Scale Drawing of 1960's/'70's MONY Time/Temperature Display
A scale drawing of the time and temperature display of the Mutual of New York (MONY) Building at 1740 Broadway in New York City as after the massive rewiring of 1960-61, which saw the bulb count slashed from 569 bulbs per side to 130 (and from 2,276 total on all four sides to 520); but with five additional light sockets installed, three on the second lamp bank to show a '7' (and thus provide temperature readings) and two on each end of the center of the stick '1' at far left to show a minus sign if the temperature dipped below zero. [Although, as of the 1969 movie "Midnight Cowboy" (which was filmed the prior year), the 56th Street side (facing south) had an extra bulb on the upper middle right on the first lamp bank which lit up when the '7' was shown.] The distance between bulbs in both rows and columns was now 10". At the point this rewiring took place, the covers used for each bulb were removed and what would appear to be PAR38 light bulbs (likely 75 watt) displayed the time and temperature. Up to 1972-73, the degree sign took up a 6 x 5 grid, with 14 bulbs used; after another wiring modification and reprogramming in 1973, the degree sign was changed to 5 x 5 with 12 bulbs used. This mostly held (except for a period beginning in 1979 when, to save money on electric bills, the clock and iconic "Weather Star" were turned off) well into 1985 if not a bit beyond; there is at least one photo (after another MONY logo was installed atop the building on the 55th and 56th Street sides around 1987; and following the demolition of the old Rivoli Theatre) with the numbers in the same shape before they were changed to what we see today.
Though the shape of these numerals originated with Time-O-Matic (and were stolen by Signatrol which made their own such units), it is likely what at the time was Spencer Display Corp. supplied controls for this revamped layout at the 1960-61 outset, as it is one of three such displays whose photos were shown in ads for what had become General Indicator Corp. in the period such ads were run in Signs of the Times magazine between September 1962 and January 1963 (irrespective of two scale redrawings of time displays from that company elsewhere on this site); films made (including "Midnight Cowboy") seem to suggest that the transition between time and temp up to 1972-73 was in line with other Spencer/General Indicator units in their sloppiness. Not until after 1973 (presumably with Time-O-Matic controls) did the transitions from one to the other become more seamless.
Scale Drawing of 1960's/'70's MONY Time/Temperature Display
A scale drawing of the time and temperature display of the Mutual of New York (MONY) Building at 1740 Broadway in New York City as after the massive rewiring of 1960-61, which saw the bulb count slashed from 569 bulbs per side to 130 (and from 2,276 total on all four sides to 520); but with five additional light sockets installed, three on the second lamp bank to show a '7' (and thus provide temperature readings) and two on each end of the center of the stick '1' at far left to show a minus sign if the temperature dipped below zero. [Although, as of the 1969 movie "Midnight Cowboy" (which was filmed the prior year), the 56th Street side (facing south) had an extra bulb on the upper middle right on the first lamp bank which lit up when the '7' was shown.] The distance between bulbs in both rows and columns was now 10". At the point this rewiring took place, the covers used for each bulb were removed and what would appear to be PAR38 light bulbs (likely 75 watt) displayed the time and temperature. Up to 1972-73, the degree sign took up a 6 x 5 grid, with 14 bulbs used; after another wiring modification and reprogramming in 1973, the degree sign was changed to 5 x 5 with 12 bulbs used. This mostly held (except for a period beginning in 1979 when, to save money on electric bills, the clock and iconic "Weather Star" were turned off) well into 1985 if not a bit beyond; there is at least one photo (after another MONY logo was installed atop the building on the 55th and 56th Street sides around 1987; and following the demolition of the old Rivoli Theatre) with the numbers in the same shape before they were changed to what we see today.
Though the shape of these numerals originated with Time-O-Matic (and were stolen by Signatrol which made their own such units), it is likely what at the time was Spencer Display Corp. supplied controls for this revamped layout at the 1960-61 outset, as it is one of three such displays whose photos were shown in ads for what had become General Indicator Corp. in the period such ads were run in Signs of the Times magazine between September 1962 and January 1963 (irrespective of two scale redrawings of time displays from that company elsewhere on this site); films made (including "Midnight Cowboy") seem to suggest that the transition between time and temp up to 1972-73 was in line with other Spencer/General Indicator units in their sloppiness. Not until after 1973 (presumably with Time-O-Matic controls) did the transitions from one to the other become more seamless.