E. Howard and Company Tower Clock

Object Details

manufacturer

E. Howard & Co.

Description

In places that required many clocks—factories, office and public buildings, or schools—time was often distributed by a system of "master" and "slave" clocks. In such a system, a central timekeeper, the master clock, sent periodic impulses, usually electric or pneumatic, to any number of secondary or slave clocks. These slave clocks could be located anywhere, without regard for convenience of winding, because they needed none. The master clock could also drive other time signals like classroom bells, factory whistles, or time stamps. More economical to install and more convenient to maintain than an equal number of independent clocks, the system also ensured that all dials within the system agreed.

The museum collection contains such a timekeeping system. The system's master clock (Cat. 310,569), built by E. Howard and Company of Boston, is a mechanical tower clock movement equipped with electrical contacts. Once a minute the escapement, through a pair of rotary switches, closes an electrical circuit and sends an impulse to the slave dial (Cat. 310,570), where electromagnets advance the hands. Batteries at the base of the master clock supply current.

This clock and dial were components of a system that served the Smithsonian between about 1881 and 1932. First housed in the north tower of the Arts and Industries Building, the clock movement distributed impulses to eighteen dials in that building and the Castle, the Smithsonian's earliest building. Tunnels under the floors carried the wiring. The clock room also housed a telephone switchboard, a watchman's clock, a central burglar alarm, and call bells—all of which, like the time distribution system, relied on the newly harnessed power of electricity. "Indeed," boasted the Smithsonian's annual report for 1881, "it is believed that in no building in the world, with the exception of the Grand Opera House in Paris, is there so perfect and complete an application of electricity to practical services."

1880

ID Number

ME.310569

catalog number

310569

accession number

123081

Object Name

master clock

Other Terms

master clock; Mechanical, Weight-Driven; Tower Clock

Measurements

overall: 49 in x 25 in x 25 in; 124.46 cm x 63.5 cm x 63.5 cm

place made

United States: Massachusetts, Boston

See more items in

Work and Industry: Mechanisms

Engineering, Building, and Architecture

Exhibition

Wonderplace

Exhibition Location

National Museum of American History

National Museum of American History

Record ID

nmah_850819

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a6-9d13-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa