Scale Drawing of EPOK Display with Time Display (1965-76)
A scale rendition of Douglas Leigh's famed EPOK display as situated from 1940 to the late 1970's (disused after 1977, finally dismantled in 1979) above the I. Miller building on the northeast corner of Broadway and 46th Street in New York's Times Square (1554 Broadway), as it looked from fall 1965 to early 1976 when Bulova's Accutron advertised on that display (although the product itself had been there since late 1964). During those years, the EPOK - usually a 76 x 54 layout (4,104 bulbs) - had its bottom four rows deactivated so that it appeared as 76 x 50 (3,800 bulbs), to accommodate the time display at bottom which displayed up to the nearest 1/10 of a second, and which controls were supplied by Time-O-Matic to Bulova's specifications (per ad in the June 1966 issue of Signs of the Times magazine and a 1970 article in the same publication about this billboard). Shown is a redrawing of a frame from one of Otto Messmer's drawings of a man with a hat who was the Bulova Accutron mascot in the mid-to-late 1960's. This is complete with "The time is exactly" text to the left of the clock. The columns, from various pictures and other descriptions, were spaced 4.875" apart, the rows 4.5" apart, while the time display was laid out 4" column spacing and 3.5" row spacing. (Notice how the spacing of the three bulbs designed to show a '7' is a bit different on the first lamp bank than on the third, fifth and sixth.) The Venetian blinds separating each row dated to about 1960 when Canada advertised on the EPOK for the first of two times (the other in 1962). From pictures, Signs of the Times vintage issues and a 1960 General Electric ad in that publication, 10-watt A21 reflector bulbs were used for the EPOK, and 40-watt A21's for the clock.
Scale Drawing of EPOK Display with Time Display (1965-76)
A scale rendition of Douglas Leigh's famed EPOK display as situated from 1940 to the late 1970's (disused after 1977, finally dismantled in 1979) above the I. Miller building on the northeast corner of Broadway and 46th Street in New York's Times Square (1554 Broadway), as it looked from fall 1965 to early 1976 when Bulova's Accutron advertised on that display (although the product itself had been there since late 1964). During those years, the EPOK - usually a 76 x 54 layout (4,104 bulbs) - had its bottom four rows deactivated so that it appeared as 76 x 50 (3,800 bulbs), to accommodate the time display at bottom which displayed up to the nearest 1/10 of a second, and which controls were supplied by Time-O-Matic to Bulova's specifications (per ad in the June 1966 issue of Signs of the Times magazine and a 1970 article in the same publication about this billboard). Shown is a redrawing of a frame from one of Otto Messmer's drawings of a man with a hat who was the Bulova Accutron mascot in the mid-to-late 1960's. This is complete with "The time is exactly" text to the left of the clock. The columns, from various pictures and other descriptions, were spaced 4.875" apart, the rows 4.5" apart, while the time display was laid out 4" column spacing and 3.5" row spacing. (Notice how the spacing of the three bulbs designed to show a '7' is a bit different on the first lamp bank than on the third, fifth and sixth.) The Venetian blinds separating each row dated to about 1960 when Canada advertised on the EPOK for the first of two times (the other in 1962). From pictures, Signs of the Times vintage issues and a 1960 General Electric ad in that publication, 10-watt A21 reflector bulbs were used for the EPOK, and 40-watt A21's for the clock.