Dont know if someone ingraved date on when took down or if the original. 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. I also like some of the older American weight-driven clocks. In clocks, as in all other lines of goods, there are two classes of consumersthe millions and the millionaires. 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. Your email address will not be published. Posted on 1 second ago; June 24, 2022 . Advertisement: Illustrates crackle green Tiny Tim, crackle blue Big Ben and crackle pink Baby Ben clocks. Accueil; Services; Ralisations; Annie Moussin; Mdias; 514-569-8476 While most of our Big Ben dials are black with luminous numbers, there were also white dials with black numerals in production at the same time. A pair of teenage boys broke into the abandoned factory and set a fire that quickly spread and enveloped much of the central complex. Stoddard: The National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors (NAWCC) is headquartered in Pennsylvania but has chapters throughout the country. When did they stop using radium for watches? "Westclox" in italics, double hexagon legs: 1918, "Westclox" in italics, regular legs: 1918 -1922, "Westclox" in italics, very narrow lettering at bottom: "MADE BY WESTERN CLOCK CO., LA SALLE, ILL., U.S.A.", ca. How do you date a Westclox Baby Ben? Did westclox stop using radioactive paint by the 1960s? In the production of ordinary clocks adapted to the needs and means of the millions, America produces results of remarkable excellence. theres the problem, there were two gears that were in backwards. Vintage Clocks and Radium Risks - Ken's Clock Clinic As various larger corporate interests got involved in the years ahead, however, and as increasing competition from electronic clockmakers slowed the Big Bens dominance, the inevitable slow down began. Instrument dials painted with radium-based paint, United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, "WWII Military Watches 'Potentially Pose Serious Cancer Risk,', "Health Effects of Radium Radiation Exposure,", "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Radium Dials,", "Lume 101: Watch Luminescence Explained,", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Radium_dial&oldid=1123475907, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Jane Brickman, "Radium Girls: Women and Industrial Health Reform, 19101935,", This page was last edited on 23 November 2022, at 23:30. Soon, he was running the Western Clock Co. advertising department, and proving his worth with some clever marketing strategies. Ive been trying to compare lots of different clocks to find out what original parts go together. Thanks, Teri. Facts About Radium | Live Science England. 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. Westclox made an excellent, almost exact, reproduction of the style 1a Big Ben in 1970. First, if your clock is for display only, I think it is harmless if the paint on the hands is not disturbed. [citation needed] The use of radium to provide luminescence for hands and indices on watches soon followed. With George Kerns new alarm clock, specifically, Le Roy decided it would be wise to craft a new brand name, and to leave the Western name off of the clock face entirely, since the company was overly associated with cheap goods at the time. Question: Are both 1) and 2) marriages of Style 2 mechanisms put in a Style 1A Big Ben and Style 1 Baby Ben. Over time, she contracted terrible cancerous tumors, lost most of her teeth, and suffered countless other health problems. Theres a seller on eBay now whos doing some really outstanding restorations of Big Bens. when did westclox stop using radium old restaurants in lawrence, ma . It has a removable bottom decorative piece as well as a top rounded top flat piece of wood with a verticle wooden slat on the back extending to become a peg-like extension to fit and secure the decorative piece into the top of the clock. Buy Now. The factory contained a bowling alley, and Ristau said his father was an excellent bowler. Here you can see production dates, original retail prices and other knowledge about vintage and antique Westclox clocks and watches. Phone: 717-684-8261. Gordon Goodrum It was discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898. Not to mention theres the Big Bens so that doubles it right there. Big Ben: butler nickel case, gold leaf numeral dial 1930 1932. hamilton radiation | NAWCC Forums Within in another ten years, the workforce had tripled again, powered by employee George Kerns 1908 invention of the first Big Benthe sleek, iconic model that basically set the template for the 20th century wind-up alarm clock. [citation needed] This rate probably only represents the dose rate from gamma emission, as the alpha emission will be stopped by the lacquer, or crystal, or case; hence, the dose rate following ingestion or inhalation of the dust could be much higher. But the chances that you have a radium clock are slim, unless it is very old. Were finally at a point, where were ready to do more than just sit here, said Ruth Spayer, curator for the museum. [3] The Radiolite series, made in various sizes and models, became a signature of the Connecticut-based company. The Radium Girls were female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting watch dials with self-luminous paint. As the dark cloud of fear and suspicion grew over the small town of Ottawa into the 30s, the Radium Dial Company itself refused to take any responsibility, claiming innocence and ignorance. They were, incredibly enough, instructed to ingest a radioactive poison all day, every day, and never properly warned of any potential hazards. [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.]