Description

Timby’s Solar Timepiece, by L. E. Whiting, Saratoga Springs, NY, USA, circa 1865.

Annular paper dial around the globe showing the hours and minutes in Arabic numerals, a second enamelled metal dial showing the tens of minutes in Arabic numerals, mechanical brass movement, in a walnut case.

The globe signed: Joslin’s six inch Terrestrial Globe Boston Gilman Joslin 1860.

Height. : 68 cm.

Width : 38.5 cm.

Depth : 18 cm.

Invented by Theodore Timby, and manufactured by Dr. Lewis E. Whiting.

US Patent No. 39,183 (July 7, 1863).

Theodore Ruggles Timby (5 April 1819 – 9 November 1909).

For similar Timby solar timepieces see the collections of:

Smithsonian Behring Centre, Washington, DC, ID Number ME.317034.

New York State Museum, Albany, NY. Part of the Oechsle Clock Collection.

The Hoffman Clock Museum, Newark, NY.

NAWCC Museum, Columbia, PA, Catalog Number 85.43.3

An Empire in Time, Clocks and Clock Makers of Upstate New York, G. Russell Oechsle & Helen Boyce, pp. 136-138.

The annual report of the American Institute, New York City, 1867-68, describes the Timby timepiece as, “a miniature world or model of the earth, put in motion, making a revolution once in twenty-four hours, moved by a superior time movement, requiring to be wound once in eight days”.