The
The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and
Printed Ephemera
Henry Francis du Pont
5105 Kennett Pike, Winterthur,
Delaware 19735
Telephone: 302-888-4600 or 800-448-3883
OVERVIEW OF
THE COLLECTION
Creator: Lewis, Benjamin B.
(Benjamin Bennett), 1818-1890.
Title: Papers,
Dates: 1861-1980, bulk dates
1861-1884.
Call No.: Col. 622
Acc. No.: 01x113
Quantity: 16 items (7 folders)
Location: 18 B 2
BIOGRAPHICAL
STATEMENT
Benjamin Bennett Lewis was the inventor of a
calendar clock. He was born in Athens,
New York, in 1818, and died in Bristol, Connecticut, in May 1890. He had gone to sea in his younger days, and
became captain of a trading vessel. Not
being fond of the sea, however, he settled in Huron, Ohio, around 1844, and
went into the drug and jewelry business.
He tinkered with things, and invented a calendar device which could be
used in clocks. In 1859, Lewis moved to Connecticut, first to Forestville and
then to Bristol, in order to be closer to clock making businesses.
In 1845, while in Ohio, Lewis married Almira Simons
Hutchins (1826-1906). Their son Charles
Standart Lewis (1848-1896) was also an inventor. Their daughter Frances Augusta Lewis (1845-1875)
married George Cyrus Thomas of Brooklyn, New York. Lewis’ invention brought him enough money to
provide very well for his family.
SCOPE AND
CONTENT
Papers relating to the B. B. Lewis’ Patent Perpetual
Calendar Clock, 1861-1980 (bulk, 1861-1884).
Items include an illustrated advertising pamphlet with pictures of
several styles of clocks, assignments of patents, copies of patents issued to
Charles S. Lewis and others, papers relating to a case brought against B. B.
Lewis for infringement of patent, a blank copy of an 1865 income tax form, and
an issue of The Timepiece Journal which reproduces an obituary of Lewis.
ORGANIZATION
The materials are organized by type.
LANGUAGE OF
MATERIALS
The materials are in English.
RESTRICTIONS
ON ACCESS
Collection is open to the public. Copyright restrictions may apply.
PROVENANCE
Gift
of Norman Hascoe of Hascoe Associates, Inc.
ACCESS POINTS
People:
Lewis, Charles S. (Charles
Standart), 1848-1896.
Topics:
B. B. Lewis & Son.
Clock and watch making - Connecticut.
Clocks and watches - Connecticut - Bristol - 19th
century.
Advertisements - Clocks and watches.
Perpetual calendars.
Patents.
Income tax forms.
Clock and watchmakers.
DETAILED
DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION
Location:
All accession numbers begin with 01x113.
Folder 1:
periodical
.1 The Timepiece Journal, vol. 2, no. 2
(winter 1980), with reprint of B.B. Lewis’ obituary from the Bristol Press, May 8, 1890
Folder 2: advertising circular
.2 circular: B. B. Lewis’
Patent Perpetual Calendar Clock (Hartford: Case, Lockwood & Brainard,
1870)
Printed on behalf of
B.B. Lewis & Son; includes four pictures of clocks using Lewis’ perpetual
calendar
Folder 3: patents of B. B. Lewis
.3 articles of agreement between B.B. Lewis, and Elias Burwell
and William W. Carter, Jan. 12, 1861; Lewis conveys to Burwell & Carter the
right to make 5000 calendars and they agree to pay him $1 for each made and
sold; Burwell & Carter agree to sell clocks to Lewis at a certain price;
when the 5000 calendars are sold, then Burwell & Carter will have the right
to renew the contract
.4 Lewis
assigns to himself and Jeremy W. Bliss the right to improvements in his
calendar clock, Feb. 6, 1862
.5 basically
the same information as in the document in .4 above, also dated Feb. 6, 1862;
Printed
form, decorated with an oak tree at the top of the page
.6 Elias
Burwell, formerly of Burwell & Carter, assigns his right to the calendar
clock to B. B. Lewis, March 18, 1862
.7 “contract
with G.W. Brown & Co., June 3, 1862”: Lewis conveys to Brown & Co. the
right to make a top for which he will obtain a patent
.8 “B.B.
Lewis to and with C.S. Lewis and George C. Thomas, assignment and agreement,
dated 1881”: B.B. Lewis assigns a patent dated 1871 to C.S. Lewis and George C.
Thomas, no month, no day, 1881.
Folder 4: lawsuit
.9 Letter: Geo. D. Seymour, New Haven, to B. B. Lewis, Bristol,
July 24, 1884: encloses a patent for a stretching tool which will have bearing
on the case in hand
[see .14
below – probably the patent which is in question]
.10 “Opinion
on the question whether the calendar movement for clocks manufactured by B.B.
Lewis, and of which a sample has been submitted to me, infringes on the
reissued patent of Akins and Burritt no. 3964, original no. 11711,” signed
Henry T. Brown
[see
.13a-c for copy of this patent]
Folder 5:
patents of Charles S. Lewis
.11 pendulum,
patent no. 290,186, dated Dec. 11, 1883;
Printed;
(2 pages, plus one plate)
.12 fare-register, patent no. 504,731, dated
Sept. 12, 1893;
Printed;
(6 pages, plus 3 leaves of plates)
Folder 6:
patents issued to others
.13a-c patent for improvement in calendar-clocks,
issued to William H. Akins and Joseph C. Burritt, no. 11711, reissue no. 3964, Sept.
19, 1854 and Nov. 2, 1869
[see also
.10 above]
.14
improvement in watchmakers’ wheel-stretchers, issued to Royal Cowles, no.
156,207, Oct. 27, 1874
[see also .9
above]
Folder 7:
income tax form
.15a-b blank form for reporting United States
Internal Revenue taxes for 1865, with supplementary form for farmers
.16 photocopy of above