U.S. #3757
10¢ American Clock
American Design

Issue Date: January 24, 2003
City: Tucson, Arizona
Quantity: 150,000,000
Printed By: Ashton-Potter
Printing Method: Photogravure
Perforations: Serpentine Die Cut 11 ¼ x 11
Color: Black, green, yellow

The self-adhesive American Clock stamp is the second issue ...  more

U.S. #3757
10¢ American Clock
American Design

Issue Date: January 24, 2003
City: Tucson, Arizona
Quantity: 150,000,000
Printed By: Ashton-Potter
Printing Method: Photogravure
Perforations: Serpentine Die Cut 11 ¼ x 11
Color: Black, green, yellow

The self-adhesive American Clock stamp is the second issue of the American Design Series that began with the 2002 American Toleware coil stamp. It replaced the 10¢ Red Cloud stamps of 1987-94. The design is from a clock made about 1805 by Simon Willard of Massachusetts.

Using simple hand tools, the early American clockmakers created masterpieces that kept time with precision.  After crafting the mechanism, clockmakers frequently commissioned cabinetmakers to make cases to conceal the pendulum and weights.  The result was a functional yet beautiful piece of furniture.

Simon Willard (1753-1848) was a noteworthy American clockmaker.  He established a workshop in 1780, was given complete responsibility for the clocks at Harvard University, and contributed elegant timepieces for the U.S. Senate and Supreme Court.

Willard developed a compact wall timepiece known as the “banjo clock.”  Unlike other clocks, the design omits the striking mechanism and indicates time only by its hands and dial.  Although Willard was granted a patent for his invention in 1802, many others imitated his design. 

Banjo clocks feature a round opening with a painted dial.  A long-waisted wooden case and a rectangular box with a hinged door, each with decorative glass panels, surround the pendulum.  A cast iron eagle (finial) tops most banjo clocks.  Only 4,000 authentic Willard banjo clocks are known.

America Institutes First National Time Zones 

On November 18, 1883, U.S. and Canadian railroad companies jointly adopted five standard continental time zones.

Before the invention of clock, communities marked the time of day with apparent solar time, usually with a sundial. This meant the time could be slightly different in each settlement. With the advent of mechanical clocks, people still used the sun, but times could still differ by around 15 minutes.

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) was established when the Royal Observatory was built in 1675, giving the people of England a standard reference time. Great Britain railway companies using GMT on portable chronometers adopted the first standard time on December 1, 1847. Even still, it was a difficult transition for people used to using solar time. But it became a necessity for countries to establish time zones domestically as well as for dealings with other countries.

In America, timekeeping was confusing. Railroads had made it possible to journey long distances in short amount of times. But each railroad used its own standard time, often based on the local time of their headquarters or largest station. Cities that had several railroads passing through would have clocks for each railroad, each with a different time.

Charles F. Dowd was one of the first Americans to propose a system of one-hour standard time zones for use by American railroads as early as 1863. He’d shared the idea with a class he was teaching at the time, but didn’t address railroad officials until 1869. Dowd’s suggested time zones weren’t adopted.

Instead, American and Canadian railroad officials chose time zones suggested by William F. Allen, editor of the Traveler’s Official Railway Guide. Allen presented his idea at the General Time Convention of 1883. On October 11 of that year, they officially adopted the current Standard Time System. The new proposed time zones had borders running through railroad stations in major cities such as Detroit, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and Charleston.

Once the railroad companies agreed on the new time zones, they selected a date to institute them and informed the public. Louisville, Kentucky’s The Courier-Journal ran a lengthy article concerning the time zones a few days beforehand.