museum.


This will be a must see on my next trip to New York City.
http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/206322 

Clock Museum in Opelika, AL

I got the chance to visit the Old Timers & Chimers Clock Museum, LLC in Opelika, Alabama. Its just a short drive from Atlanta.

John Hendricks, propreiter and fellow clockmaker has it all. We made an appointment on a Saturday for a tour. John was a gracious host and made us feel right at home. He started telling us about the history of the house. It is from 1865 and is on the National Register as one of the only "Gingerbread" houses left in the country. He purchased the home in 2007 in disrepair and had pictures showing its condition when he bought it. It had been empty for many years and was in very rough shape and his family thought he was crazy for buying it. But John could see the potential and could imagine it restored back to its original glory.

As you come into the entrance way there are the original double doors made of pine and the wood grain is just beautiful in them. Inside it has a spiral staircase that goes up to the second floor. The staircase is supported by one pine log that is stronger than steel. There are rooms dedicated to different types of antique clocks. John has German clocks, American clocks, and English clocks. He has one grandfather clock he bought at auction that was once owned by Ronnie Milsap. John is more than happy to talk about the clocks and show you the inside workings. Part of the tour, you walk through a long room full of customer's clocks waiting to be repaired, (which used to be the kitchen in the house) to the repair shop. There you can see clocks in all stages of dismantling. You are also surrounded by clocks hanging on the walls being tested with their pendulums swinging. He has two clockmaker's benches filled with the tools needed to restore the clocks.

There was only two of us on the tour on Saturday and we spent about 3 and half hours there. I enjoyed it thoroughly and was able to talk '"shop" with John too.Where else can you go and get a historical house, antique clocks, repair shop and clockmaker. I was in heaven!

Floral Clocks

In 1970, when I was 16 years old my parents took me to Niagara Falls, Ontario. There we saw a large floral clock. This picture I took in 1970 got me to thinking about this clock and others. This clock's face is made up of plants and flowers and is changed by the Parks Department. The mechanism is kept up by Ontario Hydro who originally built the clock. The tower at the back of the clock houses the Westminster chimes that sound on every quarter. If the door to the tower is open, visitors can see the clock mechanism and see photos that show the face design going back to 1950.

I found that there are two floral clocks close to Atlanta. There is one in Birmingham, Alabama at the Botanical Gardens and one in Frankfort, Kentucky behind the state capital.

The oldest floral clock is believed to be in Edinburgh, Scotland from 1903 and is still in operation. The Edinburgh clock started out with only an hour hand but in 1904 an minute hand was added. In 1905 they also added a cuckoo sound which went off every 15 minutes. Until 1972 Edinburgh's floral clock was mechanically operated. It needed to be wound daily. Now it is run by electricity.

So if you ever get the chance to see one in person, I think you will be delighted.   

Wooden Clock Movements

Most clock movements are made of brass. But during 1800 and 1840 in the U.S. clock movements were made of wood. The plates were made of oak, the wheels of cherry and the arbors and pinions of laurel. At the time brass was scarce and very expensive and the wooden movements made the clocks affordable.  There is metal in the wooden movements where wearing would occur and on levers, springs, bells, gongs and escapement, among other things.

These movements are weight-driven and some have the escapement found in the front of the clock and some have the escapement between the plates. They can run 30 hours between winding or 8 days(in tall case clocks). They strike the hour and use a count wheel.

Cleaning of wooden movements involve brushing the wheels, arbors, and plates with a mixture of boiled linseed oil and turpentine.

A common problem with wooden movements is the breakage of teeth and pinions as the wood ages it dries out. These items can be repaired. When replacing wheel teeth you should use cherry wood. You want to cut out a piece in the wheel where the new tooth will go and glue in a new piece of wood and then using a jewelers coping saw cut the tooth out from the pattern you have made to match the other teeth.

Today the wooden clocks manufactured by the early clock makers number in the millions. Time and wear has reduced the numbers but they are another link to our past.    

A Globe Clock made in the 1880's?

