Investing a Bit of Time for Connections to the Past
Here's an alarm clock that I remember was on my father’s night stand as long ago as the late 1950s when we lived in Los Angeles. Thus it was about 65+ years old when this photo was taken. I acquired it as my own I believe some time during the 1970s when my folks bought a nice clock radio.
This General Electric 'Telechron' model was stored away in a box for I don't know how long, outdated when it was functionally replaced by a battery powered quartz timepiece. This clock was most likely put away in the early 1980s.
Earlier this year (2025) it resurfaced so out of curiosity I plugged it into an outlet and found that it still operated. And because it employed a synchronous AC motor (which kept time with the ever-consistent 60Hz line frequency in the US) its accuracy was still infallible!
The only shortcoming was that after decades of sitting within a storage box the insulation on the power cord had taken an impractically serpentine set and was threatening to disintegrate if straightened beyond its current limits of resiliency! Therefore, replacement of the power cord was needed if it was to be used again safely.
When I explored within a local hardware store I found that they do not sell lamp replacement cords anymore, the type with twin exposed leads on one end and a power plug already molded on at the other end. The only ones they offered nowadays were those rated at 15-20 amps meant to replace on heavier duty power tools that may have been damaged from strenuous use at construction sites! Its overall diameter was much too large to be threaded through the hole for the power cord on the back of the clock. What I did instead was to adapt an orphaned power cord that once belonged to a long lost radio that had expired years ago.
Upon disassembling the clock I found that the two power leads were soldered onto small tabs attached to the coil for the motor, both covered over with green copper oxide. It only appeared more challenging than it really was because the heat of the soldering iron loosened the oxide and released the power leads without trouble or damage. The two new leads were soldered on with only minor difficulty! I plugged it in for a test and, as my UK friends say, "Bob's yer Uncle!" I finished the job with shrink tube insulation and stuffed the works back into its case, what you see in the photo above.
The map location shows one location where we lived in Los Angeles, the earliest spot where I remember seeing the clock.
Investing a Bit of Time for Connections to the Past
Here's an alarm clock that I remember was on my father’s night stand as long ago as the late 1950s when we lived in Los Angeles. Thus it was about 65+ years old when this photo was taken. I acquired it as my own I believe some time during the 1970s when my folks bought a nice clock radio.
This General Electric 'Telechron' model was stored away in a box for I don't know how long, outdated when it was functionally replaced by a battery powered quartz timepiece. This clock was most likely put away in the early 1980s.
Earlier this year (2025) it resurfaced so out of curiosity I plugged it into an outlet and found that it still operated. And because it employed a synchronous AC motor (which kept time with the ever-consistent 60Hz line frequency in the US) its accuracy was still infallible!
The only shortcoming was that after decades of sitting within a storage box the insulation on the power cord had taken an impractically serpentine set and was threatening to disintegrate if straightened beyond its current limits of resiliency! Therefore, replacement of the power cord was needed if it was to be used again safely.
When I explored within a local hardware store I found that they do not sell lamp replacement cords anymore, the type with twin exposed leads on one end and a power plug already molded on at the other end. The only ones they offered nowadays were those rated at 15-20 amps meant to replace on heavier duty power tools that may have been damaged from strenuous use at construction sites! Its overall diameter was much too large to be threaded through the hole for the power cord on the back of the clock. What I did instead was to adapt an orphaned power cord that once belonged to a long lost radio that had expired years ago.
Upon disassembling the clock I found that the two power leads were soldered onto small tabs attached to the coil for the motor, both covered over with green copper oxide. It only appeared more challenging than it really was because the heat of the soldering iron loosened the oxide and released the power leads without trouble or damage. The two new leads were soldered on with only minor difficulty! I plugged it in for a test and, as my UK friends say, "Bob's yer Uncle!" I finished the job with shrink tube insulation and stuffed the works back into its case, what you see in the photo above.
The map location shows one location where we lived in Los Angeles, the earliest spot where I remember seeing the clock.