. Was westclox ever manufactured in germany and if so when? Before OSHA was set up, 14,000 people died on the job every year; today, it is just over 4,500. WECKER (CW arrow)/UHR (CCW arrow) knob with ring: CW winds alarm; CCW winds clock. How did I get interested in clocks? When I was eight we moved to a new house and my mom and I were looking in the attic and found an old octagon wall clock made by Waterbury, probably dated about 1880. I would like to know the value of a #4 black, #321(in original cardboard Christmas box), mint condition, Baby Ben alarm clock is. I know Bill Stoddards name from other publications on Westclox. Radium - Element information, properties and uses | Periodic Table Don Spayer, volunteer and former Westclox employee, said the bulk of the museums collection was built through donations. My dad was one of the top bowlers here, Ristau said. It is a Medbury-4W #4910. The lume used on vintage Rolex watches was radium-based, and radium remained the standard for nearly all Rolex lume until 1963, when growing health concerns forced a shift away from it. AD x Stoddard: I was pretty much on my own until college. Radium was even used in medical applications during the 20th century. Up until this point in time (pun intended), quality time pieces had been considered a rich mans game. It has a patent June 18-1882 and says Dakota on the back,can you tell me more? A few years later my grandma gave me one that worked, and my aunt gave me another one. When did they stop using radium on clocks? Thank you. hi, I have a cocacola square clock. Westclox set up a factory in England in the 1940s and also in Scotland. This practice resulted in the ingestion of radium, which caused serious jaw-bone degeneration and malignancy and other dental diseases. [9] The element was phased out of use by industry acting under its own volition as superior and safer luminous materials entered the marketplace. "[4], According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, "radioactive antiques [including watches] are usually not a health risk as long as they are intact and in good condition. 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. From 1942 to 1945, Westclox ceased all production intended for domestic civilian sale and dedicated its production resources to the war effort. Because it was one degree removed from the radium business itself, Westclox seems to have largely dodged the controversy and lawsuits altogether. Westclox did make a couple of documented advertising clocks, but very few. These folks here that are responsible for this are doing a marvelous job, Ristau said. Finally, with Catherine Donohue serving as a key witness from her death bed in 1938, a groundbreaking Supreme Court case finally delivered some long awaited justice to the victims. The sound is very good when I compare it with the Howard Miller and the Jauke I just purchases, its loud and resonates very well. Radium Girls - Wikipedia Nowadays, Super-LumiNova, which is entirely non-radioactive and non-toxic, is the most used lume in watchmaking. Within two decades she had lost all her teeth. Stahlbergs company goes bankrupt not once, but twice, within its first several years. The only marking I can find are the letters ST in old english style inside of a diamond thats inside of a circle, on the clock works. Unfortunately, they also hint at a tragic chapter in American industrial history, when the appeal of a luminous new kind of paint wound up putting hundreds of workersmostly young womenat great personal risk. Contact the Webmaster for perceived copyright infringement (DMCA Registration Number 1010287). As the 1960s began, over 50 million Big Ben clocks had been produced in total, and additional Westclox plants were now in operation everywhere from Athens, Georgia, and Ontario, Canada, to Scotland and Australia. 1919 - 1920 on a small proportion of clocks, "Westclox" in Roman text, Wide lettering at bottom: 1923, "Westclox" in Roman text, Narrow lettering at bottom:1924 to 1927, "Westclox" in Roman text, Projection on the "x": 1928 - 1935, Luminous, "Westclox" in italics: ca. How do you set a manual alarm clock? - AnswersAll Eventually we became best friends and started researching together. $25.99. Radium dials were typically painted by young women, who used to 'point' their brushes by licking and shaping the bristles prior to painting the fine lines and numbers on the dials. 