Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 265, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1915 — COLLECTING OF TIMEPIECES IS INVENTOR’S HOBBY [ARTICLE]

COLLECTING OF TIMEPIECES IS INVENTOR’S HOBBY

Wealthy Retired Brooklyn Man Has Rare Lot of Watches and Clocks.

1,100 TICK-TOCK TOGETHER

Members of Family Take Turns Winding Up the One-Year Family Clock — One Clock Upon Which Swiss Spent His Entire Life.

New York. —The largest private collection of clocks and watches in the world is housed in the home of James Arthur, a wealthy retired machinery inventor of Brooklyn. The mansion, built by the late William H; Hill, long has be’en one of the show places of the borough on account of its hardwood panelings and other decorations. Every room and hall is treated differently, and many of the rarest foreign and American woods have been employed. One room is finished in black birch, another in hazel, a third in mahogany, and so on. Another of Mr. Arthur’s “hobbles” is cabinetmaking, and so the Hill residence fell in precisely with his fancy, and he bought it partly as a museum for his timepieces, many of which are encased in the costliest of woods, matching or contrasting with the paneled walls and ceilings. There are in the collection about 122 clocks and 1,000 watches. The clocks, of which 44 are “grandfathers, ’ are scattered throughout the entire mansion, and 21—one in each room — are kept going constantly. The others are always" ready to go. Cases Also Notable. Not included in the collection itself are several massive hardwood cases of African rosewood, marble wood, etc., made by Mr. Arthur with his own hands, and which stand there in silence, awaiting the day when their owner shall have designed or invented special works for them that will register in some unusual way the flight of time. He has never sold a clock or a watch, nor has he ever given one away except to his own children, for their separate homes, when they marry. In the main parlor is the first complete clock ever made by Mr. Arthur —made in 1897. It is a ten-day timepiece, with two 40-pound weights, and a compensating pendulum of aluminum and steel. One dial is in the case and above it are three other dials, showing the way in which the machinery is arranged in a triangle tower clock. The works as well as the case are the personal handiwork of Mr. Arthur, and the, actual cost Is estimated at over $1,200. The "Family Clock." The “Arthur family clock,” also made in every part by the head of the house, runs a year at one winding. The works are in a case of dark mahogany. The seven-inch spring is the largest in the United States, and the ticking arrangement, technically known as “escapement,” is of the astronomical dead-beat pattern and is Jeweled with diamonds. This family clock was started by Mr. Arthur in 1906, and has been ceremoniously wound up. once each year ever since then, each time by a different member of the family. The name of the winder each year and the date are engraved by Mr. Arthur from year to year on a brass plate set in the case. The clock actually will run thirteen months without rewinding, he says. Also, he adds, it is contained in a case within a case, and is so thoroughly protected from the weather that it will last, unimpaired, indefinitely. “Five hundred years from now,” declared Mr. Arthur to a New York World reporter, “this clock will run Just as well as it does npw.” The outer case is of plain dark mahogany with dark oak panels. A Glass Plate Clock. One of the curiosities of the collection is a “glass plate clock,” so called because all the wheels —there are only three in the whole mechanism —are pivoted in a single heavy plate of glass. There is no framework. The instrument was made in France and is of unknown age. There are only two others like it —one in London and one at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers in Paris. The large wheel has 300 teeth. The day of the week and also of the month are shown on the dial, which is enameled on copper. Another clock has a brass skeleton fraipe in exact Imitation of the Gothic monument to Sir Walter Scott in Edinburgh. The movement is of the chain-and-fusee type, the wheel for the chain being cone shaped. The clock was built in Edinburgh many years ago tor a priest, who brought it to the United States. Unique Repeater. Also in the collection ta a five-min-ute repeater clock, designed and made by Mr. Arthur —machinery, oak case and all. A big bell rings the hours, and If a certain chain is pulled the bell will ring the last preceding hour, and a smaller bell clinks once for each five-minute period since the last hour. Thus, if it is 0:56 a. m., the big bell gongs ten times and then the little bell also rings eleven times, indicating that it is within five minutes of. 11a.m.

