Westclox Big Bens and Baby Bens are full of the stuff. Immediately after, substances like promethium and tritium were used as a luminous material, and they're still being used today. Sep 23, 2011 var year = today.getFullYear() . They make alarm and one-day lever clocks only, and with practically two different articles, known as the 4-inch and 2-inch movements, they have an output of in their factory at LaSalle, Ill., of nearly two million clocks a year. When Did Glow In The Dark Watches Stop Using Radium? I have an antique mantle clock given to my Aunt & Uncle for a wedding gift (approximately 1949) FROM my great grandparents. Charles Crow Penn Valley, Ca, I have run across and old clock that I would like to know something about. Charles Stahlberg headed a group from Waterbury, Connecticut, who came to Peru in 1884 to build clocks based on a new idea by Stahlberg. From that point on I really liked those. Origin of the eye, forklore or legends surrounding????? The women also left a legacy to science that has been termed invaluable., shifting from serif to sans-serif typefaces and from slightly ornate to more streamlined minute and second hands, all of which eased legibility; setting the clock face closer to the glass, reducing shadows; and creating a slightly smaller form overall., three women fainted, several clerks were trampled, and four showcase windows were shattered before police untangled a jam of 2,500 women and a few stout-hearted men who converged on the store., For That Healthy Glow, Drink Radiation . Your email (will not be published) (required), The Timeless Appeal of the Westclock Big and BabyBens, The National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, Not Your Grandmas Cuckoo: Decapitating, Rat-Eating Clocks of the Black Forest, The Care and Repair of 19th-Century American Clocks. When radium was discovered in the early 1900s, people were fascinated by its mysterious glow and it was added to many everyday products, including paints. Good old fashioned branding played a major role, as well. It has ingraved on it 2-20-31. Thank you, i have a pocket watch that says (inscribed inside) g. falconer ,,,rona & london or kona & london i dont know its in old english and says kona or hona it has 1243 all inscribed on the inside where when u open it u can see the gears, looks like an a8 and a crown with a 18 on the middle inside cover (that covers the gears) and also a 1243 and what looks like an 8 or an infinite symbol (sideways 8)then again on the part that clasps over everything on the inside an A3 or A8? Could you please try to help me find out what kind of clock this is. Buy Now. Stoddard: Pay attention to quality. England. My father (Richard Ristau Sr.) worked here for 48.. . The factory contained a bowling alley, and Ristau said his father was an excellent bowler. When did they stop using radium on clocks? I thought, oh boy, I just need four more and Ill have them all! Junghans, Kienzle,Mauthe,Kaiser, Peter, (all from Germany) Veglia (Italy), CNIS ( France), Ingersoll (UK) as well as some Hong Kong made items. Westclox Radium Dial Clock. His ideas were patented on as US patent #326,602. . Stoddard: The prices for larger wall clocks, three feet tall and up, have increased dramatically, while prices on some of the more common clocks have remained the same for the past 20 years. This will broaden my view in the clock. The Ghost Girls might have been the envy of the other girls in town, but no one yet realized just how much danger they were being subjected to. hamilton radiation | NAWCC Forums Radium - Element information, properties and uses | Periodic Table The only problem is a standard size D battery does not fit. Unbelievable true story of the 'radium girls' - NZ Herald At the start of the decade, the company brought in a skilled new industrial designer named Henry Dreyfuss; a true modernist. In 2006 I started collecting vintage advertisements. From 1942 to 1945, Westclox ceased all production intended for domestic civilian sale and dedicated its production resources to the war effort. Westclox began as the United Clock Company of Peru, Illinois in 1885. When Did They Stop Using Radium On Clock Hands? Richard Ristau Jr., former plant manager, said hes happy to see the space being used for the museum. Westclox travel alarm clock made in China - Antique And Vintage Clocks 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. The whole clock seems to be origional and was maintained by my grandfather who was a watch/clock repairman. Theres a seller on eBay now whos doing some really outstanding restorations of Big Bens. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. Purchased from a man who claimed to have salvaged them from the backroom of an unnamed Chicago watch repair shop, each round and weathered face represents the lasting work of an international manufacturing giant at the peak of its powers. We are looking for any Westclox photographs, memorabilia etc between 1927- 1980s of the factory. Something about them has always been ingrained in me. Dreyfuss revised his changes at the end of the decade, designing the Style 5 and 5a Big Bens in 1938including the featured Loud Alarm dials from our museum collection. Early in the 20th century there was a medical practice that revolved around a new treatment involving the radioactive material called radium. Through a friend I purchased an apparently antique key wind up long wooden and glass cased clock. 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. 