Lewis Calendar No. 2. (A perpetual calendar.) A wall calendar clock. NN-55.
This is a fine example of a Lewis Calendar No. 2. Several other firms made a very similar form, suggesting that it was popular and sold well. Competitors that made similar clocks included Welch & Spring and their parent Company, E. N. Welch, as well as L. F. & W. W. Carter. This example was made circa 1865 by Lewis.
This clock is cataloged as the Lewis Calendar No. 2. The case is veneered in rosewood, and the bezels are popular and grained to match. The movement is constructed in brass, having solid plates recoil escapement, rolling steel pivoted pinions, and retaining power. It is weight-driven with two cast iron weights to power the clock for eight days. It is good quality. The dials are original to the cock and are in fine condition. The upper dial is painted on tin and measures approximately 12 inches in diameter. It displays the time in a standard format and the day of the week. Sometime in the clock’s history, the phrase Railroad Time has been added. One can speculate that this clock may have had some service in a small depot in rural America. The lower dial measures approximately 8 inches and displays the month and numerical day. It is a perpetual mechanism, meaning it will reset itself for odd months and adjust automatically for the leap year. The Inventor’s label is pasted to the back of this mechanism. It is in fine condition. There is also a cut-out in this dial so one can view motion from the nickel-plated pendulum bob.
This double-dial calendar wall clock measures approximately 31 inches long, 15.5 inches wide, and 4.5 inches deep.
It was made circa 1867.
Inventory number NN-55.
Benjamin B. Lewis was born in 1818 and died in 1890. He is best known for designing a perpetual calendar mechanism while working as a Jeweler in Huron, Ohio. In 1859, he moved to Bristol, Connecticut to find a manufacturer of his design. The firm Burwell & Carter first manufactured the mechanism in 1859 until 1862. Lewis had applied for an patent which was granted in on February 4, 1862. He continued to improve the design and patent those improvements in 1864, 1868 and 1881. He supplied his mechanisms to L.F. & W.W. Carter in 1862 through 1868 and then to the Welch, Spring & Company from 1868 to 1884. Their clocks sold well and Lewis became quite wealthy. In 1870 he form a partnership with his son Charles S. Lewis under the firm name of B.B. Lewis & Son in Bristol. This venture did not last long.
