Part 9

A description of this instrument in "The History of Clark County, Ohio" by A. P. Steele, published in 1881 by the W. H. Beers Co. of Chicago, adds considerably to its interest as a historical record of American scientific instruments and their use: "Col. Thomas Kizer, the veteran surveyor, has in his possession a compass made by Dean of Philadelphia; this instrument was owned and used by his father, David Kizer, who obtained it from John Dougherty about 1813; Dougherty got it from Jonathan Donnel. This relic is marked I. Ludlow, 1791; Henry Donnel, 1794; J. Donnel, 1796, John Dougherty, 1799; these marks are rudely scratched upon the cover of the instrument, and bear every evidence of being genuine; there is no doubt but that this old compass was used in making the first surveys in this county, or that it is the identical instrument used by John Dougherty, in laying off Demint's first plat of Springfield, and by Jonathan Donnel on the survey of 'New Boston.'" It is to be noted that some discrepancies exist in the listing of names and dates of the previous owners between Steele's History and those which actually appear on the cover of the instrument. Steele apparently made the changes he deemed necessary in his account of the instrument.

Between 1791 and 1795 the same address was also occupied by a cooper named Michael Davenport, and from 1797 to 1801 by "the Widow Davenport," presumably widow of Michael. From 1802 to 1804 the same address is listed for William Davenport, "Mathematical Instrument Maker," apprentice to William Dean, and believed to be the son of Michael. During the next ten years Davenport's address was 45 South Front Street, and then, to 1820, was 25 South Front Street. Several brass surveying compasses bearing his name have survived.

Another maker of mathematical instruments about whom nothing further is known is Charles Taws, who was listed in this manner in the Philadelphia directory of 1795.

The making of instruments in glass appears to have been a specialized business in the Colonies, because those who worked in this field do not appear to have produced instruments in other materials. One of these makers of glass instruments--specifically barometers, thermometers and "Glass Bubbles to prove spirits, of different kinds"--was Alloysius Ketterer. He maintained a shop in the house of a Charles Kugler at "the sign of the Seven Stars," corner of Race and Fourth Streets in Philadelphia, in 1789. He moved to another address in Race Street in 1790 and was eventually succeeded in business by Martin Fisher, who increased the number of types of glass instruments made and sold at the shop.

Henry Voight (1738-1814) was a man with a varied career. Of German ancestry, he was trained as a clock-and watchmaker, and he was a skilled mechanic. He operated a wire mill in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1780 and moved shortly thereafter to Philadelphia, where he established a clockmaker's shop on Second Street. He became a close friend of the inventor John Fitch in about 1786, and in the following year he became a shareholder in Fitch's company for producing steamboats. In 1792 he entered into a short-lived partnership with Fitch to manufacture steam engines. In 1793 he invented a process for making steel from bar iron. In the same year President Washington appointed Voight to the position of chief coiner of the Philadelphia Mint, and he continued in that position until his death in 1814. He was closely associated with David Rittenhouse, Andrew Ellicott, Edward Duffield, and others.

Although there is no record of Voight's career as an instrument maker, there is nevertheless some evidence that he worked in that field. In the collection of the U.S. National Museum there is a brass equal-altitude telescope (fig. 31) made about 1790, that is signed "Henry Voigt." His name was spelled "Voigt" and "Voight" interchangeably.

Henry's son Thomas Voight worked as a clockmaker on North Seventh Street in Philadelphia around 1811. He was the maker of a tall case clock, ordered by Thomas Jefferson, that Jefferson's daughter presented in 1826 to her father's physician, Dr. Dunglison, for settlement of medical services.

There were several instrument makers in provincial Pennsylvania, but the majority of such craftsmen worked in Philadelphia. Dr. Christopher Witt (1675-1765), an emigrant from England, worked in Germantown from about 1710 to 1765. He was well known locally as a medical doctor, scientist, "hexmeister", clockmaker, and teacher. It is traditionally claimed that he produced mathematical instruments in addition to timepieces. He described the great comet of 1743 and built his own 8-foot telescope. One of his apprentices may have been Christopher Sower (1693-1740), of Germantown and Philadelphia, who achieved renown as a doctor, farmer, author, printer, papermaker, and clockmaker. He also produced mathematical instruments.

