John Potter and the History of Clockmaking

What Does It Take to be a Clockmaker?

A clockmaker’s career began with an apprenticeship, beginning around the age of 13 or so. Most, but not quite all, clockmakers were male. The broad strokes of apprenticeship are largely consistent across all trades. The master and the apprentice-to-be’s parents signed a contract, requiring the master to feed, clothe, house and send the apprentice to school, as well as teach them the actual trade, for several years. In exchange, the student would not be paid directly, and the master gained an extra pair of hands around the shop while the apprenticeship lasted; seven years was a common length for apprenticeships.

The clockmaker’s apprentice, as with many other trades, began as an errand boy, as well as taking up some other tasks like cleaning the shop or stoking the forge. Gradually, the apprentice took on more of the actual production of clocks, made himself a complete set of tools, and likely made an entire clock from scratch as a final test of skill. Once the apprenticeship ended, the young clockmaker was free to start an independent shop, putting that newly-acquired variety of skills to use, and likely taking on an apprentice of their own someday.

Did Clockmakers Have Downtime?

Before the emergence of clock factories, clockmaking required a high degree of expertise in a wide variety of skills. Clockmakers often served as general mechanics. Clocks were not sought after in large numbers, potentially leaving the clockmakers with a lot of downtime, but their extremely wide skillset created many additional opportunities to make money.

Aside from maintaining clocks and watches, making and selling metal goods and tools, from simple buttons, buckles, and weathervanes to more complex items like surveyor’s tools, printing presses, or the occasional mechanical odometer, was common. A gunsmith named Thomas Matson was charged with taking care of Boston’s town clock beginning in 1670, exemplifying the skills that were shared amongst trades.

What Were The Basic Skills Needed?

In general, the clockmaker had to be proficient in metalworking, both forging and casting, for everything from simple, relatively large plates to the comparatively delicate hands. This goes down to the very precise levels of wire drawing and screw cutting. Naturally, without factories, all wire had to be sized, and every single thread on every single screw had to be cut, by hand. If the clockmaker made highly decorated clocks, engraving was a necessary skill as well.

Carpentry skills were of great value for making cases, although it was not uncommon for a clockmaker to buy, for example, a cabinet from elsewhere and convert it into a tall case clock. Even so, clockmakers likely made their own patterns from wood. Patterns are used to make sand molds for casting metal. The pattern, typically made of wood, is essentially a model of the desired part. To make a cast, pack sand tightly around the pattern, and then remove the pattern from the sand, leaving a space in the shape of the desired part into which molten metal can be poured. The pattern has to be slightly larger than the intended size of the part, as the metal will contract as it cools, and its dimensions must be truly exact. Hand-making patterns is thus quite difficult; that it was but one of many of the typical clockmaker’s skills is a great demonstration of their prowess.

Clocks Throughout the Village

Who Was John Potter?

John Potter was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts on September 12th, 1746. He lived in Brookfield for most of his life, though his military career began in the Albany County Militia in New York. Eventually, he moved back to Massachusetts, and in April of 1777, he was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the 7th Company, 4th Worcester County Regiment. In June of 1778, he transferred to the 3rd Worcester County Regiment. 1st Lt. Potter served as the 3rd’s Paymaster for much of his tour, which lasted until February of 1779.

He appears to have continued his service after the war, and by 1786, he was promoted to Captain and given command of the Brookfield Company, as we know that his company was deployed twice to suppress Shays’ Rebellion that year. Outside of his military service, John Potter married Lydia Cutting in 1768, with whom he had seven children before her unfortunate passing in 1781. About a year later, he married Rhoda Burnap, with whom he had a further eight children. Sadly, three of his children also died very young, leaving 12 out of 15. Captain Potter himself passed away on October 20th, 1818.

Captain Potter was a clockmaker by trade. This left him with a very diverse skillset in wood- and metalworking, and he put those skills to work by building the mansion himself. The process took about a decade, including an interruption for his service during the war, building outward and upward from the kitchen. The mansion’s wooden façade, carved and constructed to look like stone bricks, is a great example of his talent and ingenuity. Real stone bricks would be quite expensive and, perhaps more to the point, heavy. The result is very elegant, and a remarkable display of woodworking skill.

