author

Ward L. Goodrich

A practical early-20th-century writer on horology, this author is best known for clear, detailed books on clockwork and the watchmaker’s lathe. His work still appeals to restorers, collectors, and anyone curious about how precision timekeeping was understood in its mechanical heyday.

1 Audiobook

The Modern Clock

The Modern Clock

by Ward L. Goodrich

About the author

Ward L. Goodrich wrote specialized books on horology and workshop practice at the start of the 20th century. The two works most clearly tied to his name in major library and public-domain records are The Watchmakers' Lathe, Its Use and Abuse (published in Chicago by Hazlitt & Walker in 1903) and The Modern Clock: A Study of Time Keeping Mechanism; Its Construction, Regulation and Repair (published in 1905).

His writing focuses on the hands-on world of mechanical timekeeping: tools, construction, regulation, repair, and the kind of careful craft knowledge meant for students, apprentices, and working makers. Surviving descriptions of The Modern Clock present it as a thorough guide for clockmakers, while later horology booksellers have described The Watchmakers' Lathe as a long-standing reference in its field.

Biographical details about Goodrich himself are hard to confirm from the sources I found, so it is safest to remember him through the books: practical, technical manuals from a period when precision workmanship mattered deeply and skilled repair knowledge was being carefully passed on in print.