#ELI TERRY CLOCKMAKER SERIES#
In order to make his clockmaking operations even more efficient, Terry built a series of factories in Plymouth, Connecticut on the banks of the Pequabuck river, which allowed him to utilize water power to drive his machinery.
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Eli Terry (and generations of clockmakers who followed in his footsteps) affixed a proprietary label to the inner boards of his clocks that contained instructions and other useful information. In 1806, Eli Terry shocked the world by successfully completing a massive order to produce four thousand clock mechanisms in only three years’ time, thanks to his innovative manufacturing methods. Traditional workshops employing several craftsmen could only produce a few dozen clocks a year at most.
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He revolutionized world manufacturing by demonstrating how clock parts could be produced faster and cheaper by machine than by hand, and helped earn Connecticut a reputation as an international leader in precision manufacturing in the process.īefore Terry introduced his ingenious method of using interchangable parts and machine tools to mass-manufacture clocks, all timepieces had been meticulously measured and assembled by hand, making them a relatively rare and expensive commodity. Terry was a mechanical engineering prodigy who set his ambitions into motion at an early age, apprenticing himself to a clockmaker at 14, opening his own business at 21, and obtaining the first clock-related patent in the United States in 1797 at the age of 25. Eli Terry, Sr., famous Connecticut clockmaker. Eli Terry, the man who revolutionized clock manufacturing and whose timepieces have been featured in millions of American homes, was born in South Windsor (then a part of East Windsor), Connecticut on this day in 1772.