Chronometer

Photo:  National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institute

Watches and clocks are so common today we take them for granted. They’re on our wrists, our kitchen microwaves, our computers, our cars, and our phones. But in the early 19th century, clocks, or chronometers as they were known then, were rare and expensive instruments.

If you were to map a journey today you’d probably like to know several key facts about your trip – time is one of them. So it was for Captains Lewis and Clark. Unfortunately, no chronometers were manufactured in the United States at the time, so the only option was to purchase an English-made timepiece that was available in Philadelphia. The gold-cased chronometer, or “Arnold’s Watch,” cost Meriwether Lewis $250 plus an additional 75 cents for the winding key. It was purchased in Philadelphia from Thomas Parker and cost more than all the other Expedition’s “mathematical instruments” combined.

Because he knew this expensive timepiece was fragile, Lewis took it to Henry Voigt, a German-born clockmaker who cleaned and adjusted the chronometer. Voigt then built a protective mahogany case, which suspended the device to lessen any jarring impact along the journey. The total bill was $7.37 ½ .

While there’s no information regarding what Lewis’s chronometer looked like, it could possibly have been similar to this timepiece in the collection of the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.