Early American Scientific Instruments and Their Makers Part 10

_Benjamin Warren_,

PROPOSES to open a convenient AUCTION-ROOM, over the Shop he now trades in, next week. Any Gentlemen that will furnish him with goods of any kind for Public or Private sale, on Commission, shall be served with fidelity, and the smallest favours in that way gratefully acknowledged.

The next notice of the auction-room appeared on February 21, 1786, when the newspaper advertised that

_To-morrow_ will be SOLD, by Public Vendue, At WARREN'S Auction Room,

A VARIETY of articles, _viz_. Nails, Bar Lead, Gla.s.s Pewter, b.u.t.tons, Buckles, Chairs, Stands, &c, &c, &c.

*** The SALE to begin at 10 o'Clock, A.M.

No other notices of public sales appeared in the _Journal_ for the next several months. The last notice of this period was another announcement of a sale, which was published in the issue of May 30, 1786:

_Publick Vendue_,

_At_ WARREN's Auction Room, in PLYMOUTH: at Ten o'clock this morning. WILL be Sold, a quant.i.ty of bar lead, boxes of gla.s.s, 6 8. English Shovels and Tongs, bridle-Bits, and a variety of other articles of Hard-Ware. Also, a few Anvils at private sale.

Only one instrument signed by Warren is known to survive; it is a wooden surveying compa.s.s (fig. 61) in the Streeter Collection of Weights and Measures at Yale University. The instrument, which appears to have been made from walnut, has a compa.s.s card with the following inscription around the central medallion: "Made and sold by BENJAMIN WARREN Plymouth New Eng^d."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 61.--Wooden surveying compa.s.s made by Benjamin Warren (c. 1740-c. 1800) of Plymouth, Ma.s.sachusetts, and detail of the compa.s.s card. The compa.s.s, made of cherry wood, is 12 in. long and has a diameter of 6 in. In Streeter Collection of Weights and Measures, Yale University.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 62.--Detail of card, Warren surveying compa.s.s shown in figure 61.]

The medallion (fig. 62) encloses a harbor scene with a brigantine of the 1740 period off a promontory on which is prominently situated a lighthouse with a smaller building partly visible at the left. The lighthouse is unusual in construction in that it features twin towers rising from a large rectangular wooden building.

As far as can be determined from available records, the only lighthouse in America of this period having such construction was the noted Gurnet Light, which was built at the tip of Duxbury Beach in Plymouth Bay in 1768. D. Alan Stevenson[116] relates that the Governor's Council of Ma.s.sachusetts, when it decided in 1768 to erect the Gurnet Lighthouse at Plymouth, adopted a novel plan to distinguish it from other American lighthouses. "This consisted of double lights set horizontally in the same structure. A timber house built at a cost of 660, 30' long and 20'

high, had a lanthorn at each end to contain two four-wick lamps.

"In 1802 fire destroyed the house but the merchants of the town promptly subscribed to replace it by temporary lights, as the Government had no immediate funds at its disposal. An Act of Congress of 1802 allotted $2500 for building another set of twin lights and reimbursing the merchants for their expenditure.

"Though the idea of twin lights at Plymouth seemed an excellent distinction from a single navigation light shown at Barnstable harbor in the vicinity, they proved not entirely advantageous and a sea captain blamed them for causing his shipwreck. He had seen the light from only one tower and identified it with confidence as the Barnstable light; apparently, from a particular direction one tower hid the other. But local prejudice in favor of retaining the twin lights as a distinction prevailed until 1924 when, at last, opposition ceased to the recommendation which the Lighthouse Board expressed frequently that a single light would be preferable."

It seems quite likely that the compa.s.s card bears one of the very few surviving contemporary representations of the first Gurnet Light in Plymouth Bay. A search of the archives of the historical societies in Plymouth, Boston, and Worcester and the files of the U.S. National Archives has failed to reveal any ill.u.s.tration of this famous lighthouse.

Quite by coincidence, the name of Benjamin Warren was discovered among the entries of the day books of Paul Revere, the famous patriot, silversmith, and engraver. The entry[117] (fig. 63) appears as follows:

1786 March 13. Benjm Warren Dr. Plimouth To printing one hundred Compa.s.s Cards 0-18-0.

Whether the compa.s.s card on the Warren instrument was produced by Revere is difficult to determine. Authorities on Revere's engravings agree that it could have been engraved by Revere but are unable to state it positively. It has been suggested that the entry in Revere's day book indicates that he merely printed the compa.s.s cards for Warren and that he did not engrave a plate. The charge for the work bears out this supposition; and furthermore, Revere's bills seemed to make a definite distinction between the engraving of plates and actual prints. Whether or not Revere was responsible for making the original engraving remains to be determined, but it is very probable that he printed the compa.s.s card of the instrument in the Streeter Collection of Weights and Measures at Yale.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 63.--Page from the "day books" of Paul Revere with entry for the printing of compa.s.s cards for Benjamin Warren of Plymouth.

