For Jim, Victrolas, for me, clocks

[SA1911a1]

I is the same disease with slightly different symptoms.

I really like to buy these old American made clocks, advertised as not working, and tinkering with them. I picked up this one on a "junket" on Saturday. I got it home, wound it up, made one tiny adjustment to the suspension system, and it is running like, well, like a clock. I was disappointed that I did not have to take it down, clean and oil (which I will be doing). It is keeping time to about a minute a day, and I can probably fine tune it closer. It counts the hours on the gong and also counts the half hour with a single strike. I have had no training in fixing the clocks, but I have found that, in most cases, the problems with them are simple to fix; dried oil, bad suspension springs, out of adjustment. My success rate has probably been over 75%. I will not progress to the complete disassembly and rebush level of clock repair. Too much time, too many tools and no return on investment.

This clock is an Ingraham "Urania" model, one of several clocks in the "Star" line. This type clock usually referred to as either a kitchen clock or a gingerbread clock. It appeared in the 1915 catalog priced at a whopping $3.80. (about $85.00 in today's money) It may have been a little bit more because this one is a calendar clock. The case is in excellent condition, they usually have had some repairs or are missing parts, but this one is original, including most of the paper sticker on the back. This style of clock is, really, by today's standard, just kind of ugly. (My wife assures me), but they were all the rage from the 1860s through the 1920s. The wood is not carved, but pressed into the elaborate pattern, it was a very American technique. It is missing the date hand, something that I have ordered. You can see the calendar scale on the outside of the face. The date hand looks like what you would expect a second hand to look like. What is really funny is that I had bought another similar clock about a year ago for dirt cheap because the seller told me that the "second hand" wasn't working. Why he thought that a second hand scale would read 1 to 31, I have no clue, but I did not correct him...;)

My wife cringed when she saw my grinning face hauling this to the car. It is hard to blame her, I haven't counted but there must be about twenty old clocks in the house now (maybe more, I just counted 8 in this room) I only keep about a half dozen wound and I find the ticking comforting. At least, between clocks, knives and guns, my estate sell won't be boring. ;)