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,[71] 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.[72]
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."[73]
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.[74] 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.[75]
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,[76] 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.
Perhaps a basis for the prevalence of wood in these trades is to be
found in the lines from a familiar poem:
The Yankee boy, before he's sent to school,
Knows well the mystery of that magic tool,
The Pocket knife.[77]
But, from the technical point of view, it should be noted that those
craftsmen who produced clocks and instruments and did not have their own
brass foundries probably found that a good piece of straight-grained
hardwood was as stable for holding its dimensions with the grain as a
piece of brass. Shrinkage was at right angles to the grain; hence, for
fixed linear stability wood was as good as brass. For rigidity per unit
weight, wood was better than brass; and for availability and ease of
working, wood was superior to brass.
It has often been ventured that wooden clocks were first produced in
Connecticut, because of the scarcity of brass for this purpose during
the years between the beginning of the Revolution to the end of the War
of 1812. The claim is made that brass was not being produced in the
Colonies and that it was imported exclusively from England during this
period. Certainly, the wholesale price index of metal and metal products
shows a steady increase during this period, and a considerable jump
during the period of the War of 1812, making brass an extremely
expensive material. This may explain why the makers of clocks and
instruments who made and sold brass clocks and instruments were
producing the same products at the same time in wood which, as we have
seen, was both plentiful and a satisfactory substitute.
It can be surmised, therefore, that surveying instruments, as well as
instruments for other purposes, were produced in both brass and wood
simultaneously by many of the New England makers in order to provide
suitable instruments in a flexible price range to meet the demands of
the trade. Whereas today modern manufacturing methods make it possible
to produce instruments in a wide variety, both in quality and price, to
suit the needs and capabilities of every prospective purchaser, the
production facilities of the 18th century were much more limited. The
constant factor of skilled hand labor was costly. Metal was expensive.
As evidenced in the records of Daniel Burnap, for instance, it was
possible to produce surveying compasses in brass in two grades,
presumably one more elaborate than the other. Yet Burnap's prices ranged
between six pounds and four pounds for the metal instruments, making
them still well out of reach of many of the would-be surveyors.
Accordingly, Burnap--and presumably numerous other instrument makers of
the period--produced from wood an economy model that sold for not more
than two pounds, thus placing the item within the reach of the
nonprofessional surveyor.
This theory is supported amply by the discovery that several of the
instrument makers who worked in brass also made instruments of wood
during the same periods. In addition to the evidence in the records of
Daniel Burnap, there are the surviving surveying instruments in brass
and wood made by Samuel Thaxter, Thomas Greenough, and John Dupee,
leaving little if any doubt that the reason for producing surveying
compasses and similar items of wood during the 18th century was to
satisfy the need for reasonably accurate yet inexpensive instruments.
Surviving Instruments
The fact that the surviving examples of the wooden instruments were
produced only in New England seems to indicate merely that the New
England instrument makers were more familiar with the use of wood as a
material, and had greater facility in working with it.
Undoubtedly other instruments produced by the 18th-century American
makers have survived in addition to those already found. Quite likely
examples of these wooden instruments still remain hidden in unexplored
attics and other repositories. Yet, if the few thus far discovered is
any criterion, the number ultimately recoverable will probably be but a
fraction of the great number produced by the 18th-century makers during
the half century or more in which they worked. Even allowing for those
probably destroyed in the natural course of events, one cannot help but
wonder what has happened to the remainder.
[Illustration: Figure 32.--Wooden graphometer used by Rev. Eleazar
Wheelock (1711-1779) about 1769 for surveying the area of Dartmouth
College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The hardwood block is covered with a
brass plate with brass sighting bars mounted on a swivel and a spirit
level under a brass strip on edge of instrument. The instrument is 8-5/8
in. long, 4-5/8 in. wide, and 7/16 in. thick. In collection of Dartmouth
College Museum.]
A list of the surviving wooden instruments is given in the Appendix (p.
153). Many of these wooden instruments bear signatures or other marks
that permit identification of their makers, but a number of specimens
have been found that are not signed. In most instances they show
evidence of professional workmanship, and they may have been the work of
known craftsmen. One or two examples are obviously homemade by unskilled
amateur practitioners.
[Illustration: Figure 33.--Wooden surveying instrument, maker not known.
Compass dial is of metal, painted green, with degrees marked to 90 deg. with
metal punches and the letter "N" to designate the north point. The
instrument is 12 in. long; diameter is 8 in. In collection of Dartmouth
College Museum.]
