# What Is It



## JWL940 (Jun 11, 2010)

Over the months Iâ€™ve put together this little collection and with each purchase the intention was to use that watch/clock as my first practice piece to strip down, clean and reassemble. All were bought as goers but unfortunately after a day or 2 of each one ticking away merrily I lost the courage to strip it down in case I break it therefore on to the next purchase. The travel clock on the right, cost all of a fiver, worked for a week or 3 when the mainspring gave up so I guess that will be my first proper job once I feel Iâ€™ve the necessary skills and knowledge.










My latest purchase, another fiver, was this thing. The central shaft rotates once every 24 hours and it has been running now for 8 days on a single wind. It is clearly a timer and it is more industrial than domestic but has anybody any idea what it looked like before it was removed from its â€˜boxâ€™? I canâ€™t find a way of releasing the mainspring tension so I guess Iâ€™ll have to wait a few more days before I cut my teeth on my first mechanical movement.





































I have an idea in the future to use it as the motive force for a wooden geared clock but that will be the subject of another thread. So the question remains, what was it?

John


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## Seismic one (Jun 21, 2008)

With regards to the unknown clock.

My father was a keen pigeon racer whereby each club member had his own own timing device which had a clock very similar to this inside it. The rear geared spindle drove a platform with a 24 hour paper disc attached when the pigeon arrived back at the loft after a race a numbered rubber band was removed from the pigeons leg put into a metal thimble and pressed through an opening in the case this action put a pin hole in the paper disc relative to the time. All the timing devices were synchronised and sealed by the timekeeper before the race ,after the race the same timekeeper would break the seal and check the arrival times of each bird thereby determining the winner.

These devices were quite expensive and the clock mechanisms were extremely good quality.

It is possible i am wrong as i am now fast approaching that age where the memory can let you down.

Seismic.


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## JWL940 (Jun 11, 2010)

Seismic

I think you might have something there. I've look at a few pigeon clocks on the net and certainly the older flat disk type looks similar; thanks for the pointer.


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## stevieb (Feb 12, 2010)

We had something similar that had a paper covered drum and a pen connected to a thermometer and barometer.

It read outside air temperature and pressure over a 24hr period.

One of my first jobs as an apprentice was to wind it up and change the paper.

If we forgot we would have to create one as the boss would loose it telling us "if we cannot be trusted to change the paper how can they let us loose on a 10 million pound radar."

steve


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## Micky (Apr 2, 2009)

Nice collection JWL and perfect to start tinkering/learning with. Interesting that all your pocket watches have military style tramline minute markers.


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## tixntox (Jul 17, 2009)

Where does the explosive fit!!!? 

Mike


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