George Wall, Jr., of Bucks County, was the author of a pamphlet on the subject of "a newly invented Surveying Instrument, called the Trigonometer." The instrument was described and illustrated in the pamphlet, which was published in Philadelphia in 1788. Washington's own copy, bearing the inscription "To the President of the United States from the Author" is in the collection of the Boston Athenaeum.

George Ford of Lancaster maintained a shop on West King Street, probably from the end of the 18th century until 1840. There he made tall case and other clocks, surveying compasses, and other instruments for the retail trade. However, he "did not push the business of Watchmaking and Clockmaking so hard, for the manufacture of nautical instruments and surveyors instruments was a more important part of his business." Upon his death in 1842 he was succeeded by his son George Ford II.

Thomas Mendenhall repaired clocks and mathematical instruments in a shop on King and Queen Streets in the borough of Lancaster in 1775.

John Wood of Philadelphia was a wholesale supplier of parts for clockmakers and watchmakers. According to a notice in the May 7, 1790, issue of Pennsylvania Packet, he had "pocket compasses, steel magnets, Surveying compass needles, surveyors chains, etc." Since no mention was made of making or mending instruments, it is probable that Wood was merely importer and wholesaler.

Another instrument maker of Philadelphia about whom little is known is Bryan Gilmur, who worked at the close of the 18th century making instruments and, possibly, clocks.

James Jacks (also listed as James Jack) first worked as clockmaker and watchmaker in Charleston, South Carolina, in the 1780's; he later moved to Philadelphia where he maintained a shop on Market Street where he sold a variety of instruments. In the June 5, 1797, issue of The Federal Gazette he announced that, in addition to jewelry, clocks and watches, he "also had for sale mathematical instruments in cases very compleat; Surveyors Compasses and Theodolites; ship's Quadrants; Fishing Rods and Reels; Billiard Balls and sheet ivory; silver and plated coach, chaise and chair Whips."

Instruments of Wood

The Use of Wood

An interesting fact concerning the instruments produced by 18th-century craftsmen is the relatively high incidence of instruments constructed of wood instead of brass or other metals. A significant reference to this use of wood is found in Alexander Hamilton's "Report on the Subject of Manufactures," published in 1821, which refers to such items of wood as "Ships, cabinet-wares and turnery, wool and cotton cards, and other machinery for manufactures and husbandry, mathematical instruments," ... and "coopers' wares of every kind."

Most common of these mathematical instruments is the surveying compass, possibly the instrument most needed and produced in America. Recorded in public and private collections are 31 known examples of such compasses made of wood, a rather large number. Furthermore, a substantial number of these were being produced simultaneously by skilled craftsmen who at the same time were making similar instruments in brass.

Finally, from a study of the surviving examples of wooden surveying compasses comes the interesting and perhaps significant fact that all the known makers were from New England. The towns and cities in which they worked were Boston and Plymouth in Massachusetts, Windsor and New Milford in Connecticut, and Walpole and Portsmouth in New Hampshire. A careful study of the advertisements and works of the instrument makers in the other large cities of the Colonies, such as New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, reveals no examples of wooden scientific instruments. Excluded, of course, are those instruments normally made of wood, such as the octant and the mariners quadrant.

Two possible exceptions are instrument makers of New York City. The first is James Ham, a maker of mathematical instruments "at the house wherein the Widow Ratsey lately lived near the Old Dutch Church on Smith Street" who advertised in the May 27, 1754, issue of The New York Mercury that he made and sold

mathematical instruments in wood, brass, or ivory, theodolites, circumferentors, sectors, parallel rules, protractors, plain scales, and dividers, the late instrument called an Octant, Davis' quadrants, gauging rods, sliding and gunter's scales, amplitude wood box and hanging and pocket compasses, surveying chains, japanned telescopes, dice and dice boxes, mariners compasses and kalenders, etc.