In collection of Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society, Boston.]

_Daniel Burnap_

One of the best known and most respected names among Connecticut clockmakers is that of Daniel Burnap (1759-1838) of East Windsor. Burnap was born in Coventry in 1759 and served an apprenticeship with Thomas Harland, clockmaker of Norwich. In about 1780 Burnap opened his own establishment, where he combined the crafts of clockmaking, cabinetmaking, and engraving of bra.s.s, in all of which he was greatly skilled. One of his apprentices was Eli Terry, who later achieved fame in the craft in his own right.[118]

Burnap's business included clients in Windsor, Hartford, and Coventry, as well as some of the leading merchants and cabinetmakers of the nearby cities and towns. Although clockmaking was the primary business in which Burnap engaged, he also had a large trade for his surveying instruments, silver spoons, gold beads, harness and saddlery hardware, and shoe buckles.

Burnap prospered, and in about 1800 he moved back to his native town, Coventry. There he purchased a large farm and erected a shop and a sawmill, and in due course became the leading citizen of the community.

He died in 1838, leaving a valuable technological record in the completeness of his journals and account books. A study of the entries of his day books and ledgers (see fig. 64) reveals that Burnap did a substantial amount of business in surveying compa.s.ses, chains, and protractors. Among his shop equipment after his death there was found an unfinished protractor, but no examples of his instruments are known except for a compa.s.s dial, inscribed with his name, that was discovered recently in the collection of a midwestern historical society.[119]

It is significant to note that Burnap made instruments of varying quality. For instance, he charged three different prices for his surveyor's compa.s.ses. The highest-priced compa.s.ses cost 6; they were made of bra.s.s, and were of the more elaborate conventional type used by surveyors. A few examples that appeared in his records cost 4; these also were made of bra.s.s, but probably were of a simpler form. Several entries list surveying compa.s.ses priced at 2 and 2/8. One of these was made for Capt. Solomon Dewie (1750-1813) in September 1790 for 2/8. At the same time, Burnap charged him 0/1/6 for touching the needle of another compa.s.s.[120] The entries in Burnap's account books do not state that these inexpensive compa.s.ses were constructed of wood, but it seems to be sufficiently conclusive that they were.

_Gurdon Huntington_

Gurdon Huntington (1763-1804) was not primarily a maker of scientific instruments, but he was established as a goldsmith and clockmaker. He was born in Windham, Connecticut, on April 30, 1763, the son of Hezekiah and Submit (Murdock) Huntington.[121]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 64.--Entry in the ma.n.u.script ledgers of Daniel Burnap (1759-1838) of East Windsor and Coventry, Connecticut, for sale of surveying compa.s.s in 1790. Reproduced from the Burnap shop records in the collection of Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford.]

The Huntington family was one of the most important in Connecticut colonial history. Gurdon's father, Hezekiah, was in service during the Revolutionary War, going to Boston as a major with the first troops raised in Connecticut. When in Boston he witnessed the miserable condition of the arms then in the hands of the soldiers. Major Huntington went immediately to Philadelphia, where Congress was in session, and proposed to the Congress that he would return to his home in Windham and that there he would open a manufactory for repairing muskets and other arms. He claimed to have been the first man to have made a gun in the Colonies.

Gurdon was too young to have served in the Revolution, but he undoubtedly worked in his father's gun manufactory as a boy. In due course he learned the trades of goldsmith and clockmaker and established his own shop in Windham, which, according to an advertis.e.m.e.nt (fig. 65) in _The Connecticut Gazette_ of June 11, 1784, was "a few rods north of Major Ebenezer Backus' store."

On Christmas Day, 1785, Gurdon was married in New London to Temperance Williams of Groton. In 1789 their first child, Marvin, was born, and in October of the same year the Huntingtons moved from Windham to Walpole, New Hampshire. No reason can be found for the move, other than the possibility that Gurdon might have antic.i.p.ated greater opportunity in the new community. There he applied himself to his trade as goldsmith and clockmaker, but apparently he was not very successful. His family grew, and by the time of his death there were eight children. Possibly in an effort to supplement his income, Huntington served as postmaster of the community. In about 1797, seven or eight years after he had moved to Walpole, his father and mother joined him there, and it is believed that Major Hezekiah may have worked as a gunsmith during that period.

