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Focused Question: How had the American Industrial Revolution impacted capitalism, labor, and society in 1800s Waltham, Massachusetts?
This lesson's primary source document:
The Factory with 5700 Windows! ( photo)
The trail of watchmaking runs from the handcraft era to the ebauche system of mass production to the mechanization of watchmaking to Waltham, Massachusetts with the industrializing of watch production.
Waltham Watch Works, Waltham, MA in 1875
* Useful prior knowledge resource: PDF of Swinton, John. A Model Factory in a Model City: A Social Study of the Waltham Watch Company.
New York City, NY: Press of Bowan, Green & Adams, 1887. E-book free.
Using this illustrated collage, what might we learn about the work conditions and the product being made in this factory? * (help with prior knowledge)
- Analyzing the many sections of the collage, gather information to substantiate your assumptions about the work environment and the people employed here.
- Speculate on the physical structure - - how does the architecture support the work going on in this factory?
- Speculate on the working conditions. (the pace; the available light; workspace, room atmosphere, and overall work environment including safety, noise, air quality, light, worker interaction)
- Statistical speculation about the average age and gender of those employed here? (men, women, children)
- Speculate on the specialized skills that male workers and female workers brought to their tasks?
- Speculate on the types of tools and equipment appearing to be in use.
- Describe how power appears to be generated for the completion of the tasks required.
Student performance of understanding - Written Language Application
- Assume the persona for an individual working in one of the departments in this factory. In the first person, recount your daily routine in oral interaction with the personas of other students or in diary form. (Examples: Westward expansion characters | Student Writings Revolutionary Period) | Student slave narratives
- Expand the activity to include a week as the persona.
* For Your Information: Waltham Watch Factory Departments and Rooms:
- Dynamo Room, Switch Board, Gas Generator Room, Gas Purifier Room and Drafting Room
- Machine Department
- Full Plate Department, 3/4 Plate Department
- Metal Rolling Room, Punching Room, Tempering Room
- Main Spring Room
- Flat Steel Department, Office, Milling and Polishing
- Staff and Pivot Polishing Room and Turning Room
- Pinion and Wheel Cutting, Automatic Staff Turing Machines, Automatic Pinion Cutting Machines, Balance Making Room
- Automatic Drilling and Tapping Machines, Screw Making Room, Automatic Screw Making Machines, Automatic Roughing Machines
- Jewel Making Room and Escapement Making Room
- Hair Spring Making Room, Balance and Hair Spring Vibrating Room, Jeweling Room
- Gilding Room and Nickel Finishing Room
- Dial Making Room, Dial Firing and Dial Painting Room
- Finishing Room
- Inspecting Room, Regulating Room, Temperature Adjusting Room, and Position Adjusting Room
- Packing Room and Repairing Room
- Carpenters' Shop and Paint Shop
- Counting Room, Superintendent's Office and Director's Office
- Dining Room, and Employee Boarding House
Content Sources
- Waltham Watch Works. Illustrated London News, June 19, 1875
- Swinton, John. A Model Factory in a Model City: A Social Study of the Waltham Watch Company. New York City, NY: Press of Bowan, Green & Adams, 1887. E-book free.
- Preview the electronic version of "The American Watchmaking Factories and Their Tools" by Mr. Ch. Houriet (1895), official delegate of the Swiss Confederation to the Chicago Exhibition in 1893.
- Online version of "History of Early Watchmaking in America" by E. A. Marsh (PDF), Master Mechanic American Waltham Watch Company of Waltham, Mass. (Approved by R. E Robbins; Appended to by D. F. Appleton) [Baker Library, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA]
- Moore, Charles W. Timing a Century: History of the Waltham Watch Company. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1945.
Bibliography:
- Moore, Charles W. Timing a Century: History of the Waltham Watch Company. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1945.
- Christianson, David. Timepieces: Masterpieces of Chronometry. Buffalo, NY: Firefly Books, 2002.
- Cutmore, M. Watches 1850-1980. London: David & Charles, 1989.
- Sanderson, Edmund L. Waltham as a Precinct of Watertown and as a Town, 1630-1884. Waltham, MA: Waltham Historical Society, Inc., 1936.
- Sanderson, Edmund L. Waltham Industries: A Collection of Sketches of Early Firms and Founders. Waltham Historical Society, 1956.
- Literacy source: "The Grandfathers Clock" by Henry Work Clay.
[ Revolutionary Period | The City as a Classroom | Abolitionism | Student Slave Narratives | Rev. Period Index ]
Copyright © 2012 Marjorie Duby - Inquiry Unlimited - All Rights Reserved. - Last modified: February 12, 2017.
