Theyre making some really nice reproductions of it in China and if you dont know what youre looking for you could be fooled easily. I cannot date it. Style 1 has three screws through the bezel visible from the front, style 1a doesnt (compare figures 3 and 7); Style 1 has two screws holding the bell back, style 1a has three. I have a mantel clock,its floral in color,made by Ansonia Cock Co.USA.New York. Stahlbergs company goes bankrupt not once, but twice, within its first several years. Westclox Big Ben Style 1a Alarm Clock Date Summary: 1918 - 1935 (and a reproduction was made in 1970) Characteristics: Ring on top, two legs in front, no screws through the front of the bezel. "[5] However, radium is highly radioactive, emitting alpha, beta, and gamma radiation the effects of which are particularly deleterious if inhaled or ingested since there is no shielding within the body. I know that it is electric and it requires a dime deposit to set the alarm on it. On March 31, 1980, the Peru-LaSalle plant was officially closed, narrowly missing its 100-year anniversary. JavaScript is disabled. Radium was discovered in 1898 by Marie Curie and Pierre Curie. Can you help When the Radium Dial Company moved to Ottawa in the 20s to better serve its number one client, Westclox, they were welcomed with enthusiasm, particularly by the young, working class women in the town. Patton, had joined Charles Stahlbergs original start-up back in 1886 at the age of just 13, and he was still on board in 1936, 50 years later. My moms father had a small collection of antique clocks and when I was a little boy he showed me how to wind them and regulate them. Style Information: Plain dial: 1918 - 1935 Black luminous dial: 1921 - 1935 There are variations in the lettering on the dial and back. Donohue, like many of her young peers in the radium industry, eventually realized that her amusing glow had been a warning of severe exposure to a radioactive substance. I think we threw it away. Debbie Blake, I have a small Westclox wind up clock dating around 1937. Radium was discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898[1] and was soon combined with paint to make luminescent paint, which was applied to clocks, airplane instruments, and the like, to be able to read them in the dark.[2]. Even if the Western Clock Co. wasnt born in Chicago or headquartered here, the immediate aftershocks of the companys cultural and industrial impact certainly reached our shores in a hurry, no interstate required. Buy Now. I know very little about clocks in general. The movement was then used with minor changes in Loud Alarm models until 1956. The whole clock seems to be origional and was maintained by my grandfather who was a watch/clock repairman. Copyright It has a cracked front lens that I would like to replace. Was this done so the alarm could be more easily set on the quarter or half hour? When did westclox stop using radium? His bigger job was to design a system so the power companies could regulate their generator so the clock could keep time. Big Ben style 1a continued in production until its discontinuation in 1935. The end of the Great War began what was, in many respects, a halcyon time for Westclox, now arguably the best-known timekeeping brand in the world. The massive success of the Big Ben design wasnt just about function and style. Soon, he was running the Western Clock Co. advertising department, and proving his worth with some clever marketing strategies. About the only. A well-dressed, steady and punctual chap, up to the minute and always on the job., Big Ben always comes to you straight from home, LaSalle, Illinois, read another. In 1898, the Curies discovered the existence of. So, rather than having the classic oversized bell or double-bell on top of the unit (to smash with your palm at 6am), the ringing mechanism was housed inside the back of the case, and a big winding key occupied the summit. Westclox closed its Peru factory 35 years ago. T. tkarter Registered User. I just had it repaired & it works & looks great. Even today, with the considerable help of a thing called Interstate 80, its still about a two-hour journey from LaSalle Street to LaSalle County. I was looking at it and said, aha! Westclox also made about 5000 gold-plated reproductions. The style 8 Big and Baby Bens were introduced in 1964. Among the rarities on display is a Westclox-made National Emergency Alarm Repeater. In the 1970s, radium was phased out of wristwatches and clockdials. Richard Tjarks introduced Stoddard: Pay attention to quality. Accueil; Services; Ralisations; Annie Moussin; Mdias; 514-569-8476 They can be identified by having the modern type of flat head screws Westclox - An Identification and Price Guide, The Westclox Big Ben and Baby Ben Identification Guide, Clock Repair and Hermle Chime, Mantel and Wall Clocks for Sale at Bill's Clockworks. England. These clocks were produced in the thousands and many can be bought on eBay for under $10. Then my friend and I went around the neighborhood asking people if they had anything they wanted to give away, like old clocks and cameras and tape recorders. The radium isotope (226Ra) used has a half-life of about 1,600years,[6] so radium dials remain essentially just as radioactive as when originally painted 50 or 100 years ago, whether or not they remain luminous. [left to right: F.W. That was the first antique clock I owned myself. I was told it was an antique at that time. One time a friend and I were down there behind the factory and we got talking to a man who was leasing the back half of the factory to make machinery for bakeries. How can people be exposed to Radium? 