Elias Ingraham was the mastermind behind Ingraham Clocks (1805-1885). Elias was born in Marlborough, Connecticut, and lived to a ripe old age of eighty. In 1828, he moved to Bristol to work as George Mitchell’s clock case builder. Elias Ingraham, a renowned clock casemaker by this time, started working for Chauncey and Lawson C. Ives in 1830. Approximately the course of the following three years, he produced over 5,000 clock casings for them. Clocks built by several businesses are collectively referred to as Ingraham clocks, notably those produced up to 1885 under a label containing the Ingraham name. Incorporated in 1844, Brewster and Ingrahams Clock Company ran until July 24, 1852.
Elias created the four-column Gothic clock casing at this period. Then, from 1852 to 1856, the E. and A. Ingrahams Company was founded and operated; from 1857 to 1860, Elias Ingraham and Company. Then E. Ingraham & Company was used from 1861 until 1880. The business was known as The E. Ingraham & Company between 1881 and 1884. It was finally formed as The E. Ingraham Company in 1885. It is simple to date the early Ingraham clocks based just on the label because to their well-researched past and the condensed time spans for each firm.
Clock Cases
Elias Ingraham made a contribution to the business by concentrating on clock cases, even though we typically think of patents in clockmaking as covering the mechanical components of clock works. Between 1857 and 1873, he was granted a total of 17 patents for clock cases. The figure 8 door design, a trademark of Ingraham clocks, was patented by the company.
When Elias Ingraham passed away in 1885, his son Edward Ingraham took over as business president. Following in his father’s footsteps, Edward Ingraham obtained a patent for clock casings in 1884.
Edward Ingraham created the method for painting clock boxes with black enamel paint, which dries to a smooth, lustrous sheen. In addition to the Ingraham firm, several renowned American clockmakers also produced the black mantel clocks that rose to prominence in the late 1800s and early 1900s utilizing Edward Ingraham’s proprietary method. Up to the 1920s, when they were popular, more than 200 different designs of Ingraham black mantel clocks were produced.
The Twentieth Century
Pocket watches were added to the Ingraham Company’s catalog in 1913, eight-day lever-movement clocks in 1915, and electric clocks in the 1930s, just like other clock makers of the time. In 1932, they first produced wristwatches.
In the 1960s, watches were still produced. The Ingraham Company, like other clock makers, stopped creating clocks during World War II in favor of producing fuses and timers to aid in the war effort. However, some clocks were produced during the war in the facility that was established in 1941 in Toronto, Canada. They established facilities at Elizabethtown, Kentucky, in 1954, and Laurinburg, North Carolina, in 1959.
The Ingraham Company gave up on the outdated pendulum clocks after World War II in favor of electric clocks and alarm clocks. The firm continued to manufacture timers, fuses, and timepieces. The ultimate name change in 1958 was to The Ingraham Company. The original business was sold to McGraw-Edison in 1967, and it has since continued to produce electric clocks under the Ingraham brand.