Precision weight-driven regulator clock · United States
E. Howard & Co. Astronomical Regulator Clocks
Needs researchRepresentative of American high-grade precision regulator production used by observatories, railroads and watch-inspection bureaus needing an accurate time reference against which pocket watches could be checked.
Technical facts
- Escapement
- Deadbeat, typical of precision regulator practice
- Drive
- Weight-driven with a mercury or gridiron-style compensation pendulum in the highest grades
Historical significance
- Representative of American high-grade precision regulator production used by observatories, railroads and watch-inspection bureaus needing an accurate time reference against which pocket watches could be checked.
- As with other 'representative production family' entries in this dataset, individual surviving Howard regulators vary in specification and require object-specific documentation rather than a single generic description.
Background
E. Howard and Company of Boston, active since 1842, produced high-quality precision clocks for applications where accuracy was vital, such as scientific observations or the regulation of other timekeepers. One example in the National Museum of American History, made in 1874, distributed time signals to subscribers of the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company in Philadelphia. For that service it was fitted with electrical assemblies designed to interrupt a telegraph circuit.
Written from the sources listed under Sources (makers, museums, auction houses and specialist publications are paraphrased, not reproduced); each statement was checked against the cited text, and claims a maker makes about its own work are attributed to it.
Construction and mechanism
- Another Howard astronomical regulator in the museum has a mahogany case with burr walnut and a pendulum of metal and mercury.
Photographs
Photographs are illustrative examples of the type, not necessarily the exact object described. Verify details against the source file page.
Sources & references
- E. Howard and Company astronomical regulator, National Museum of American History, retrieved 2026-10-30 (paraphrased; text © the publisher)
- Howard regulator, National Museum of American History, retrieved 2026-10-30 (paraphrased; text © the publisher)
- NAWCC Bulletin, articles on E. Howard & Co. regulator production
Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.