Project Gutenberg's The Auburndale Watch Company, by Edwin A. Battison

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Title: The Auburndale Watch Company
First American Attempt Toward the Dollar Watch

Author: Edwin A. Battison

Release Date: September 8, 2009 [EBook #29934]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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CONTRIBUTIONS FROM

THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY:

PAPER 4

THE AUBURNDALE WATCH COMPANY

_Edwin A. Battison_

THE INVENTION 51
DEVELOPING THE INVENTION 53
THE NEW SPONSOR 57
SUCCESS AND FAILURE 64
THE LESSON 67

_By Edwin A. Battison_

THE AUBURNDALE WATCH COMPANY:

_First American Attempt Toward the Dollar Watch_

_The life of the pioneer has always been arduous. Not all succeed,
and many disappear leaving no trace on the pages of history. Here,
painstaking search has uncovered enough of the record to permit us
to review the errors of design and manufacture that brought failure
to the first attempt to produce a really cheap pocket watch._

_This paper is based on a study of the patent model of the
Auburndale rotary and other products of the company in the
collections of the National Museum, and of other collections,
including that of the author. The study comprises part of the
background research for the hall of timekeeping in the Museum of
History and Technology._

THE AUTHOR: _Edwin A. Battison is associate curator of mechanical
and civil engineering, Museum of History and Technology, in the
Smithsonian Institution's United States National Museum._

The idea of a machine-made watch with interchangeable parts had been in
the minds of many men for a long time. Several attempts had been made to
translate this conception into a reality. Success crowned the efforts of
those working near Boston, Massachusetts, in the 1850's. The work done