The figures on the glass dial are cut out clear through the metal, which makes them show very distinctly in almost any light on account of the perfect blackness behind them. In Mr. Arthur’s bedroom is a get-up clock of his own Invention. The face is two feet in diameter and the hands, covered by an aluminum paint, show plainly across the room if there is any moonlight. The wheels and dial are of New Jersey dogwood. The pendulum, which is over five feet long and has a 27-pound bob, beats once every one and one-fourth second a stately measure. A Fabian Robins Clock. Standing beside the get-up timekeeper are two tall and beautifully inlaid clocks, one made by the celebrated Fabian Robins in London, in 1695, the other by the noted lan Gobels in Amsterdam in 1767. There are only ten of Gobels’ clocks now in existence, so far as known. The Robins masterpiece has unique handmade lacework steel hands. Though the works were made in London, the inlaid wood case was contrived in Holland, the task occupying a year. One of the clocks downstairs has a Gothic dome of dark mahogany, made by Mr. Arthur, and the instrument is surmounted by a solid brass bell, made long ago in France or Germany, in copy of a famous cathedral bell in Moscow. Hour First, Then Quarters. In a mummy coffin case of dark oak, of his own construction, 7% feet high. Mr. Arthur has put the works of an old French clock, made in the Department of Jura, near Switzerland. It strikes the hour first, then the quarters. Most modern big clocks, including the one at Madison square, strike the quarters first. The only thing new about the machinery is the brass face, which Mr. Arthur designed. There are two carriage-spring clocks in the house. The spring is simply the lower part of a very diminutive laminated carriage spring, lying at the bottom of the clock, with its ends turned upward. The spring is of steel and runs the mechanism for a month without rewinding. Among the ormolu clocks is one of inlaid brass and tortoise shell, in designs which include singing birds and dancing women. Each number on the dial is on a separate plaque enameled on copper. There is a French buhl eight-day clock in an old case finely inlaid with ivory and tortoise shell. One of the large timepieces has an aluminum dial and a heavy brass pendulum jeweled with agates. Distinctive Hour Hand. Scarely without exception the hands on the clocks in the Arthur collection consist of a spade (for the hours) and a pointer, in contrast to the common American plan of two

pointers. The use of the spade pattern. Mr. Arthur says, greatly facilitates telling the time at a glance. A fine example of a Howard eightday clock of Boston is contained in a case of unknown, unsurpassed American workmanship, so perfectly jointed, in dark mahogany, that no one ordinary man, unaided, could have done it. A new dial and hands have been added by Mr. Arthur. There are several examples in the collection of the ancient clocks whose weights, on cotton cords, were pulled up instead of being wound. Among them is a one-day Dutch timepiece with a hand-painted dial. The works are 175 years old. Some early American owner tore off the original case, and substituted one of Pennsylvania cherry wood.. Made for a King. On one of the mantels stands a French clock made for one of the oldtime kings. It has a porcelain dial and is topped by a bronze elephant, remarkable in that it is entirely unlike an elephant in every single feature —legs, trunk, mouth, joints, ears, toes, everything—although resembling an elephant as a whole when looked at from a distance. Ampng the Japanese timepieces are a number of long, narrow wall clocks that look like lizards frozen straight and stiff. The hands of these clocks are fastened to weights and move up and down, marking the hours, which are arranged in a line, one above the other. There are three elaborately designed Japanese clocks in cases, one yard in height. Mr. Arthur has a number of curious one-minute remontoir (rewinding), springless clocks, with weights and compensating pendulums. Made by a Blacksmith. One of Mr. Arthur’s valued antiquities is an old church timepiece. Tradition has handed it down as the “English blacksmith's clock.” It has the very earliest application of the pendulum, which in this case is less than three inches long, is hung on the verge or pallet axle, and beats 222 times a minute. This clock is at least two hundred and fifty years old. The wheels are of cast brass, but their teeth were laboriously filed by hand. All the staffs, pinions and pivots were filed by hand, as also were the four screws. It is a complete striking clock, made by a man so poor that he had only his anvil, hammer and file. There is only one hand, and the weights are hung by cords and have to be pulled up. Among the other interesting timepieces in the collection are a fourfaced chimney clock a yard high, on which a man in Switzerland spent his entire life; a French clock by Poligny of Jura; a gilt clock in glass, the pendulum bob of which is a child swinging in and out instead of across; - an eight-day clock, 250 years old, made with iron plates, with a dial of melted pewter spoons; a French clock which has a dinner plate dial and no hole for winding.