Telechron - Telechron Alarm Clocks

Telechron Alarm Clocks

Telechron alarm clocks are particularly popular with collectors. Until about 1940, the overwhelming majority of Telechron alarm clocks had bell alarms, likely as a nod to the very popular "Big Ben" alarms made by Westclox. The entire mechanism was enclosed in a bell housing of steel. Atop the clock's coil was a metal strip that vibrated at 60 cycles per second when the alarm was tripped. This strip had a V-shaped arm attached to it, ending in a striker, which vibrated in turn against the bell housing. With the approach of war, restrictions on various metals required a reduction in their use, and the bell housing was eliminated, with only the metal strip above the coil remaining. This in itself, however, provided a loud buzz when the alarm was tripped (and was the basis of the alarm in all brands of alarm clocks for many years after the war). Post-war, very few Telechrons had bell alarms, and the bell had disappeared completely by 1960. Telechron was one of the first companies—and may have been the first—to introduce what became known as the "snooze" alarm in the early 1950s.

Read more about this topic:  Telechron

Famous quotes containing the words alarm and/or clocks:

    Ants are so much like human beings as to be an embarrassment. They farm fungi, raise aphids as livestock, launch armies into war, use chemical sprays to alarm and confuse enemies, capture slaves, engage in child labor, exchange information ceaselessly. They do everything but watch television.
    Lewis Thomas (b. 1913)

    all the clocks in the city
    Began to whirr and chime:
    “O let not Time deceive you,
    You cannot conquer Time.
    —W.H. (Wystan Hugh)