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. Radium dials were produced throughout most of the 20th century before being replaced by safer tritium-based luminous material in the 1970s and finally by non-toxic, non-radioactive strontium aluminatebased photoluminescent material from the middle 1990s. Did Westclox use radium? Helen. [9] Prior to that date, "the federal government had a limited role, if any, in ensuring the safe use of radium," according to the NRC. I have a small westclox alarm clock. Westclox did make a couple of documented advertising clocks, but very few. . [3] The Radiolite series, made in various sizes and models, became a signature of the Connecticut-based company. [Workers assembling Big Ben alarm clocks at the Westclox plant, 1910s. Henry Warren invented a little synchronous motor that could go inside a clock. Underneath the #12 on the face it says: G. Falconer & Co. LTD. Hong Kong. One of the objects on display in the Benton County Historical Society's Corvallis Museum is this Westclox Radium Dial Clock. [6] Decaying radium also produces the gas radon, recognized as the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States[6] and the United Kingdom. Read more about "Radium Girls" here. But this is not how the story of Westclox began. First, if your clock is for display only, I think it is harmless if the paint on the hands is not disturbed. . When he made his first clock and plugged it into the wall it worked fine except it wasnt accurate, it was off by plus or minus a half hour a day, because the 60 cycles were not regulated at that time, so it could vary quite a bit. It was put away for years and last year it was given to me as I have small collection of United novelty clocks. But it had always just been a matter of time (pun less intended) before industrial mass production made a wide-scale phenomenon like the Big Ben possible. This end has been achieved by what is known as the Western Processa process in which the component parts of a clock are cast, or, so to speak, cemented together with an alloy, instead of staked, and in which all hand labor is replaced by automatic machinery., [Automatic machinery certainly sped up the manufacturing process, by plenty of human skill and attention was still required to make the Big Ben. I have a Westclox Big Ben 1910 style 1a and have not been able to find out the present value/worth. In the 1970s, radium was phased out of wristwatches and clockdials. 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]. theres the problem, there were two gears that were in backwards. document.write(year) Westclox Big Ben Alarm Clock Vintage. The alarm mechanism was also improved as part of Kerns new patents, with an intermittent ringing that kind of acted as an archaic form of snooze alarm. Thanks, Paula. Ref comment #10 from Frank Baker. When I was 11 or 12, I started mowing lawns for money and paid another man to repair it for me, but when it came back it would run for a while and then stop, pretty erratic. I worked here for 28 years. About 1931 they made the first electric Big Ben, and they were plug ins. when did westclox stop using radium - Flycloud.vn The clock is shielded From the glass crystal. That batch was in production non-continuously from 1939 to 1946, housed in gunmetal cases with nickel trim. It was a gift from him to her the year before they were married. Leg model with ring on top, dustproof case. I spent many an evening here, watching him bowl.. Hundreds of thousands of clocks were produced a year, until closing its doors in 1980. Gordon Goodrum Gary Biolchini added more style series in his book You just cant imagine the size of this factory its just gigantic. The massive success of the Big Ben design wasnt just about function and style. 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. I was given an Elias Ingraham Clock many years ago and would like to know a bit more about it and its value. Most importantly, they were forbidden to point the tip with their lips, and they avoided to ingest or inhale the luminous paint. Radiums luminosity was part of its allure, Moore writes. Do you have an archival dept who could give us an idea of our Western Clock which we recently acquired? UHR (CW arrow) knob sets clock time. 1888. Hot Times in "Radium Hospital": The History of Radium Therapy at MSK Accueil; Services; Ralisations; Annie Moussin; Mdias; 514-569-8476 Beginning in the 1910s, the girls instructed to put radium in their mouths didn't bat an eyelash. I always wondered why the dial of my Baby Ben clock, which I have had from late 60s, was marked off in 48ths of an hour instead of minutes. Yet Mrs. Keane was a survivor who later conquered colon and breast cancer. Then, on New Years Eve, as 2011 became 2012, the unthinkable happened. It would be greatly appreciated. Contact the Webmaster for perceived copyright infringement (DMCA Registration Number 1010287). its a Gold coloring and the bottom is well worn like it was slid into something regularily. Art and Mary Ann Windy [pictured] have been married for 49 years, met as Westclox employees and were present for the open house. The Radium Girls were female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting watch dials with self-luminous paint. Westclox Big Ben and Baby Ben Identification Guide , Remembering the Great War and The Clock That Caused a Near Riot . Sep 6, 2008. potz said: Afaik Radium was used right up to the 1950's. Some sources even say it was used up to 1968 in watches and 1978 in clocks. Many thanks. [Left: The first national Big Ben advertisement appears in the Saturday Evening Post in 1910: Big Ben is a thin, beautiful and punctual sleepmeter with a silent motor that will not annoy you on your lie-awake nights and a deep musical voice that will call you on your sleepiest mornings. Right and Below: A style 1A Big Ben from our museum collection, circa 1920s.]