Several unsigned wooden instruments of professional quality are in the
collection of the Dartmouth College Museum. Of particular interest is a
semicircumferentor (fig. 32) that belonged to the Reverend Eleazar
Wheelock (1711-1779) who founded Moor's Indian Charity School at
Lebanon, Connecticut, which subsequently developed into Dartmouth
College. It is claimed that it was with this instrument that the area of
the college was surveyed when it moved to Hanover, N.H. The instrument
is actually a graphometer consisting of a block of hard wood faced with
a brass plate with a trough compass; it is tentatively dated about 1769.
The identity of the maker is unknown, but it may have been the product
of Hagger, who made a similar instrument, illustrated here, or it may
have been produced by any one of the other makers noted. The type of
instrument is an old one. It is described in John Love's _Geodaesia, Or
the Art of Surveying and Measuring Land_, published in London in 1688.
Abel Flint[78] also commented on this semicircle as being sometime used,
as well as the plane table and perambulator--
... but of these instruments very little [use] is made in New
England; and they are not often to be met with. For general
practice none will be found more useful than a common chain and a
compass upon Rittenhouse's construction.
Another of the unusual wooden surveying instruments in the collection of
the Dartmouth College Museum is a wooden surveying compass (fig. 33) in
which the sighting bars appear relatively close to the dial. A metal
plate, painted green, is stamped with the degrees marked to 90 deg.. A
single N for the north point is stamped into it, presumably with steel
punches. The instrument is relatively primitive, and is sufficiently
different from the other examples noted to merit mention. There is no
maker's name, nor any clue to the date or place or period of origin.
An unsigned semicircumferentor made of wood is owned by Mr. Roleigh Lee
Stubbs of Charleston, West Virginia. The instrument measures 3-3/4 in.
by 7-1/2 in. by 1 in., and there are sighting bars 3 in. high on a
swinging brass bar pinned at the center of the base. It has a trough
compass, and the gradations around the edge of the semicircle are marked
with tiny brass pins. The date "1784" is stamped into the wood with the
same type of figures as appear in the degree markings, probably with
small steel punches.
A surveying compass of the conventional type, also made of wood, is in
The Farmer's Museum at Cooperstown, New York. The wood is ash or oak,
12-3/4 in. long and 6-1/2 in. in diameter, with the sighting bars 5 in.
high. The compass card consists of cut-out printed letters pasted upon a
printed compass rose, and the fleur-de-lis at North is inked-in by hand.
This may be a homemade replacement of the original card. The instrument
is believed to date between 1760-1775.
[Illustration: Figure 34.--18th-century semicircumferentor. Inscribed
brass plate is mounted on a mahogany block; brass sighting bars are
mounted on a swivelling bar. The trough compass is on a silvered dial.
In collection of the writer.]
Of equal interest is a large semicircumferentor made by an unknown
American instrument maker in the second half of the 18th century. The
instrument (fig. 34) consists of a plate of hammered brass attached to a
quarter circle block of mahogany, with a glass covered trough compass
within a silvered opening, and the gradations stamped into the brass.
The brass sighting bars are attached to a swivelling bar that can be
fixed in place with a set screw underneath the block. The instrument,
which is in the collection of the writer, is not signed with a maker's
name. Its workmanship is excellent, and professional.
On the basis of a comparison of these instruments with those produced by
known professional makers, it becomes apparent that all of them were
made professionally. The possibility that some of these wooden surveying
compasses may have been produced by the farmer or local surveyor for his
own use is extremely unlikely. Homemade instruments such as those
described below were unquestionably the exception instead of the
rule.
[Illustration: Figure 35.--Homemade wooden surveying compass carved from
block of maple entirely with a jackknife; painted in red. In collection
of Preston R. Bassett, Ridgefield, Connecticut.]
An exception to this generalization, and an extremely fine example of
the whittler's art, is a surveying compass (fig. 35) in the collection
of Mr. Preston R. Bassett of Ridgefield, Connecticut. This is a
comparatively small instrument made of maple; the body was painted red.
It is carved entirely by means of a jackknife, and the sighting bars are
also whittled to shape and mortised permanently into the frame. A lid
covering the dial is carved from soft pine. The compass dial is
handdrawn in black ink, and the North point is painted in the form of a
decorative fleur-de-lis in red and green. A homemade ring of pewter
surrounds the compass rose at needle level. This is graduated in
degrees, with every 10 deg. marked, stamped with steel punches. The ring is
set into the base by means of wooden pegs. The steel needle is nicely
cut, and it is probably the only part purchased by the maker.
This is unquestionably a homemade instrument produced by a skillful
whittler early in the 18th century.
Compass Cards
A fact that becomes apparent in a comparison of the surviving examples
of wooden surveying compasses made in New England is the similarity of
the compass cards used by makers in the seaport cities (see fig. 36).