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. Can anyone direct me on how to find this clock? Here you can see production dates, original retail prices and other its a Gold coloring and the bottom is well worn like it was slid into something regularily. I will be watching for more articles from Bill Stoddard 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. It had beneath that four long tubes and they were the chimes for the door bell. 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. It can be found with some other clocks in a case in the second floor hallway. My father (Richard Ristau Sr.) worked here for 48.. 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.. The story begins with a Connecticut clockmaker named Charles Stahlberg getting a patent for a new alarm clock design in 1885. I am pleased that I came across your article. Kind regards, Ben van Vliet. If you do not expect to work hard and carefully, you are in the wrong place. credit: Northern Illinois University]. . 1968 Who made westclox? Well, the company certainly maintained some major salesrooms here, and many of their employees came from the city and its suburbs. Technically speaking, though, Westclox did still produce clocks during the gap years that followed. any info would be appreciated. Various lettering on the dial and various patent dates (later, numbers) on the Like style 1a non-luminous with dealer name on dial. The movement was then used with minor changes in Loud Alarm models until 1956. These paints were used on the dials of clocks and watches to make them glow-in-the-dark. 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. My Grandmother had a Westclox in her house. Most are in nickel finish cases, but some were made in gold plated cases. LandmarkHunter.com | Westclox clock factory, La Salle, IL At one time they employed about 3500 people, making about 35, 000 clocks and watches per day. It is made by The Sessions Clock movement, appears to be brass, a bucking horse with cowboy riderjudgeing from the clothes design of the cowboy it is quite old. 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. I have been purchasing these clocks as and when I got an opportunity. Just remember, old luminous clocks are full of radium! We pay his railroad fare on all orders for a dozen or more, we brand him with your name in lots of 24., unconsciously characterized the manunaffected, direct, devoted to his cause., Radiums luminosity was part of its allure,, The dial painters soon became known as the ghost girls because by the time they finished their shifts, they themselves would glow in the dark. I think it is a clock made by Sessions. 1970s Many of these workers developed bone cancer . They are just gorgeous watches and very well made. The Crystal blocks a significant amount of The radiation. Theyre just scattered in different places all over the country, little collections of hands, springs, screws, and things like that. The clock can still give considerable amounts of radiation about 2-3 inches from the Crystal measured with a Geiger counter. The use of Radium changed over several years but it was not until late 1960ies when the last were made. 0 Comments; Uncategorized newark advertiser obituaries 2021 . The NAWCC has an online forum with a lot of different categories. I know it was purchased in 1937 because it belonged to my elderly friends who were married in 1938. . It is in the manufacture of alarm and one-day clocks that these results are the most noticeable, because in this field the quality of the product had always been subordinated to the market value, and the general feeling was one of let good enough alone., [Automatic machinery certainly sped up the manufacturing process, by plenty of human skill and attention was still required to make the Big Ben. Leg model with ring on top, dustproof case. I am looking to get an approxmiate value of this clock. I have a sessions mantle clock duet#1. See the top of this page for a current list of Helen. I just had it repaired & it works & looks great. Some people just want one or two that they remember from childhood in good condition, so thats just the thing for them. Old Rose (pink) crackle finish Baby Ben with luminous dial: 1929 1930. Sometimes getting parts is tough, too, although it turns out Westclox made lots and lots of spare parts. Dave, Your question about a Big Ben containing radium, and in fact about which clocks actually do contain radium, is a good one. 