. My clothes, hanging in a dark closet, gave off a phosphorescent glare. During World War II they had some fantastic ads that you can see on my website like, Victory Wont Wait for the Nation Thats Late, and Guard Your Big Ben where they show a bulldog and a soldier with a gun guarding a Big Ben because during the war they stopped making clocks for the consumer market and totally switched over to military work. 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. On the Style 9, they went back to actual minute markings. . The movement was mounted to the inner case back. At one time they employed about 3500 people, making about 35, 000 clocks and watches per day. Eventually, scientists and medical professionals realized that these workers' illnesses were being caused by internal contamination from the radium they ingested. Recently Ive seen people taking an old Baby Ben thats worth a few bucks or so and gluing rhinestones around the bezel on the clock. They were told that eliminating lip-pointing had ended earlier problems. Radium: a medical treatment in the early 20th - College of Physicians Frank Baker. People will still look for a good wind up but the quality declined in the later years just because the companies tried so hard to keep the prices low. According to Periodic. and again 1243 is this an antique its gold but looks brand new but also an antique at the same time does anyone know what kind of pocket watch this is or if its gold or a replica of something or what it might be worth?? What is Radium Used For? - WorldAtlas Hi I need the face plate for a black face big ben with the alarm dial on its face do you have any you could sell me alonf with the radio dials, it was probably outsourced meaning westclox sold some watches to hot wheels, I had a westclox electric dialite like that. In the early 1920s, when the company introduced a new series of Big Ben and Baby Ben clocks with luminous dials, the work of painting on this special, glow-in-the-dark element was outsourced to the Radium Dial Companyan independent business located just up the road in the neighboring town of Ottawa, IL. But he only comes upon receipt of signed price agreement. Westclox began as the United Clock Company in Peru, Illinois in 1885. Were finally at a point, where were ready to do more than just sit here, said Ruth Spayer, curator for the museum. I just had it repaired & it works & looks great. However, there`s no easy way for you to tell; there were no labeling requirements then as we have now. Westclox also made about 5000 gold-plated reproductions. They had one in Brazil for a while and I think also in Hong Kong. How old is my Westclox? - Rampfesthudson.com [Westclox advertisements from WWII period, ft. Also Telechron, which was a big maker of electric clocks. 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. Would you please direct me to someone that can do this for me? Westclox closed its Peru factory 35 years ago. The aim of the Western Clock MFG Co. in entering the manufacture of alarms was to apply to nickel clocks, features which were previously found only in high-priced timepieces, and prohibited in low-priced lever clocks by the high cost of production involved. I recently added the Big Ben Style 1 and Baby Ben Style 1 Dial and Back types. It was passed on to my sister and for years it was on their mantle along time until it stopped. Both the Big and Baby Bens were housed in a newly refined bell-back clock case. Collectors Weekly: When did you discover that there were other clock collectors? People did some bad things over the years just to get them running. The center is in the shape of the world map. Copyright WECKER (CW arrow)/UHR (CCW arrow) knob with ring: CW winds alarm; CCW winds clock. Same as the nickel version but in a gold-plated case. Above all else, though, the rise and fall of Westcloxand the deeper history of these Big Ben clocks, in particularis simply far too intriguing to dismiss just because of a long-distance commute. Technically speaking, though, Westclox did still produce clocks during the gap years that followed. Condition is important, but clocks can be restored. Your email address will not be published. After several changes of ownership, it became . There are also some specialty chapters, like an alarm clock chapter and a 400-day clock chapter, one that specializes in wristwatches and one on early American pocket watches. At the end of one hand is a star and the other hand is the moon. He also recalled playing in the factory. The Crystal blocks a significant amount of The radiation. Thank you. 0 Comments; Uncategorized newark advertiser obituaries 2021 . Radium dials held near the face have been shown to produce radiation doses in excess of 10Sv / hour. Eventually, scientists and medical professionals realized that these workers' illnesses . I have purchased 1) Style 1 Baby and Big Ben with the Gold Leaf dial (seller stated raised letters); and, 2) a Style 1 Baby Ben with Baby Ben De Luxe on the dial. 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). My love is for the style 1 peg leg Big and Baby Bens; mostly Baby Bens. In 1918 the Big Ben case was improved to make it dustproof, as described in patent #1,300,278 issued to Kern on April 15, 1919. There are also some other makers clocks Ive gotten into, like the Seth Thomas 30 hour ogee, which is a weight-driven shelf clock. Are Watches With Radium Dials Safe? New Study Offers Warning I Have a small brass alarm clock,which is 1-3/4 Hieght Length & Width. I will be watching for more articles from Bill Stoddard Ironically, the war that had cost them Gaston Le Roy had also stifled much of the companys European competition, opening up an even bigger share of the world marketplace in the 1920s. I read (but cant remember where) that about 40,000 were made. We are very proud to be living in this building and would love to know more about this specific site. Ristau said he remembered when the Westclox factory was the heart of the city, and recalled enjoying his time with Westclox. 