A man by the name of Louis P. Juvet came up with the idea of a clockwork-driven globe and this was back in 1867. The clockwork within the globe, rotates the globe once in 24 hours. The movement is riding on an axis down the center and is wound by turning the tail feathers on the arrow. With one of Juvet's patents he included a clock face and hands placed at the north pole of the globe. Juvet also had hour markings on the stationary equator ring and with all this, one was able to determine the local time at any point on the globe. Juvet had his globes made to withstand heavy use as he envisioned them to be used in schools and libraries as educational tools. The globes also had lines showing ocean currents, telegraph cables and the sun's angle up or down from the equator to name a few things. The globe itself gave geographical details, towns and political boundaries in great detail but of a world during the 1800's. At that time much of the western U.S. were still territories and the rest of the world also looked different than it does today.
Unfortunately Juvet's plans for the globes went up in smoke when his plant burned in 1886. This makes them very valuable as their production was  limited. The picture I have included is of a floor model that sold recently for $13,225. Also made was a table top version which is more rare and it sold for $24,150. So if anyone out there has one it would be quite valuable. It would be a thrill for me to see one in person after reading about them, to me a very interesting part of our history. Too bad the production of them had to end so early. 

M. Schwalbach-Tower Clock Maker

Matthias Schwalbach from Milwaukee installed 55 tower clocks in the U.S. in his lifetime from 1875-1915. I think the tower clocks were his biggest achievements but he was also a dealer in accordions, clocks, sewing machine fixtures and clock escapements.

Most of the tower clocks Schwalbach built were installed in churches. He had 19 clocks around Milwaukee and 15 more in Wisconsin. He had tower clocks installed in 2 churches in the Chicago area, 1 in Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, New York, Ohio and Oregon. He had 2 church clocks in Kentucky and Michigan and 8 clocks in Minnesota. One of his clock's in Minnesota was replaced due to a church fire.

What was amazing that all were built in his small factory in Milwaukee. Schwalbach's clocks were excellent timekeepers and were free of mechanical trouble. I found that there is only one Schwalbach clock operating today as it was originally designed. It is at the Church of St Joseph in Minnesota. They decided to have it restored to its original condition and the restoration was done in 2008. The other clocks he built, most have been electrified and the original movements are only partially used or not at all.

 

M. Schwalbach was also a part of a team who invented the first typewriter. I also repaired typewriters from 1984 to 1987 until they were phased out. That is how I got interested in clock repair. I had repaired typewriters and loved it until computers put me out of  business. I began searching for another mechanical device that I could use my repairing skills and found a clock school on the internet.

Matthias Schwalbach was a very busy man with all he was doing and fathered 24 children and outlived 3 wives. He was a major contributor in our early American clock history. 

 

Simon Willard-U.S. Clockmaker

Simon Willard was a celebrated U.S. clockmaker. Simon Willard clocks were famous in America but were expensive for common people. Simon built most clocks by hand and they were very precise. In 1718 the Willards lived on a farm in North Grafton, MA which is outside of Boston.  The oldest of the boys learned horology and it is presumed that the other boys were also taught. That is how Simon got his start in clockmaking.

Simon Willard was commissioned to make a clock for the Old South Meeting House in Boston, the site of the planning for the Boston Tea Party. He built a carved and gilded gallery clock with a spread eagle on the top. The clock was delivered in 1805 and hung there until 1872 when it was moved to Old South Church in Boston's Back Bay.

                                                                       

For 50 years Simon Willard was responsible for maintenance of all clocks at Harvard College in Cambridge, MA. Simon also presented two clocks to Harvard.

Thomas Jefferson requested that Mr. Willard build a clock for the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. The clock was installed in 1827 but was destroyed by fire in 1895.

Simon Willard has one clock and one clock mechanism in the U.S. Capitol that are still operating. Mr. Willard patents were signed by many famous people at the time, namely John Hancock, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and Levi Lincoln.

Simon Willard clocks are American masterpieces and have sold for $50,000-$250,000.