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 had developed some sort of fascination for Big Ben and Baby Ben clocks. They did some limited production (less than 200) in 1908, when they were still perfecting the design, then quite a few in 1909, but it really wasnt nationally advertised until September of 1910. Stoddard: My grandma gave me an old Baby Ben alarm clock that didnt work when I was seven. So you find clocks where parts have been switched, so thats one challenge, determining originality. I Have a small brass alarm clock,which is 1-3/4 Hieght Length & Width. The style 1a can be distinguished from style 1 in several ways: The movement was changed for style 1a so that the mounting nuts were on the back. Can you confirm? I took it all apart and asked my dad to help me put it back together, but he cut his finger on the spring. The Canadian Clock Museum (http://www.canclockmuseum.ca/) may have some information. In 1913, with help from the US government, Dr. Douglas formed the National Radium Institute, to mine radium from uranium ores recently discovered in Colorado. My clothes, hanging in a dark closet, gave off a phosphorescent glare. When did Westclox stop using radium? Matthiessen [pictured below], who owns the powerful Illinois Zinc Company and most other things in Peru / LaSalle, decides to swoop in and save Stahlbergs little clock business, incorporating it as the Western Clock Mfg. Beginning in the 1910s, the girls instructed to put radium in their mouths didn't bat an eyelash. Also, its not just Americans who collect, its worldwide. Both the Big and Baby Bens were housed in a newly refined bell-back clock case. Once I was winding it and one of the main springs broke, so I decided to take it all apart and fix the main spring. When did the use of radium stop? Marie and Pierre Curie isolate radium - HISTORY Theyre making some really nice reproductions of it in China and if you dont know what youre looking for you could be fooled easily. A clock without hands might seem indifferent to the passage of time, but these old Big Ben and Baby Ben dials have some serious stories to tell. While the painting technique of the Ghost Girls was replaced with supposedly safer methods like silk screening, traces of radium were still used by many companies to get that desired glow effect throughout the 1940s and even as late as the 60s. 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. When did westclox start making clocks? 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. Could you please try to help me find out what kind of clock this is. 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.. Buy Now. One of the objects on display in the Benton County Historical Society's Corvallis Museum is this Westclox Radium Dial Clock. When did westclox stop using radium? Westclox travel alarm clock made in China - Antique And Vintage Clocks This will broaden my view in the clock. If someone has restored it in the past, make sure the correct dial was put on it and the movements, which have probably been repaired a lot, have been done nicely. I bought a 1970s Westclox pocket watch with a Hotwheels face that says authorized seller on it. The front is in Roman Numerals with a dome shaped raised glass. Radium Baby Ben by Westclox ( Still Glows) : r/clocks - reddit I try to get all the pictures I can and keep them all chronologically and study the history. [7], Ingestion of radium has been linked to anemia, cataracts, broken teeth, and reduced bone growth.[8]. Its hard to fathom in retrospect, but in the early 20th century, it was generally believed that small amounts of radium were perfectly harmless to humans, and thus, the substances natural, long-lasting glow actually made it something of an attractive novelty of the time periodnot just on clock dials, but in the worlds of quack medicine, fashion, cosmetics, and even a proto version of energy water, called Radithor.. . The Windys said their union confirms an old Westclox employee rumor about the long-lasting nature of a relationship struck up near a certain fountain. With a half-life of only 3.8 days, radon "seeds" (Rn gas contained in thin walled gold tubing, crimped and cut into units up to 1cm in length) could be left permanently implanted in the body. I have been collecting, repairing, and restoring mostly Westclox Big Bens for several years. 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 Christmas (1930) ad illustrates 61-F Dura Case, style 2 crackle finish Big Ben and Baby Ben, Auto Clock, Pocket Ben and Country Club pocket watches. How old is my Westclox? - Rampfesthudson.com thanks for your time, was doing research.. Appears from search engine a conversation about D batteries but cant find it in the text.. Can anyone inform me of the different size of D? When many of these early Big Ben advertisements were still running, Gaston Le Roys life took a sudden and dramatic turn. I recently added the Big Ben Style 1 and Baby Ben Style 1 Dial and Back types. As my first name is Ben, I started to collect these alarmclocks since about 1970. 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. Is Westclox a good brand? 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. But this is not how the story of Westclox began. I have a small westclox alarm clock. George Kern died on July 27, 1918 from a ruptured appendix, but his basic clock design lived on for years. About 1920 the luminous dial using radium paint was introduced. Radium dial - Wikipedia It looks like you mount it to the wall. Unbelievable true story of the 'radium girls' - NZ Herald
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