Eli Terry’s Clock

Paragraph 1：Clocks were luxury goods in America at the start of the nineteenth century. A master clockmaker painstakingly produced only ten to fifteen sets of brass movements (the internal parts of a clock) per year. To make these parts, he melted down old kettles, cast approximate shapes, slowly hardened them by hammering, and cut and filed gear teeth by hand. The clock’s face might come from an old pewter plate, with hands shaped and hammered from spoon handles. The result was a precision instrument, a unique mechanism with each part exactly fitted to mesh with all the others. Each clock was ordered in advance by a patron who separately commissioned a cabinetmaker to fashion a wooden case, often richly inlaid and ornately carved according to current furniture styles. The result was a handsome instrument, usually six feet (about 2 meters) high and weighing a hundred pounds (45 kilograms), often a wealthy household’s most expensive possession. 

 

 

1. In paragraph 1, why does the author include the information that the gear teeth were cut and filed by hand? 

 

A. To illustrate how much work was required to make clocks in that period

 

B. To suggest that clock-making process of that period were crude and imprecise 

 

C. To explain why clocks of the period were so large 

 

D. To indicate that there was a limit to the precision of American clocks of that period 

 

 

 

2. According to paragraph 1, which of the following statements is true about American-made clocks at the start of the nineteenth century? 

 

A. Only ten to fifteen of them were produced each year. 

 

B. Their parts often did not fit together very well. 

 

C. Clockmakers constructed them inside richly inlaid display cases. 

 

D. Only rich people could afford to buy them.

 

 

 

 

 

Paragraph 2：All this was changed by Eli Terry (1772-1852), a clockmaker whose innovations sped up the manufacturing process, lowered the cost, expanded the market, and democratized the clock. After establishing a workshop at plymouth, Connecticut, in 1793, Terry worked along traditional lines for several years. After about 1800, frustrated by a shortage of customers for his luxury product and influenced by local clockmakers of German descent, Terry abandoned brass and began making movements with wooden parts. While still handcrafted, these wooden movements were cruder, less precise, and easier to produce. They ran for only 30 hours instead of the standard eight days, but they weighed less and could be sold for half the price of traditional clock. A whole new market opened up. Independently following the logic of military arms manufacture, Terry devised specialized lathes, saws, drills, and gear-cutters that further lowered the level of skills required of workers in the manufacturing process. By 1806 his shop had 200 clocks under manufacture simultaneously, and he ambitiously contracted to deliver 4,000 wooden clock movements within three years. After a year spent outfitting a water-powered factory, Terry made good on his promise. In moving from craft work to mass production, Terry so completely transformed his business that every middle-class person in America could aspire to own a clock — and thereby assume the status traditionally indicated by such a possession. 

 

 

 

3. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information. 

 

A. By moving to the mass production of clocks, Terry completely transformed the business of clock making. 

 

B. The use of mass production techniques transformed Terry’s business and allowed the American middle class to gain status by owning a clock.

 

C. As a result of Terry’s moving to the mass production of clocks, the social status that was traditionally associated wiith owning a clock changed. 

 

D. While many middle-class Americans owned hand-made clocks, they hoped to gain the status that came with owning Terry’s mass-produced clocks. 

 

 

 

4. According to paragraph 2, which of the following was true about Eli Terry’s life? 

 

A. He started out as a woodworker rather than as a clockmaker. 

 

B. He was originally trained by local clockmakers of German descent. 

 

C. He learned about the usefulness of specialized manufacturing equipment when he was working as a military arms manufacturer. 

 

D. He created equipment that made clock-making a less-skilled occupation than it had been before.

 

 

 

5. Paragraph 2 suggests that Terry was able to produce 4,000 clock movements within three years primarily because he had 

 

A. created new methods of selling clocks to a wider range of consumers 

 

B. employed 200 skilled clockmakers in his shop, all working on clock movements at the same time 

 

C. setup a factory to manufacture clock movements using specialized water-driven tools

 

D. acquired lathes, saws, drills, and gear-cutters from a military manufacturer 

 

 

 

 

 

Paragraph 3：Terry’s other major innovation responded to the needs of peddlers and their customers. Despite a lighter, cheaper mechanism, his standard clock of 1810 was bulky to transport and required any self-respecting purchaser to hire a carpenter to construct a six-foot cabinet to house it (though an uncased clock could be hung on a wall with its pendulum swinging free). After several years of work, in 1816 Terry received a patent for a compact clock only 20 inches high, 14 inches wide, and 4 inches deep. Its wooden movement was enclosed in a simple wooden case designed to sit on a shelf, thus eliminating the need to pay extra for a cabinet. This so-called shelf clock cost nothing more to produce and was easier for peddlers to transport. Terry’s immediate success provoked competitors to violate his patent and take advantage of the seemingly limitless potential of democratic demand. 

