Saturday, April 19, 2008
  They don't make 'em.....



Bought this Westclox electric alarm clock through Ebay a year ago, mainly for the sake of nostalgia. I'd been remembering a clock in Grandpa's house, a clock that had a 'starter' knob on the back. It was made around 1935, and was the first clock with an electric motor. (The self-starting motor came later.)

When the Ebay purchase arrived, I tried to make it run. Flipping the starter knob was fun, but it wouldn't run more than a few seconds. That was OK ... didn't really need another running timepiece, just wanted a nicely-built clock to look at.

Yesterday a little plastic clock decided to fail - after running for about 10 years, which is pretty good for Chinese crap - so I did really need another running timepiece. First thought was to get another Chinese crap-clock from Walmart, then I looked at the 1935 clock and thought, well, why not give it a chance?

This time I opened up the case, gave it a spritz of light oil, then twisted the starter knob. It started, at first a bit rough, then settled down into silent and smooth running.

Quieter than the battery-powered Chinese clock, and quieter than any of the 1960-era electric clocks I'd ever used.

Seventy years old and still perfect.

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