There were 155 registrants, 39 vendors occupying 48 tables, four chapter tables, and 13 Silent Auction Items. Registration began at 7:30 AM with nametags available for pre-registered members. At 8:00 AM, the Mart opened to general entry. As usual, the Silent Auction was from 8:30 AM to 10:15 AM, and a fee of $3.00 per item, multiple items for one bid to count as one item, was charged. Throughout the meeting until the President’s lunch-time message, the 50-50 raffle tickets, (50% to winner and 50% to Chapter 8) were available at the Registration Table, the Auction Table, and from council members.

At 9:00 AM., Tom McIntyre gave a presentation, “Colonial and Federal Watches,” that showed some watches may have been made in the colonies as early as 1725. Certainly there is strong evidence of local content such as case and dial work during the colonial period. The first well documented watches made mostly in America are those from the Goddards, that is, Luther and later Luther and, Parley, his son. These date from around 1812 to somewhat later. Tom was elected 2nd Vice President of the NAWCC in 2003. With the reorganization of the NAWCC in 2003 and his election to the 2005-2009 Board of Directors, Tom continues to be involved in the development of the organization.

Ross (left) and Dave Hochstrasser

The 10:30 AM presentation, “Boston’s Custom House Tower Clock through the Years,” was given by Dave and Ross Hochstrasser. They restored the long-neglected Howard No. 3 tower clock in Boston’s Custom House in 1987. Since that time, they have been charged with maintaining it. They reviewed the restoration process, discussed the current use of the building, and the ongoing maintenance of the clock movement and dials. Many interesting points were stated, such as that the twice daily, electrically wound replacement Howard movement installed in 1950 was not powerful enough for the original wooden hands (replaced with a new set of hands consisting of composite over a styrofoam core) and ¼-inch of snow on the hands will stop the clock  Dave Hochstrasser has a background in computer science and, since 1988, has been self-employed in the restoration and maintenance of clocks at his business, The Clock Shop, located in Hanover, Massachusetts. Also, Ross Hochstrasser is self-employed in the restoration of antique clocks. He has a background in electronics, radio, and radar.

John Losch		Russ Oechsle

After lunch and comments from the Chapter President, Larry Chelmow, the 12:45 PM, Luncheon Program, “Out of Obscurity: The Search for Joel Curtis - Wood Works Tall Clock Maker of Upstate, New York," by Russ Oechsle of Homer, N.Y. He gave a powerpoint presentation about Joel Curtis who, in terms of longevity and production, was one of the more successful producers of wood works tall clock in the 1810-1830 period. One of his design innovations was trying different alarm mechanisms. Research on maker Joel Curtis of Cairo, NY, reveals much about the history of the early wood works tall clock makers in both Connecticut and New York, and the marketing of their clocks in Upstate New York. Russ Oechsle is a Fellow of the NAWCC, President of Cogcounters, a Director of the Tower Clock Chapter, former president of Chapter 55 (central New York), and serves on the Board of the American Clock and Watch Museum. He is the author, with Helen Boyce, of “An Empire in Time”, a book describing the clocks and clockmakers of upstate New York.

Public Project: Les Tyrala recently donated the restoration of a Seth Thomas movement that had been fitted to a custom-made case about 1940 and given to the Quincy Historical Society, Quincy, MA in 1977. What is unique about the clock is that the case was carved from a single block of granite, and shows off the ability of the skilled stonecutter. Due to the quality of granite found in Quincy, the stone was quarried here for almost a century and, in fact, Quincy was known as “Granite City” until about 1955 when the last of the quarries ceased operation. Now Quincy is known as “The City of Presidents” (both John Adams and John Quincy Adams lived here). [click picture for larger view]

New Members: Peter Banach, Robert Beach, Terry Becker, John Bieback, Walter Blazenwicz, Edward Buehler, Christine Buhr, Norman Burnell, William Butler, Mario Cardinale, Gregory Chioffi, Alfred Crudale, Bryan Cunningham, Robert Davenport, David DeBlois, Richard Dodge, Francis Enos, Robert Fink, Michael Frusztajer, Justin Gordon, Mark Greene, Richard Griswold, Nicholas Harvey, Kriste Jean Haupt, Charles Hemminger, William Lance, Kenneth Launie, Jack Macintyre, Louis Maffei, Alex Maxwell, Ted McCahan, Mark Mendzela, James Moneghan Jr, Steve Murphy, Frances Nugent, John Rockefeller, David Rodriguez, Ernest Ross, Richard Sawyer, Henri St Louis, Raymond Stillman, John Strohecker, Gerald Szai, Stephen Wallace and Lawrence Wohl.

The Silent Auction table (8: 30 to 10:15) - enables you to sell a few items without the need for a table:

Fill out a slip at the table with your minimum price you will accept for the item. Members can then write in their bids during the course of the auction.

The cost to you as a seller is only $3.00 PER ITEM. The charge is payable in advance and applies whether item sells or not (multiple items for one bid count as one item).

AND
At at the auction table you can buy a ticket for the 50-50 raffle.

SUITCASE CLOCK REPAIR COURSES
Victor Kozakevich, director of Chapter 8, manages the NAWCC Suitcase Program.  If you are interested, contact him at a meeting or at 617-491-4608 (email: ).

Chapter Contacts:
If you any of you have a question or wish to contact someone in the chapter, get in touch with any of these people and they will get your message to the right person if they cannot help you.

Return to Ch 8's Home Page.

The right to download and store or output the articles in Price-Less Ads is granted to users for their personal use only. Any other reproduction, by any means - mechanical or electronic - without the express written permission of Price-Less Ads is strictly prohibited.