Jefferson Mystery Clocks

 Be not disgusted, nor discouraged, if thou dost not succeed in doing everything according to right principles; but when thou hast failed, return back again, and be content if the greater part of what thou doest is consistent with man's nature, and love this to which thou returnest." - Marcus Aurelius

 I have been in need of a new desk clock for quite a while now.   The one I've had for 20 years or so is giving up the ghost.  I've already replaced the battery-operated movement once - a year or two ago, and now this one is failing already.  Junk from overseas really is junk.  The clock no longer keeps time, and the repair parts are no good.  

Below:  I love how it always manages to tilt downwards.

 I also like how since replacing the movement, the hour hand isn't quite where it should be.  

So I was surfing through some oddball online auctions recently, and one auction caught my eye.  The items were "atomic age" cool!  And best of all, they were clocks.  I won the auction and waited for the treasure to arrive in the mail for nearly 10 days.  I watched FedEx ship it all over the upper midwest before finally sending it to Portland, then eventually back to Idaho.

Today it arrived and I unpacked the goodies from the bubble-wrap.

These are Jefferson Mystery Clocks.  The larger models are called the "Golden Hour", and the smaller model is the "Golden Minute".  As you can see, they are filthy, and that's probably from years of accumulated nicotine and dust caking them.  You have to remember when dealing with old stuff that people had different habits back in the day.  I'll get them clean when I have a little bit of free time.  Hopefully one of these works.

The way these work is quite clever.  There is no motor in the center to turn the hands, so it looks like they move without a mechanism.  The motor is in the base of each clock, and it rotates the glass in the frame once per hour.   The minutes hand is attached directly to the glass, so it also goes around once per hour.

The really clever part is the hour hand.  There is a gear mechanism on the back side with a 12:1 ratio that slows the hour hand down, so that it only goes around once every 12 rotations of the glass.  A small counterweight on the hours hand provides the leverage to keep the hour hand from spinning the same rate as the minute hand.

Anyway these are pretty robust, and they still make replacement motors for them.  I'm sure a little cleaning and lubrication will make a sweet little desktop lamp out of one of these sweet little Atomic Age devices.

Below is an image of a cleaned-up clock with the power cord unwound.  Has a nice Art Deco look to it as well, yes?  You can see the counterweight that (along with the gear reduction) keeps the hour hand from spinning at the same rate as minute hand.

 

 

Below:  Rear view (not my clock), showing the counterweight.

If you are interested in the history of these really amazing and cool retro clocks there is a link here.

EDIT:  I cleaned up the exterior of the smaller clock, the model called the "Golden Minute".  I was correct - it was covered with brown-ish nicotine that was very difficult to remove and left a sticky haze behind even after several wipe-downs.  It did clean up pretty nicely, and a metal polish and wax will make it glow!  I might install a small amber LED in the rim of the glass to give it nice illumination.

Unfortunately, this clock doesn't work.  The glass is bound up in the frame, and the itty-bitty synchronous motor doesn't have the ass to turn anything that resists it.  I'm pretty sure it's just old gummed up lubricants binding up the mechanism.  When I have some free time (HAHAHAHAHAHAHA riiiiight! LOL), I'll take it apart and spray some solvent into the rollers to dissolve 50 years of hardened oil, and see if it works then.