0 Comments; Uncategorized newark advertiser obituaries 2021 . Frank Baker. About 1920 the luminous dial using radium paint was introduced. It can be found with some other clocks in a case in the second floor hallway. Their Scottish factory was a full manufacturing plant, at which all their clocks were assembled from start to finish with only the basic raw materials being brought in by outside suppliers. Would you please direct me to someone that can do this for me? Your email address will not be published. Any help would be appreciated. I met somebody then who told me about the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors and then I joined that and in their bi-monthly magazine I found a man looking for early Westclox information, he is now one of the foremost Westclox researchers. Ristau said he remembered when the Westclox factory was the heart of the city, and recalled enjoying his time with Westclox. It has ingraved on it 2-20-31. Required fields are marked *. when did westclox stop using radiumcapricorn and virgo flirting. When I went home and washed my hands in a dark bathroom, they would appear luminous and ghostly, an original Ghost Girl named Catherine Donohue (nee Wolfe) later testified. They typically have a round brass base with a glass dome over them; they were made in Germany from the 1890s up through the 1970s, and a lot of people collect them. Luminous Processes employees interviewed by a journalist in 1978 stated they had been left ignorant of radium's dangers. Now I know that theres probably 14 basic shapes, but a lot more variations than that depending on how far you want to take things. I believed it was manufacturing tag. The first Big Bens and Baby Bens in 1910 were wind ups.. Immediately after, substances like promethium and tritium were used as a luminous material, and they're still being used today. Safety I had developed some sort of fascination for Big Ben and Baby Ben clocks. Also Telechron, which was a big maker of electric clocks. In 1931 it merged with Seth Thomas Clock Co. and both became divisions of General Time Corp. Thanks very mutch, I just acquired a sir w.h. In a few short years, thanks to Dr. Douglas's efforts, the amount of radium available in the US more than quintupled. Annie Moussin designer intrieur. Buy Now. They made the most of the perk, wearing their good dresses to the plant so theyd shine in the dance halls at night, and even painting radium onto their teeth for a smile that would knock their suitors dead., When I went home and washed my hands in a dark bathroom, they would appear luminous and ghostly,, My clothes, hanging in a dark closet, gave off a phosphorescent glare. 2023 by Andrew Clayman. They can be identified by having the modern type of flat head screws with shoulders instead of round head screws, and by having a 1910 patent date on the back even though the case is style 1a. I know Bill Stoddards name from other publications on Westclox. He invited us in to look around, so we got to go up and down the big freight elevator and he found some old music boxes that were never used that he gave to us (Westclox made one or two little clocks with a music box in them). Has the mechanics of the clock been changed/upgraded or could there be another issue at play? I have a Westclox Magnet Key Part number 031723 I think was used to open a door as it has an arrow on 1 end. Westclox Clock Construction and Quality. For my 14th birthday I got a book called The Treasury of American Clocks and there was a picture showing the seven types of Baby Bens. All the aforementioned to ask you if you know how many of the 1970 style 1As were made. You must log in or register to reply here. Also, its not just Americans who collect, its worldwide. Westclox style series. Westclox Big Ben Alarm Clock Vintage. They made them with wooden works until about 1840, then with brass gears and I like some of the early brass-geared American clocks. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that watches with radium dials should not be taken apart[5] without proper training, technique, and facilities. It led to life-saving regulations and, ultimately, to the establishment of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which now operates nationally in the United States to protect workers. In a way theyre preventing clocks from being thrown away so I cant totally condemn it, but it still seems like a funny thing to do. So, does Westclox really belong in the Made In Chicago Museum? These paints were used on the dials of clocks and watches to make them glow-in-the-dark. I tried selling some of my surplus electric Big Bens on eBay and they just didnt go, you could get only about $0.99 for them. Its got a round brass dial and a painting in the door, really neat. 1980 By the early 1950s, Westclox employed thousands of LaSalle-Peru residents. In her 2017 book, The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of Americas Shining Women, author Kate Moore notes that many of the new girls at the Radium Dial factory started out painting the famous Westclox Big Ben clocks before moving on to the smaller and more challenging Baby Ben, and finally the Pocket Ben and Scotty pocket watches, all produced at the Westclox Works. On April 20, 1902, Marie and Pierre Curie successfully isolate radioactive radium salts from the mineral pitchblende in their laboratory in Paris. It was only with the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) was given oversight of the use of radium. Nowadays, Super-LumiNova, which is entirely non-radioactive and non-toxic, is the most used lume in watchmaking.
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