Theodore Ruggles Timby of Saratoga Springs, New York.

The Timby Solar Timepiece. Lewis E. Whiting was a Saratoga Springs jeweler. He is listed as working there during the 1860s. Whiting worked with an ingenious designer named Theodore Ruggles Timby. The two men formed a company to build Tomby's Solar Time Piece in 1863. This company lasted only two short years (1865). Over that period, they sold approximately 500 unusual clocks that featured a Joslin's terrestrial globe in its design. The distinctive cases were constructed in walnut, and many were built in Saratoga by E. F. Rawson. All of the clocks featured spring-powered 8-day brass movement that incorporated balance wheel escapements. LaPort Hubbell made the vast majority of these movements. Inside many of the cases of these very unusual clocks, usually attached to the back of the lower door, is a label that reads: "TIMBY'S SOLAR TIME - PIECE, MANUFACTURED BY L. E. WHITING, SARATOGA SPRINGS, N. Y." It then describes the clock as, "Illustrating the Diurnal Revolution of the Earth, and serving as a GEOGRAPHICAL EDUCATOR for the SCHOOL ROOM and the Family, Ornamental in the Parlor, and useful everywhere. The old and unmeaning clock face may now be banished from use as no longer desirable. The movements in these Time - pieces is the best ever made in America, and unsurpassed in Europe; the balance wheel is set in jewels, making it as a time - keeper equal to the best lever watch and regulated in the same way. WIND ONCE A WEEK REGULARLY. WARRANTED accurate and of perfect workmanship throughout." This label is often numbered in ink. The highest number I have recorded to date is "497."

Theodore Ruggles Timby was born in New York State on April 5th, 1822. He was a very bright and industrious person and is credited with several inventions. He designed a floating dry dock system for the shipping industry, a revolving gun turret, which was installed on the Union's ironclad, the U.S.S. Monitor, and a sighting system and electrical firing system for heavy guns. Timby died in Brooklyn, New York, in 1909.