Chauncey Jerome

Chauncey Jerome was a Connecticut clockmaker and manufacturer whose working life helped transform American clocks from costly craft objects into widely distributed household goods. After learning the trade around Eli Terry’s expanding operations, Jerome developed his own factories and became known for inexpensive brass movements and large-scale production. History of the American Clock Business, issued in New Haven in 1860, combines an industrial history with Jerome’s account of apprenticeship, invention, factory growth, commercial setbacks, and public life. He wrote as a mechanic describing a field he had observed from within, not as a detached historian. The complete title also presents the volume as the life of Chauncey Jerome written by himself, making autobiography central to its structure. Library metadata and New England historical writing connect the book to a career that rose to production measured in hundreds of thousands of clocks before business failure. The work preserves both technical memory and a manufacturer’s candid view of risk, ambition, and change.