Eventually the senior Huntington returned to Windham, Connecticut, where he died in 1807.[122]

Meanwhile Gurdon Huntington struggled on until his death on July 26, 1804. He died insolvent, which created a considerable problem in view of the large family he left behind him. Huntington's estate was administered by Asa Sibley, a clockmaker in Walpole. Sibley had moved to Walpole from his home in Woodstock, Connecticut, in the 1790's and he remained there until 1808, when he again returned to Woodstock. Gurdon Huntington's widow removed to Bloomfield, Ohio, with her children, and she died there on May 25, 1823. Most of her children settled in Bloomfield, but several of them moved to New Hartford, New York.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 65.--Advertis.e.m.e.nt of Gurdon Huntington (1763-1804) in _The Connecticut Gazette_, June 11, 1784. In collection of Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 66.--Views of wooden surveying compa.s.s made by Gurdon Huntington, clockmaker in Walpole, New Hampshire, between 1789-1804. Made of cherry with folding bra.s.s sighting bars, the instrument is 14 in. long and 5-1/2 in. wide. In collection of the writer.]

Several examples of Huntington's clocks are known to exist in private collections in the United States. However, only one example of his scientific instruments appears to have survived. This is a surveying compa.s.s (fig. 66) made of wood, with bra.s.s sighting bars and a painted dial under gla.s.s with a steel needle. The dial is inscribed "G.

HUNTINGTON/WALPOLE." The instrument, which is in the collection of the writer, is made of cherry wood, with a riveted ball-and-socket joint of bra.s.s for insertion on a tripod.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

_Jedidiah Baldwin_

Jedidiah Baldwin (fl. 1790's) was another early New England clock and instrument maker, but little is known of his early life. He was a brother of Jabes Baldwin (c. 1777-1829), who worked as a clockmaker in Salem and Boston after serving an apprenticeship with Thomas Harland in Norwich, Connecticut.

Jedidiah Baldwin also served an apprenticeship with Harland. In 1791 he was working in Northampton, Ma.s.sachusetts, as a member of the firm of Stiles and Baldwin, and from 1792 to 1794 he was a member of the firm of Stiles and Storrs, in partnership with Nathan Storrs.[123] In about 1794 Baldwin moved to Hanover, New Hampshire, where he became the local postmaster, and where Dartmouth College records his death.

Only one existing instrument is known to have been made by Baldwin; it is a wooden surveying compa.s.s with a bra.s.s dial having two scales, one for degrees and one for eight divisions per 90. The dial is inscribed "JED BALDWIN/HANOVER." According to its present owner, Mr. Worth Shampeny of Rochester, Vermont, the compa.s.s was used for surveying in Vermont during the early 1800's.

Another Jedidiah Baldwin worked as a clockmaker in Morrisville, New York, from 1818-1820 and then in Fairfield, New York; he appears also in the city directory of Rochester, New York, as a clockmaker during the years 1834-1844. He may have been a son or grandson of the first Jedidiah, or a nephew.

_Thomas Salter Bowles_

Thomas Salter Bowles (c. 1765-?) is another elusive New England instrument maker about whom little information is available. He is believed to have been the son of Deacon Samuel and Hannah (Salter) Bowles, born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, probably between 1765 and 1770. His father was born in 1739; his mother, who was the daughter of Captain t.i.tus Salter, was born in 1748 and died in 1831.[124] Deacon Bowles was clerk of the Brick Market in Portsmouth from 1801 to the time of his death, November 3, 1802. There is a minimum of information available from church and city records in the community, but it is believed that he was a member of one of the offshoots of the established Puritan Church, and hence he would not appear in its records. He kept the lower school in the Brick School House on State Street for a number of years.

It is believed that the Bowles family first came to Portsmouth during the few years immediately before the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

It is known that a Thomas Bowles and a Samuel Bowles both signed the a.s.sociation Test on August 14, 1776, promising to oppose the hostile proceedings of the British fleets and armies. Furthermore, one of the princ.i.p.al taxpayers in Portsmouth in 1770 was a firm named Griffith and Bowles, which paid 17 in taxes in 1770. The name of the Bowles who formed part of this firm is not known, but it was either Samuel or the first Thomas Bowles. The other partner was Nathaniel S. Griffith, a watchmaker. It is possible that a tradition of instrument making existed in the Bowles family even then.[125]