One of the most interesting features of the Potter Mansion has, unfortunately, been lost to time, and there is precious little information about it. At some point during his life, Capt. Potter created a large clock outside of his house, for the whole town of Brookfield to use. Not content with something so simple, however, his public clock had three dials, showing not only the time and day of the week, but the present phase of the moon. It did not simply chime once per hour, but had a different chime for every fifteen minutes, and even played hymns on Sundays and other songs throughout the week. This mechanical wonder is described as having its clockwork contained within a small room behind its dials, likely meaning it was mounted directly to the outside wall.

Within the Potter Kitchen

Forty-two years ago was the last time that the watchmakers bench on our collection was pictured on display in the Potter Kitchen. It's an unusual piece to have in a kitchen, but the story this bench tells wouldn't have fit in a dining room or parlor room. Our records indicate that this bench belonged to a C. H. Chapman of Easthampton, Massachusetts, who worked during the mid-19th Century, before he passed it down to his sons, who worked as jewelers.

Though this bench appears to lack any sort of maker's mark, it is remarkably similar to an example used by Green Bros. Jewelry Supplies of New York City. In particular, their dimensions are practically identical, as are the decorations on the drawers; the Green Bros. example lacks a lathe, however, and it is difficult to tell if it has similar mounting provisions as our example.

This exhibit is designed to showcase the workmanship behind the object that changed the way the world ran. It highlights a partially disassembled clock with its pieces on display to teach about the various parts. View all of the artifacts on display in this exhibit, as well as the clocks throughout our Village, at our Collections Portal!

Can You Name the Clock Parts?

Semi Circumferenter

Surveyor's piece with an original wooden case made by John Potter, owned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image courtesy of The Met.

Brass, Clockmaking, and Connecticut

Why is brass so commonly used for clock movements, and what does Connecticut have to do with it all? Brass is an alloy of about two parts copper to one part zinc, with other metals sometimes added to the mixture in very small amounts, in order to tweak the alloy for specific purposes. For much of history, the primary source of zinc metal was a mineral called calamine, and people did not fully understand the role of zinc specifically in brass production. By the 18th Century, however, understanding of that role was spreading, and pure, metallic zinc was becoming available. Since the actual amount of zinc present in calamine can vary, having concentrated, pure zinc was quite helpful for brass production.

As early as the middle of the 15th Century, brass components begin making their way into European clocks, and the metal’s application in clockmaking grew from there. However, for much of the 18th Century, clockmaking in what became the United States relied heavily on wooden movements. Although wood is more prone to wear and damage, brass production was quite limited in the English colonies. Wood, being much more abundant on this side of the Atlantic, made sense as a primary material. Brass components were used only as needed, as it was relatively expensive to import. Additionally, casting brass into precise shapes is fairly easy; it is certainly easier to melt brass than wood. On the other hand, cast iron was also commonly used to make clock components. It was more available in North America than brass, but somewhat more difficult to work with, and there was more friction between iron components than with brass.

This state of affairs continued into the 19th Century, as clockmakers improved the wooden movement and even adapted it to mass manufacture. However, in 1802, the first modern brass manufacturer in the U.S. was established in the town of Waterbury, Connecticut, under the name of Abel Porter and Company. Porter and Co. were early adopters of using metallic zinc, as opposed to calamine, in brass production, which helped them to produce at scale. Initially, they produced brass buttons for clothing, and so their output of the metal itself was still somewhat limited. In subsequent years, however, brass production expanded, and its use by many clockmakers in Waterbury and its surrounding towns grew as well. That area of Connecticut, including Waterbury and neighboring towns like Plymouth, Terryville, and Thomaston, was indeed a large clockmaking hub, and the towns of Terryville and Thomaston are both named after prominent clockmakers, Eli Terry and Seth Thomas.