The History of Henry Warren
HENRY WARREN
You may not recognize Henry Ellis Warren's name, but you probably have one of his 135 inventions in your home, an electric clock! Today, The Warren Conference Center & Inn is situated on the land that Henry Warren and his wife Edith donated to Northeastern University after their prosperous foray into the business world. Born in Boston on May 21, 1872, Henry started a life which would be devoted to philanthropy and his passion for innovation.
At the young age of eight, Henry (nicknamed Harry because his father was also named Henry) moved to Newton Centre with his family in 1880. Along with his father, mother, and sister Louise, Henry's grandfather, Rowland Ellis, lived with him. Rowland, whose family were friends with Paul Revere, taught young Henry how to use workshop tools, inevitably sparking his life long passion for invention and innovation.
Henry had a rich and happy childhood. In 1884 he entered the Allen School, which had been founded by Horace Mann and was directed by Nathaniel Allen and his brother. His father, a wool merchant, and his mother, a loving and devoted housewife, doted on Henry, now an only child since his sister's death the same year he entered the Allen School. Henry's parents saw the love of building things that his grandfather had instilled in him and so built a small experimental laboratory in their home for Henry to tinker in. It was here that Henry made one of his first mechanical inventions, an automated chicken coup! Like any small child, Henry had chores, and one in particular chore in the wintertime made him cringe with cold. Instead of going outside to feed their chickens in the frigid New England weather, he rigged up an old lard pail filled with chicken feed in the coup, strung wires to his bedroom, attached some batteries and, after several weeks of experimenting, was able to empty the pail in the chicken house by pressing a button near the head of his bed!
It was Homer's father that introduced Henry to the business world as a place that could profit from his inventions. Homer and Henry were given the job of helping the ailing business of the Saginaw Valley Traction Company, an electric street railway powered by steam. Homer tackled the problem of a lack of customers by building an amusement park on the outskirts of town at the end of the trolley line and Henry saw an opportunity for the surplus steam that was being generated and wasted. He piped the steam underground to deposits of salt which melted the salt and the pressure used to force the steam underground forced the salty mixture up to the surface where it could be processed. The company was saved.
Life in Ashland
Ashland finally became the home of Henry in 1904 when he moved there with Homer with their new company, The Lombard Governor Company of Boston. At this point Ashland was facing economic crisis with the mills being closed and people out of work. Henry, with Edith decided to make their home there despite the economic hardship. They chose a picturesque farm on a hill overlooking their tiny town of Ashland, 25 miles away from the city of Boston.
It was on this farm, Henry named it Upland, that he designed his 135 patents and built his famous inventions. The red barn, still on the property and used by The Warren Conference Center & Inn today, was his workshop which became the home of his business, the Warren Gear Works. It was here, after taking his morning constitutional through his apple orchards and woods beyond, that Henry worked on his inventions. Henry designed plans for machinery with better gears and experimented with clocks. Thanks to Henry's ingenuity, he built a clock that actually ran on batteries, the first of its kind!
Clock work
Things only snowballed from there and Henry became a leader in the industry of horology (time keeping). The business of gears was left behind and he devoted all of his innovative skills to creating more accurate clocks. Henry moved his workshop into an idle building at the Lombard Governor Company plant where the production of battery-powered clocks were produced on a commercial scale. Though these clocks were popular, they were expensive and delicate. It took ten years for Henry to be satisfied with his new design, run by power plants, to enhance these clocks but he did it in 1916 by inventing a small, self-starting synchronous motor to run on alternating current that would be suitable for operating clocks and instruments. The motor was designed to rotate in perfect step with the current impulses as delivered by alternating electric current. Unfortunately the frequency of electric impulses varied from power plant to power plant. Henry didn't let this discourage him though. In 1916 Henry devised the first master clock, which made it possible to control the frequency of electric current with split second-accuracy.
The motor of the master clock weighed less than a pound but was capable of carrying the load of a gear train to move the hands of a clock with ease. Henry's new invention caught the eye of the well known company, General Electric (GE) in 1917 when they purchased half interest in the Warren Company. In 1943 they bought full ownership. In early 1979 the Timex Corporation purchased the Warren Company from GE. Clocks and timers were made under the Timex name and motors were made under the Telechron name for OEM (original equipment manufacturer) sales. In 1983, a group consisting of the Senior Plant Management Staff bought the plant and directed the work toward OEM motors and appliance timers, taking the emphasis away from clocks. The name became Telechron, Inc. The company is still producing wall clocks today, both AC line and battery powered under the Telechron name. Henry, always one to be creative, decided on the trade name of "Telechron" for his products in 1923. The words' Greek meaning is "time from a distance." Today , the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. houses a Warren master clock in its collection however, the clock is no longer on view. Or, you can visit The Warren Conference Center & Inn where we proudly showcase Telechron clocks.
Public Life
Henry brought prosperity to the hometown that he loved. During the years between 1927 to 1937 The Warren Telechron Company, with the help of GE, constructed a new factory in Ashland for the production of Telechron clocks, motors, and timing instruments. Henry retired in 1943 when GE bought full ownership but his profound effect on people's lives didn't start or end there.
Henry was interested in public service which led him to become Chairman of the Ashland Selectmen from 1907 to 1909. From 1910 to 1917 he was Chairman of the Water Commissioners (and largely responsible for forming a public water system), Chairman for the Town Forest Committee from 1937, and trustee and then President of the Middlesex County Extension in Agriculture and Home Economics from 1936 to 1953.
Henry, a devoted Sunday School teacher, was also very concerned with the youth of his day. He fought for and won a decision to use 15 acres of land in Ashland for a park for children and their parents which is still in use today and called Stone Park. Henry was also a trustee for the Salvation Army and the Framingham Union Hospital. In 1927 Henry worked to establish the Algonquin Council of the Boy Scouts and was made an adult member of the Boy Scouts of America December 31, 1930. From Henry's estate, the Warren Benevolent Fund was established, mostly for scholarship aid to the students of Ashland.
UPDATE 4/30/09: Due to the numerous e-mails from people regarding stage 1 I am going to just come out and say that the coordinates are right out in the open