 

 

 

6. According to paragraph 3, what was true about Terry’s standard clock of 1810？ 

 

A. Its mechanism was only 20 inches high. 

 

B. It could be used without a wooden cabinet.

 

C. It was much cheaper to make than Terry’s shelf clock was. 

 

D. Terry received a patent for it. 

 

 

 

7. Paragraph 3 suggests that Terry’s patent on his compact clock 

 

A. was largely responsible for the clock’s immediate success

 

B. did not prevent other clockmakers from profiting from his work 

 

C. made it easier for his competitors to copy his design 

 

D. greatly reduced competition from other clockmakers 

 

 

 

 

 

Paragraph 4：By some accounts that was the end of the story. But in fact, competition forced Terry and his imitators to focus on style, even in a cheap mass-market product. In the same year that Terry patented the 30 hour shelf clock, he hired as a case-maker Chauncey Jerome (1793 – 1868), who had already designed and built cabinets for another clockmaker. From his former employer Jerome borrowed the so-called “pillar-and-scroll” design, which had delicate scrollwork on top and bottom, a graceful pillar on each side, and a glass door through was visible a printed clock face above a painted scene. The resulting cabinet, in one historian’s dismissive opinion, was “nothing more than the original shelf clock design surrounded with some molding and painted glass.” Yet that was the point. Easily created with power-assisted tools and inexpensive veneers, the pillar-and-scroll cabinet transformed a simple, cheap, crude clock into a miniature expression of the neoclassical style that defined high fashion for cosmopolitan Bostonians or Philadelphians. 

 

 

8. According to paragraph 4, which of the following is true about Chauncey Jerome? 

 

A. He was a clockmaker who had been a competitor of El Terry’s until Terry hired Jerome to work with him. 

 

B. He was the first to decorate clock cabinets with a combination of pillars and scrollwork. 

 

C. He was primarily responsible for forcing Terry to focus on style in producing a line of cheap, mass-market clocks. 

 

D. He helped Terry transform the original shelf clock into an inexpensive yet stylish product.

 

 

 

 

 

Paragraph 2：All this was changed by Eli Terry (1772-1852), a clockmaker whose innovations sped up the manufacturing process, lowered the cost, expanded the market, and democratized the clock. After establishing a workshop at plymouth, Connecticut, in 1793, Terry worked along traditional lines for several years. After about 1800, frustrated by a shortage of customers for his luxury product and influenced by local clockmakers of German descent, Terry abandoned brass and began making movements with wooden parts. While still handcrafted, these wooden movements were cruder, less precise, and easier to produce. They ran for only 30 hours instead of the standard eight days, but they weighed less and could be sold for half the price of  traditional clock. ■A whole new market opened up. ■Independently following the logic of military arms manufacture, Terry devised specialized lathes, saws, drills, and gear-cutters that further lowered the level of skills required of workers in the manufacturing process. ■By 1806 his shop had 200 clocks under manufacture simultaneously, and he ambitiously contracted to deliver 4,000 wooden clock movements within three years. ■After a year spent outfitting a water-powered factory, Terry made good on his promise. In moving from craft work to mass production, Terry so completely transformed his business that every middle-class person in America could aspire to own a clock — and thereby assume the status traditionally indicated by such a possession. 

 

 

 

9. Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage. Where would the sentence best fit? 

 

To meet that goal, however, Terry needed to find a way to make his manufacturing even more efficient.

 

 

 

 

 

10. Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selected THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.

 

Eli Terry’s innovations turned clocks into mass-market products. 

 

 

 

Answer Choices: 

 

A. Traditionally, precision clock movements were slowly handcrafted out of brass by highly skiled clockmakers and housed in carved cabinets. 

 

B. Terry’s technique of making clocks from carved wood instead of used metal made them into fashionable works of art that were desired by wealthy patrons. 

 

C. Terry devised specialized tools for manufacturing clock movements that were less precise but easier and cheaper to produce. 

 

D. Terry started innovation when peddlers were unable to sell clocks because of their high prices and transportation difficulty. 

 

E. Terry’s early wooden clocks were still very large and customers still had the expense of a cabinet, but he later developed an inexpensive compact clock that came installed in a high-fashion cabinet. 

 

F. It was only when Chauncey Jerome produced plain wooden cases for Terry’s clocks that Terry was able to sell his clocks cheaply enough to achieve financial success. 

 

 

 

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