Early American Scientific Instruments and Their MakersBedini, Silvio A.
History
Early American Scientific Instruments and Their Makers
Bedini, Silvio A.
Scientific apparatus and instruments
[Illustration: Figure 66.--Views of wooden surveying compass made by
Gurdon Huntington, clockmaker in Walpole, New Hampshire, between
1789-1804. Made of cherry with folding brass 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
compass (fig. 66) made of wood, with brass sighting bars and a painted
dial under glass 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
brass for insertion on a tripod.
[Illustration]
_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, Massachusetts, 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 compass with a brass dial having two scales, one
for degrees and one for eight divisions per 90 deg.. The dial is inscribed
"JED BALDWIN/HANOVER." According to its present owner, Mr. Worth
Shampeny of Rochester, Vermont, the compass 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_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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