Everything about Aaron Lufkin Dennison totally explained
Aaron Lufkin Dennison (
March 6,
1812 –
January 9,
1895) was an
American watchmaker born in
Freeport, Maine.
Life
Upon a three year
apprenticeship with
James Cary, he went to work as a journeyman watchmaker in
Boston in
1833. There he followed the advice of
Tubal Hone, a fellow American watchmaker, and discovered inaccuracies in the workmanship and construction of even the best hand-made
watches. He often visited the
Springfield armory, predicting that the manufacture of watches would soon be reduced to as much system and perfection as the manufacture of
firearms. Around
1840 he invented the
Dennison Standard Gauge and then began to develop the "Interchangeable System" (the
American System of Watch Manufacturing).
Meanwhile, in
1844, Dennison, who was then also engaged in the
jewelry business in Boston, decided that he could make paper boxes better than the
imported products. He bought supplies of box board and cover paper and took them to the family home in
Brunswick, Maine, where his father, Col.
Andrew Dennison, cut out the first boxes, and his sisters covered them. He developed the box business successfully, but five years later turned it over to his younger brother,
Eliphalet Whorf Dennison, in order to pursue watch manufacturing. (The Dennison Manufacturing Company, in
Framingham, Massachusetts, became the
Avery Dennison Corporation with headquarters in
Pasadena, California, upon a merger in
1990).
In
1849, Dennison partnered with the
clockmaker Edward Howard to manufacture interchangeable movement parts, to enhance quality and lower the price of watches. With
capital from
mirror manufacturer Samuel Curtis, they started in
1850. In
1854 a new
factory was built on the banks of the
Charles River, in
Waltham, Massachusetts, The company eventually became the
Waltham Watch Company, the first company to manufacture interchangeable movement parts, as well as assemble and sell at affordable prices reliable watches,
Railroad chronometers,
8-Day Clocks and other
timers in the U.S.A.
Dennison moved to
Europe in the final years of his life. After adventures in
Switzerland he moved to
England where he founded a very successful watch case company. He died in 1895, in
Birmingham.
Sources
- Reprint of The American Jeweler, February 1888, by Greg R. Frauenhoff, January 2003
- "Seventy-Five Years" Company edited booklet, Dennison Manufacturing Co, Framingham, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
- "Watch Case Makers of England; NAWCC Supplement 20", Philip T. Priestly, NAWCC, Spring 1994
Further Information
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