Anniversary clocks are a special type of timepiece whose movement is controlled
by what is known as a torsion pendulum. Rather than the back and
forth tick-tock style, a torsion pendulum is a weighted wheel with metallic
balls which are usually ornately decorated. This wheel rotates whilst
suspended on a thin wire or cord which is referred to as the torsion spring.
As the wheel rotares, the energy is effectively stored in the twisting
spring, to a point where the spring eventually has enought energy to slow
down, then reverse the direction of the rotating pendulum. The process
then begins again, with the spring first releasing its energy until the
twist has gone, then, as the rotating pendulum continues to rotate by its
own momentum, storing the energy in the reverse-direction twist.
The idea of the torsion pendulum itself was first patented by the inventor
Robert Leslie in 1793, but the 1st actual torsion pendulum clock was invented
and patented by Aaron Crane in New Jersey, USA, almost 50 years later in
1841. The Anniversary clock started ticking here - or umm, rotating.
The torsion pendulum design allowed these timepieces to run far longer
between 1st winding and the next wind, as a result of the fact that the
slow rotation of the pendulum uses a very small amount of energy.
In 1852 Silas B Terry from Plymouth in Connecticut, USA obtained a patent
for the idea of a torsion pendulum marine clock. Silas was the son
of Eli Terry who was famous for being considered as the first person to
mass produce clocks in the USA. Silas formed the Terryville Manufacturing
Company and built a new factory at Pequabuck, Connecticut, where
he became the manager. Although the torsion pendulum marine clock's
were successfully produced, only few were sold. Silas remained manager
at Terryville until selling his interest in the company in Autumn 1854,
when he returned to his own shop. Sadly, Silas went bankrupt in 1859,
causing his shop and assets to be disposed of. Undefeated and undaunted,
Silas became manager of W.L. Gilbert & Company's clock movement department
in Winsted, Connecticut for around 2 years, after which he moved to Waterbury
in Connecticut where he was similarly employed.
With his superlative skills as a designer and clockmaker, it appears
that working for someone else was not what Silas was truly intersted in,
and in 1867 he created a new concern named the Terry Clock Company with
his 4 sons at Waterbury. Although the company was able to obtain
patents for a number of ideas, it suffered from a severe lack of capital,
and after Silas' death in 1876 ,his sons were only able to keep the business
running until May 1880 when the dread hand of bankruptcy struck once again.
Three of the sons were taken on by an investment group from Pittsfield
who took over the bankrupt business, keeping the name of the Terry Clock
Company, but the business went under and was taken over in 1888 by creditors
who renamed it Russell & Jones Clock Company, and ran the business
for around 4 years.
