Annual Willard House Workshop and Luncheon
Saturday, May 18, 2024
Willard House & Clock Museum
11 Willard Street, North Grafton, MA 01536
(508)-839-3500
https://willardhouse.org/
Join us for the May Workshop that will be at the Willard House & Clock Museum in North Grafton, MA. This is our annual workshop day, so there will be no silent auction or mart. There will be a show and tell, so bring your favorite item. There will be a luncheon and plenty of horological shop talk with other members. The day also features tours of the Willard House & Clock Museum.
9:15 a.m. Registration & Refreshments.
9:45 a.m. General introductions.
10:00 a.m. Chris Carey - “Nemo enim fere saltat sobrius, nisi forte insanity”
"For almost no one dances sober, unless he happens to be mad.”
For those insane members who have seen “Ab Ovo Usque Ad Mala” but have been disappointed that we did not quite reach the apple, Chris will discuss changing a friction balance staff in a Waltham Model 1899/1908, a model that he has been going on and on about for the last several years.
In the process of replacing the balance staff Chris will talk about truing the balance with truing calipers, adjusting the end-shake, using the pivot lathe, handling the hairspring, and putting the watch in beat.
11:00 am. Rich Pompeo - "Henry Abbott and his invention, the Calculagraph."
This machine conquered the need for keeping track and printing elapsed time easily and accurately for business. His most prominent customer was American Telephone and Telegraph who utilized these machines for keeping track of a long-distance phone call’s elapsed time.
Rich will bring the first Calculagraph that Abbott built in 1888 as well as several transitional models and literature for folks to look at as well as a small slide show.
Following Rich Pompeo's presentation, Attendees may "Show and Tell" so bring your favorite clock or watch.
12:15 p.m. Buggy Whip Box Lunch
1:00 p.m. Robert Cheney - The Charles N. Grichar Collection of Horology is Coming to Willard!
Our speaker, Robert C. Cheney, Executive Director of the Willard House and Clock Museum and Star Fellow in the NAWCC will give a slide presentation and discussion of the recently announced gift to Willard of the Charles N. Grichar Collection of Horology.
The gift valued approximately $16,000,000, is approximately half in horology: the finest collection of Willard clocks and timepieces and E. Howard & Co. astronomical regulators known. The other half, an endowment to build a proper building to show the collection and fund its care. This is perhaps the most generous gift to a small non-profit ever made in New England.
The donor, Charles N. Grichar, Houston, Texas is a Willard House and Clock Museum trustee and its treasurer and a long-time friend of Robert Cheney. Perfection in form and condition was the primary guiding principle in assembling this collection and our speaker knows of no other collection of this size which can boast of such remarkable attention to condition and provenance. For students of horology, it will be a remarkable teaching tool.
In addition, there will be about 300 gold watches for the pocket and 125 of the finest timekeepers for the wrist. In short, there will be plenty to look at for the watch collector. The combination of Howard clocks and wrist watches greatly expands Willard’s focus for a new audience. And let us not forget, that Edward Howard of Boston was apprenticed to Aaron Willard, Jr. and thus this gift expands our Willard story right into the 20th century.
2:15 p.m. Tour Willard House & Clock Museum !!
Register Here
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