I have some interesting old ones. Just last week I pulled one out, a funky eames era sort of thing . plugged it in and it ran backwards! tried again and it went forwards. it grumbled a bit so I opted not to try to use it until It can be re-lubed
Ive taken some apart from the little 50's clock radios and repaired them. they have this little copper can with a gear on it , its sealed up and has no wiring to it.. the copper can is near an electromagnetic so I guess the frequency of the power pulse drives whats inside of the can. its quite ingenious.
I took apart an older one from a westinghouse columair clock radio 1929
that one was similar but no copper can so I could see how the synchronous motor worked. I found it fascinating and would be hard to explain but the frequency pulses sort of act upon serrated ridges and drive the clock , the ridges are such that the 60 cycle power pulses act upon the ridges. there was another gear sort of loosely attached with springs. that one has a little lever on the face so when you plug it in it does not move then you flick the little lever and that pushes it in the right direction.
I have another Westinghouse Columair about the same vintage with a sort of similar clock , it has a mechanism that makes the second hand move in increments of one second.
it might have the red flag thing, I sort of forget. I think it has sort of a pendulum or something so if the power is interrupted for a short time it is able to start itself from its own pendulum. By design, a minor power interruption wont stop it but a longer one will mark the time the fridge went off. power interruptions were a lot more frequent back then I guess.
Id like to find the right oil to use. I have things like wd 40 and 3 in one oil but there are probably more suitable lubricants for clocks.
once they work right if they are lubed and not completely worn out these clocks are so reliable and accurate. by comparison I have a battery clock at work and it needs new batteries quite often maybe every 6 months, the cost adds up.
I bought one of those TV top ships clocks with the chrome flags about a year ago. the thing runs perfectly and that one is quiet.
I have a variety of wind up clocks. one I pulled out recently and wound up was of a material like abalony but it is a early plastic , it seemed to run fast. that sort of pastic shrinks so a lot of stuff made from it got broken. Its acetate I think.
I have some of the mantle clocks , some with westminster chimes and others wioth less chimes.. and a ship clock that makes a contact, it was incorporated with some sort of mechanism a sort of water speed sensor like a prop I assume.. to check the ships speed.. that one is very loud but excellent quality and I think its an 8 day cock.. so if I wind that one I'm really in trouble
I always look for stuff relating to radios ,, I found a neat philco one that has a "radio plug" you plug in your "philco" radio into the clock then it turns the radio on at the set time.
Ive got a couple of clocks that are very early electric clocks with digital displays, like with the little flags that drop that were often used in 70's bedside clocks but earlier.
I think I got off on a tangent.. collecting is a slippery slope.
my latest find . last weekend, is a crystal radio with headphones from about 1930. the top and knobs and antenna connections look like they are commercially made. inside the coils are made up of fairly thick wire and coated with hoof glue. it has a galena crystal and a catwisker. some of the inner parts were made of a cigar box and I researched that and I think it was from about 1930.. the thing has neat graphics. I think they liked the graphics of this big fat man on the box so they made it part of the frame that holds the coils. maybe someone in the depression made it I thought perhaps people were doing a sort of sideline business producing them because they seem professional enough to look like the person knew cabinetry but primitive enough that they dont exactly seem factory made. this one had rounded corner bead inside the box used as corner blocking. a factory would have used triangular shaped pieces, So the corner molding must have been a scrap they had around. , the person was being resourceful. I find it interesting to examine them and note how people went to so much work to make them nice.
the box for this crystal set has a design that is Japanese with a sort of stork like bird on three sides. black lacquer with gold colored design work , its quite nice. I dont know if the box is from some other source, maybe it started life as a jewlery box or something. it has no printing or words on it.
in the 30's when a lot were not working I guess some made making a radio a fascinating hobby to keep busy so the work they left is interesting to look at and at the same time to try to put the time it was made into perspective around the item sort of adds to the experience of opening up the little time capsules to have a peek.
The collector is downsizing due to age, that's often the story. he tried it and it works I just need a longwire antenna to test it. he threw in some old headphones, crystal sets make very little power so you need to use old headphones with high impedance or an ear plug. I paid 25 bucks for another little piece of history. Ill probably use it to collect dust until the time comes for it to be on someone else's shelf. Ill try to get a pic posted int he antiques section.
last week I rejoined the SPARC museum. they have a nice display, the place is suitably located on the grounds of the former mental institute grounds. the place is really quite creepy and interesting with all sorts of old buildings some with bars on the windows.. some of the members are quite old but still able to pass info along and I should really spend more time up there learning from them. they have a pic of a 1952 clock on the website. they have a nice big display room and they feature a lot of the stuff that I like to collect.
https://sparcradio.ca/
https://sparcradio.ca/wp-content/upload ... Repair.pdf
It's made of ceramic or porcelain. 1950s but not screamingly so. German.
When I first looked at the house, I thought, "Who does this?" Then I found out that the current owner did all the work himself. His work isn't bad, but he has no design sense whatsoever.