The compass card in each of these instances is the type designed for a
mariner's compass, bearing a star of 32 rays to mark the 32 points of
the heavens. The North point is designated with an elaborate
fleur-de-lis, and the East is emphasized with scrollwork. These are
features which were not designed primarily for land surveying.
Presumably, these makers had a quantity of engraved or printed compass
cards that they used in both marine and land surveying compasses. This
is true in the case of the compasses made by James and Joseph Halsy,
Greenough, Clough, Warren, Thaxter, Dupee, Breed, and Bowles. On the
other hand, the dial of Huntington's compass was painted directly on the
wood, and the semicircumferentors do not utilize the marine compass
card. Obviously these makers resorted to this practice for reasons of
economy--to reduce costs of engraving and printing, and using the same
card for both types of instruments that they produced.
Trade Signs
An interesting sidelight in the study of the makers of scientific
instruments is the advertising they used, particularly the design of
their signboards. The most popular symbol appears to have been the
quadrant, as the phrase "At the Sign of the Quadrant" is found
repeatedly in advertising in several of the seaport cities of the 18th
century.
[Illustration: Figure 36.--Unsigned wooden surveying compass, with an
interesting example of a mariner's compass card.]
In Providence, William Hamlin used the designation in the first part of
the 19th century, while Philadelphian John Gould featured the sign at
the end of the 18th century. During an even earlier period, William
Hinton designated his address to be "At Hadley's Quadrant" in New York
City. Both Gould and Hinton were English, which may have had some
bearing on their selection of the quadrant as a symbol of their
merchandise.
Other signboards were as colorful, such as Jonathan Dakin's "Sign of the
Hand and Beam," James Youle's "Sign of the Cross-Knives and Gun," and
Charles Kugler's house in Philadelphia with its "Sign of the Seven
Stars" (that is, Great Bear), which housed the shops of several
instrument makers.
The two most interesting and significant of the instrument makers' trade
signs were those advertising the shop of Samuel Thaxter. The first of
these was the carved wooden figure of "The Little Admiral," which was a
favorite landmark at No. 1 Long Wharf in Boston for almost a century and
a half. It was the handiwork of John Skillin, the 18th-century
woodcarver of Boston, upon whose death on January 24, 1800, the
_Chronicle_ commented that "he was for many years the most eminent of
his profession." John Skillin and his brother Simeon worked in Boston
from about 1777 and produced most of the figureheads that issued from
that port during that period, as well as a number of other notable
ornamental wooden figures.
[Illustration: Figure 37.--"The Little Admiral," trade sign used for
almost a century and a half in Boston, first by William Williams and
later by Samuel Thaxter. Reputed to have been carved by John Skillin of
Boston. In collection of the Bostonian Society.]
According to Mrs. H. Ropes Cabot of the Bostonian Society, the figure of
"The Little Admiral" (fig. 37) had been carved for William Williams, who
brought it with him to Boston from Marblehead in 1770 when he
established his shop. The figure was installed in front of the Crown
Coffee House, and Williams's shop was thereafter designated by this
symbol. The trade sign survived through the years of the Revolutionary
War. When the original building of the Coffee House was burned, the
carving was saved and installed on the new building erected in its
place. In an account of Boston landmarks, Porter[79] related the figure
to the Admiral Vernon Tavern at the eastern corner of Merchants Row. He
was proved to have been in error, however, since the trade sign of that
public-house was a portrait bust of Admiral Vernon and the place was
known as the Vernon Head Tavern for half a century, even after the end
of the Revolution.
When Samuel Thaxter purchased the business from Williams's estate he
acquired the figure as well, and he moved it to each new location for
his shop. The figure of "The Little Admiral" continued to designate the
firm even after Thaxter's death, until the firm finally went out of
existence at the beginning of the 20th century. When the old store was
torn down in 1901, the figure was preserved, presumably by the last
owner's family. In 1916 it was acquired for the Bostonian Society by
several of its members, and the figure has been preserved in the
Society's Council Chamber since that time.
The other interesting trade sign utilized by Samuel Thaxter is a carved
figure of Father Time that is credited to John Skillin (see fig. 38).
The figure is believed to have been commissioned by Thaxter during the
last decade of the 18th century and installed by him in the interior of
his shop. It is an important example of the American woodcarver's art,
and is equivalent to the best work of the Skillin brothers.
[Illustration: Figure 38.--"Father Time" trade sign used by Samuel
Thaxter in his shop in 18th and 19th centuries. Made of wood, it was
carved by John Skillin of Boston. In collection of the Bostonian
Society.]
The Makers
Surprisingly, the names of the craftsmen who produced wooden instruments
are not noted among the instrument makers. With only one or two
exceptions, their names are hitherto unknown in the history of American
science, and for that reason it has been considered advisable to present
all available information that could be accumulated about them.
_Joseph Halsy_