Aaron Lufkin Dennison facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Aaron Lufkin Dennison
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | March 6, 1812 Freeport, Maine, U.S.
|
| Died | January 9, 1895 (aged 82) West Bromwich, England
|
| Occupation | Watchmaker, businessman |
| Spouse(s) |
Charlotte Ware Foster
(m. 1840) |
| Signature | |
.png){kind=small} |
|
Aaron Lufkin Dennison (March 6, 1812 – January 9, 1895) was an amazing American watchmaker and clever businessman. He started many important companies that changed how watches and other products were made!
Contents
Aaron's Early Life and Clever Ideas
Aaron Dennison was born in Freeport, Maine. His family later moved to Brunswick, Maine. His dad, Andrew Dennison, was a shoemaker and also taught music.
Even as a kid, Aaron was busy earning money. He carried heavy loads for builders, looked after animals, and worked as a clerk. He also cut and sold wood. Before he turned 18, he worked in his father's shoe shop. There, he had a smart idea: instead of making shoes one by one, why not make them in groups? This was an early sign of his innovative thinking!
Learning to Make Watches
Becoming a Watchmaker's Apprentice
In 1830, when Aaron was 18, he started learning from a clockmaker named James Cary in Brunswick. This was his apprenticeship. During this time, he wanted to find ways to make watch parts faster. He thought about making a machine that could cut many clock wheels at once.
Moving to Boston for More Training
At 21, Aaron decided not to become a partner with Cary. Instead, he moved to Boston. He wanted to learn from the very best watch repairers. He worked for three months without pay at a jewelry store called Currier & Trott. He stayed there for five more months, earning wages.
In 1834, Aaron opened his own watch repair business. But after two years, he closed it. He then got a job with Jones, Low & Ball, where he worked until 1839. Here, he learned the special ways watchmakers in England and Switzerland made watches.
Exploring Watchmaking in New York
In 1839, Dennison went to New York City. He spent several months with a group of Swiss watchmakers. They taught him different parts of the watchmaking business.
After that, Aaron returned to Boston. He started a new business selling watches, tools, and materials, and also doing repairs. During this time, he invented the Dennison Combined Gauge. This tool helped measure watch parts like mainsprings.
Aaron's Family Life
In 1840, Aaron married Charlotte Ware Foster. She was from Massachusetts. They had five children together: Charlotte Elizabeth, Alice, Edward Boardman, Ethie Gilbert, and Franklin.
Starting a Paper Box Business
Aaron also helped his younger brother, Eliphalet Whorf Dennison, start a business. First, they tried a jewelry store, but it didn't work out. Then they thought about farming silk.
Their third idea, suggested by Aaron, was to make paper boxes for jewelry stores. This business was a big success! However, Aaron left it because he was more interested in making watches. His brother Eliphalet continued the paper box company, which grew into the Avery Dennison Corporation that still exists today.
Building the First American Watch Factories
The Idea for Interchangeable Parts
Around 1840, while repairing watches, Aaron started dreaming about making them himself. After years of thinking, he came up with a plan and even built a small model. By 1845, Aaron decided to use interchangeable parts. This meant making many identical parts that could be used in any watch, instead of crafting each watch by hand. This was a revolutionary idea for watches!
Partnering with Edward Howard
In 1849, Dennison shared his plan with Edward Howard, who was a partner in a company called Howard & Davis. Howard liked the idea. With money from Howard & Davis and Howard's father-in-law, Samuel Curtis, they started a new company in 1850. Aaron Dennison was the only one who truly knew about watchmaking.
They built a new factory next to the Howard & Davis factory in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Their new company was called Dennison, Howard & Davis.
Challenges and Successes
Aaron traveled to England to buy parts that couldn't be made in America. He also hired skilled watchmakers and learned how to gild (put a thin layer of gold on) brass watch plates. When he returned, he designed machines and made a model of the first watch. However, this first watch didn't keep time accurately, and the machines didn't work well. Aaron later admitted he wasn't good at building machines. Also, he couldn't gild the plates correctly.
In 1852, two skilled men, Charles Moseley and N. P. Stratton, joined the company. While the machines were being fixed, Stratton designed a new 30-hour watch. He also went to England to learn the right way to gild. After these improvements, they finally started making and selling watches!
The Boston Watch Company
In 1854, the company moved to a new factory in Waltham, Massachusetts. They changed their name to the Boston Watch Company. Aaron Dennison was the factory superintendent. They made watches there until the company faced financial trouble in early 1857.
New Watchmaking Ventures
After the Bankruptcy
After the Boston Watch Company had problems, it split up. Edward Howard took most of the machines and skilled workers back to Roxbury and started the Howard Watch Company. The factory buildings and large machines in Waltham were sold to Royal E. Robbins. He restarted watchmaking under the name Tracy Baker & Company.
Aaron Dennison stayed in Waltham as the head of the mechanical department. But in 1861, Robbins let him go because he felt Aaron wasn't focusing on his duties.
The Tremont Watch Company
In 1864, Aaron Dennison and A. O. Bigelow started the Tremont Watch Company in Boston. Their idea was to make small, complex parts like escapements (which control the watch's ticking) in Switzerland. This was because skilled workers there earned less. The larger parts and final assembly would be done in America.
So, Dennison went to Zurich, Switzerland. He organized the making and shipping of watch parts to Tremont.
In 1866, the company directors decided to move the factory to Melrose and make entire watches there, without asking Aaron. Because of this, Dennison left the company. The Melrose Watch Company later failed in 1870.
Moving to England
In February 1871, Aaron moved from Zurich to England. He put together some watches using parts from Switzerland and plates from Tremont. He then helped set up the Anglo-American Watch Company in Birmingham. This company used machines and parts from the Melrose company. In 1874, the company's name changed to the English Watch Manufacturing Company, and it seems Aaron left around that time.
The Dennison Watch Case Company
Around 1862, Aaron Dennison started a new business in Birmingham, England. This company made watch cases. They even supplied cases to the London office of the Waltham Watch Company.
In 1879, Alfred Wigley joined Aaron, and they formed the company Dennison, Wigley & Company. After Aaron Dennison passed away in 1895, his son Franklin became a partner. This company was very successful! In 1905, it was renamed the Dennison Watch Case Company, and it continued to make watch cases until 1967.