2023 by Andrew Clayman. In 1914, Dr. Sabin Arnold von Sochocky and Dr. George S. Willis founded the Radium Luminous Material Corporation. I was pained to learn how the girls had suffered while working here and sacrificed their lives to give the name of the company which it has today. It sits on a small brass stand with Westclox on it. Never underestimate the value of an alarm clock when yours broke two years ago and nobody has manufactured a new one since. Your email address will not be published. when did westclox stop using radium - Dev.decourbaine.com Here you can see production dates, original retail prices and other The new features, according to a synopsis from the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, included: shifting from serif to sans-serif typefaces and from slightly ornate to more streamlined minute and second hands, all of which eased legibility; setting the clock face closer to the glass, reducing shadows; and creating a slightly smaller form overall.. Luminous Processes employees interviewed by a journalist in 1978 stated they had been left ignorant of radium's dangers. Thanks so much The Westclox Big Ben Alarm Clock Vintage is an iconic timepiece that has been around since the early 1900s. When did westclox start making clocks? Lynda Hinshaw, At this moment I am research a clock by Falconer& co HongKong. Over time, she contracted terrible cancerous tumors, lost most of her teeth, and suffered countless other health problems. (All images in this article courtesy Bill Stoddard, www.clockhistory.com), I found this article very complimentary to the Westclox company and an intriguing piece to read. I think the clock was electric but could have been a wind up or maybe even a pendulum. But for years the majority were wind ups, they were so popular. They made them with wooden works until about 1840, then with brass gears and I like some of the early brass-geared American clocks. From 1917 to 1926, the United States Radium Corporation used radium to produce wristwatches and clocks. 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. Big Ben style 1a continued in production until its discontinuation in 1935. Stoddard: Ive been there several times. [9] The element was phased out of use by industry acting under its own volition as superior and safer luminous materials entered the marketplace. By the 1960s production went offshore to achieve economies of scale . So yes. This 1964 Westclox Christmas ad describes their features. Various lettering on the dial and various patent dates (later, numbers) on the Like style 1a non-luminous with dealer name on dial. When many of these early Big Ben advertisements were still running, Gaston Le Roys life took a sudden and dramatic turn. $38.00. The work involved using luminous radium paint to make the numbers on clocks, watches and aeronautic dials glow in the dark. By 1930, all dial painters stopped pointing their brushes by mouth. Thank to several professionals who Ive met on Ebay, I have become quite skilled with my restorations plus making dials and alarm function indicators. Stoddard: The first Big Bens and Baby Bens went on the market in 1910 and they were wind ups. It is a Medbury-4W #4910. The clock can still give considerable amounts of radiation about 2-3 inches from the Crystal measured with a Geiger counter. The Evolution Behind Rolex Luminous Material | Bob's Watches In the production of ordinary clocks adapted to the needs and means of the millions, America produces results of remarkable excellence. Radium paint itself was eventually phased out and has not been used in watches since 1968. hi, I have a cocacola square clock. The movement was then used with minor changes in Loud Alarm models until 1956. Radium was also used until the early 1970s in "glow-in-the-dark" paints, e.g., for dials on clocks, and in other industrial applications such as instrument calibration. How We Realized Putting Radium in Everything Was Not the Answer It might be the only one in the country, Spayer said. I believed it was manufacturing tag. The standard operating procedure of their daily work involved literally placing radium flecked paint brushes between their lips to create a finer point before application. I took it all apart and asked my dad to help me put it back together, but he cut his finger on the spring. Westclox Clock Construction and Quality. Stoddard: The National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors (NAWCC) is headquartered in Pennsylvania but has chapters throughout the country. 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. If you want to identify an item, try posting it in our Show & Tell gallery. There is a small dial inside of the clock face that has roman numerals like another clock face. Style Information: Plain dial: 1918 - 1935 Black luminous dial: 1921 - 1935 There are variations in the lettering on the dial and back. The NAWCC has an online forum with a lot of different categories. Thats another story. Any help would be appreciated. Seeking the Big 3 goals of convenience, cleanliness, and cheap production, Dreyfuss rolled out his new-look Big Ben in 1931.