astronomical regulator
Date: 1832
Inventory Number: 2500
Classification: Clock
Subject:
Maker: Simon Willard, Jr. (1795 - 1874)
Maker: Charles Crane Crehore (1793 - 1879)
User: William Cranch Bond (1789 - 1859)
User: George Phillips Bond (1825 - 1865)
User: Harvard College Observatory (founded 1839)
Cultural Region:
Place of Origin:
Dimensions:
207 x 29.5 x 48.5 cm (81 1/2 x 11 5/8 x 19 1/8 in.)
Accessories: winding key
DescriptionAstronomical regulator in a Boston-made case with a round top and glazed, break-arch top to the trunk door. The regulator dial is silvered brass with a matte, "white" finish. A removable wooden box covers the movement inside the clock's hood to protect it from dust.
The works are of high quality and made to chronometer standards. It has a Graham deadbeat escapement. The pallets are jeweled with thin slips of sapphire, which are unusual for an American clock of this period. The movement has Harrison's maintaining power.
The beat adjustment is built into the pendulum. The steel pendulum rod holds an extraordinarily large jar of mercury (11.5 cm in diameter and 19 cm high) used for temperature compensation.
Electrical contacts were later fitted to the escape wheel and pallet arbor in order to take time signals from the clock. A telegraph key is attached to the inside of the case on the proper right side of the trunk.
The winding key is brass with an ivory handle.
For further details, please see the captions to the photographs.
The works are of high quality and made to chronometer standards. It has a Graham deadbeat escapement. The pallets are jeweled with thin slips of sapphire, which are unusual for an American clock of this period. The movement has Harrison's maintaining power.
The beat adjustment is built into the pendulum. The steel pendulum rod holds an extraordinarily large jar of mercury (11.5 cm in diameter and 19 cm high) used for temperature compensation.
Electrical contacts were later fitted to the escape wheel and pallet arbor in order to take time signals from the clock. A telegraph key is attached to the inside of the case on the proper right side of the trunk.
The winding key is brass with an ivory handle.
For further details, please see the captions to the photographs.
In Collection(s)
Signedon dial: SIMON WILLARD JR. / BOSTON.
Historical AttributesThis regulator was made in 1832 by Simon Willard Jr., and housed in a case made by Charles C. Crehore. The binding posts for electrical contacts were added later.
It is not known precisely when it first came to Harvard. William Cranch Bond does not mention it explicitly as a clock that he brought with him in 1839 at the time he was appointed Astronomical Observer. After the Observatory was completed on Garden Street in 1847, the clock could have been set up there. Being checked daily against astronomical transits, it might then have provided standard time to New England railroads until 1857. It was then replaced by a Bond & Sons regulator (no. 312) in mid-century.
The use for standard time by Harvard is uncertain and iffy. We might ask why would Bond prefer a Willard clock rather than one from his own business, as he undoubtedly did later. Secondly, the only documented connection of the clock with Harvard is in 1894, when Z. A. Willard, Simon's Willard's son, presented the regulator (back?) to the Harvard College Observatory, where it was kept in use until 1949.
It is not known precisely when it first came to Harvard. William Cranch Bond does not mention it explicitly as a clock that he brought with him in 1839 at the time he was appointed Astronomical Observer. After the Observatory was completed on Garden Street in 1847, the clock could have been set up there. Being checked daily against astronomical transits, it might then have provided standard time to New England railroads until 1857. It was then replaced by a Bond & Sons regulator (no. 312) in mid-century.
The use for standard time by Harvard is uncertain and iffy. We might ask why would Bond prefer a Willard clock rather than one from his own business, as he undoubtedly did later. Secondly, the only documented connection of the clock with Harvard is in 1894, when Z. A. Willard, Simon's Willard's son, presented the regulator (back?) to the Harvard College Observatory, where it was kept in use until 1949.
Curatorial RemarksTechnical description provided by Richard Ketchen, horologist, February 2008.
The book on the Willards says that the case is mahogany.
The book on the Willards says that the case is mahogany.
Published ReferencesJohn Ware Willard, Simon Willard and His Clocks (New York: Dover Publications, 1968), plate 25.