Jerome, Chauncey

Jerome, Chauncey

(born June 10, 1793, Canaan, Conn., U.S.—died April 20, 1868, New Haven, Conn.) U.S. inventor and clockmaker. In 1824 he designed a popular bronze looking-glass clock, and he formed a company that soon became the leading U.S. clockmaker. He invented the one-day brass movement, an improvement over the wood clock. Applying mass-production techniques, he flooded the U.S. with low-priced brass clocks, which quickly spread to Europe and so astonished the English that “Yankee ingenuity” became a byword.