n founding
an industry that has brought to the United States a goodly portion of
its business prosperity. Seth Thomas, Silas Hoadley, Chauncey Jerome are
names that will not soon be forgotten; Terryville and Thomaston, two
clockmaking centers, testify to that. As for Jerome--it was he who
experimented with the painting of decorative glass and evolved that
variety having a bronzed effect."

"Oh, I know what you mean," interrupted Christopher with quick
intelligence. "Our kitchen clock has glass like that in the door. And
meantime, while Connecticut was doing so much, what were the other
states up to?"

"Let me think a moment," replied the Scotchman, half closing his eyes.
"Well, Rhode Island never furnished much aid along the line of
clockmaking; her talents seemed to lie in the direction of spinning
yarn, making thread, and weaving textiles. What clocks she needed were
imported or made by hand by local silversmiths. Pennsylvania, however,
contributed her part. David Rittenhouse of Philadelphia was an
exceedingly skillful clockmaker who not only had to his credit many fine
timepieces but also some very complicated and remarkable ones.
Christopher Sower, too, was a Pennsylvania man not to be overlooked."

"Christopher, eh?" the boy repeated.

"Yes. There are some exceedingly distinguished Christophers in history,
remember. You and Columbus are not the only ones," asserted McPhearson,
with dancing eyes. "This Christopher Sower, now, could turn not alone
his hand but his well-trained brain in a variety of worthy directions.
To begin with, before he settled in Germantown he had taken a doctor's
degree in an Old World medical university. Therefore after becoming
established on his American farm he not only tilled the land but he
doctored his neighbors. In addition he took up clockmaking,
paper-making, and the printing of books. And as if these vocations, or
avocations, did not keep him busy enough, he supplemented them by trying
to improve the manufacture of cast-iron stoves. Even he himself,
perhaps, felt it necessary to offer apology for dabbling in so many
trades, for when he came to put his name on his clocks he spelled it
_Souers_."

The lad smiled.

"Then there was also in Pennsylvania a friend of Benjamin Franklin's,
Edward Duffield, who made good clocks. Meantime in New Hampshire both
Timothy Chandler of Concord and Luther Smith of Keene were successfully
plying the clockmaking trade and creating beautiful old