Ham subsequently moved his business to Philadelphia where he first advertised in 1764, stating that he worked at the sign of "Hadley's Quadrant" at Front and Water Streets in Philadelphia and sold all forms of instruments in silver, brass, and ivory as well as "large brass pocket dials, fitted to the latitude of Philadelphia." In 1780 his son James Ham, Jr., advertised from the same address as a maker of mathematical instruments, specializing in "Hadley and Davis Quadrants."

The second exception is William Hinton, who advertised in The New York Gazette and the Weekly Mercury of May 4, 1772, as follows:

WILLIAM HINTON, Mathematical Instrument Maker, at Hadley's Quadrant, facing the East Side of the New Coffee House, Makes and sells all sorts of Mathematical Instruments, in Silver, Brass, Ivory or Wood, viz. Hadley's Quadrants, Davis's do. Crostaf's Nocturnals, Gunters Scales, Plotting do. Cases of Instruments, Surveyors Chains, Dividers with and without Points, Protractors, paralelled Rulers, Rods for Guaging, Amplitude, hanging and common Wood Compasses, Pocket do. three Foot Telescopes, Pocket do. Backgammon Tables, Dice and Dice Boxes, Billiard Balls and Tacks, Violin Bows and Bridges; with a Variety of other Articles too tedious to mention: And as he is a young Beginner, he flatters himself, he shall meet with Encouragement; and all those who please to favour him with their Custom, may depend upon having their Work done in the neatest and best Manner, and at reasonable Rates.

It is mentioned that both Ham and Hinton worked in wood in addition to other materials, but it appears very likely that the use of wood referred specifically to those instruments normally made of wood, such as quadrants and octants, and not to other instruments.

Any attempt to relate the making of wooden scientific instruments with the production of wooden clocks in New England has no conclusive result, yet there appears to be some relationship between the two. Wooden clocks were made as early as the 17th century in Germany and Holland, and they were known in England in the early 18th century. In the Colonies the wooden clock was first produced in Connecticut, and the earliest type was associated with Hartford County. This form was quite common in East Hartford in 1761, and its first production may have had some association with Ebenezer Parmele (1690-1777), since an association between Parmele and all of the earliest makers of wooden clocks can be traced. Little is known about Parmele. His father was a cabinetmaker in Guilford, Connecticut, and Ebenezer practiced the same craft, in addition to being a boat builder. He was a man of means, held various town offices, and served as town treasurer. For a while he operated a cargo sloop on Long Island Sound. In 1726 he built the first tower clock in Connecticut for the Guilford meeting house. He was a versatile worker in wood, and it is believed that he served an apprenticeship in New York City with a Dutch clockmaker from 1705 to 1710, where he may have learned to make wooden clocks.

This early type of wooden clock is associated with Benjamin Cheney (1725-1815), a clockmaker of East Hartford. The early or "Cheney" type of wooden clock was produced in Connecticut as late as 1812. A later form of the wooden movement began to appear about 1790, and was probably introduced by Gideon Roberts (1749-1813) of Bristol. Roberts had lived in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania before 1790, and it is conjectured that he became familiar with the wooden clocks produced by the German settlers of that region.

It is not surprising that the wooden clock had its colonial origins in Connecticut, so completely was it adaptable to the pioneer conditions in that colony. The materials were the abundant native woods-cherry, apple, oak, and laurel. The parts were made with simple carpenter tools and a wooden foot lathe, using the methods of the cabinetmaker. Although it has been suggested that some relationship may have existed between the makers of wooden instruments in England, and the makers of wooden clocks and scientific instruments in the New England Colonies, a careful study has failed to reveal any connection, and there appears to be little if any parallel between the two groups. Basically, the use of wood for making some mathematical instruments in New England resulted from the native familiarity with this material, which was also employed to a considerable degree for the construction of domestic and agricultural implements, and from the fact that many of the early clockmakers had been trained as or by cabinet makers, carpenters, and even dish turners. Random examples of a few of the more prominent clockmakers are Joseph Hopkins, a wood turner; Chauncey Jerome, who had been apprenticed to a wood turner; and Silas Hoadley, who had worked with a cabinet maker.