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These two “Plymouth” tambour mantel clocks made by Seth Thomas came into my shop just a couple of days apart. They are similar but have different movements. Both have lively hour and half hour strike on two chime rods.

Plymouth was a name that Seth Thomas put on some clocks ca. 1930 – 1950. If anyone has details of this, please let me know.

Our first example is labeled 89IM on the movement. This is a variation on the popular No. 89 movement having hour and half-hour strike, with two hammers that simultaneously strike on two chime rods. The date code is 37-11 which represents November, 1937. The label on the back door has the date 5/21/38 (May 21, 1938) hand written on it. This is probably the date the clock was sold.

Our second example has the later Seth Thomas time and strike movement that was introduced to save on cost. It is labeled 10-40 and 4503, which could be date codes for October 1940 or March, 1945. If anyone can help me interpret these numbers, please let me know! Similar movements have been seen with model number A-200 on them. The label says:

Guarantee and Directions
Covering Clocks Equipped With
4300, 4500 and 4600 Series 8-Day Pendulum
Strike Movements in Tambour Cases

Both cases are 20 inches wide and 9 1/4 inches tall, with bezels measuring approximately 6 1/4 inches outside diameter. Both have “fake inlay” printed on the case front. Both  have aluminum dials. The older dial has embossed numerals, but the numerals on the newer dial are printed only. Both clocks have instruction labels inside the back doors and are illustrated below.

Movement Summary

• The No. 89 movement was introduced about 1900, and was made in many variations.
• It was replaced in the late 1930s or the early 1940s with the second movement shown above. This has smaller plates and gears and was probably a cost reduction. It is not as good, as it seems to need quite strong mainsprings to run well.
• In 1955, a flood badly damaged the Seth Thomas factory. They phased out movement manufacturing and began importing many movements from Germany. They used many Hermle movements.

The Seth Thomas “Helmsman” ship’s bell strike clock has been popular for many years. It was introduced in the late 1950s or early 1960s, and made into the 1980s or longer.

Seth Thomas "Helmsman" ship's bell clock

The Helmsman uses a movement made by Hermle in Germany. The movements made in the 1960s have the patent number 2,974,473 stamped on the back plate. The patent describes a system for doing the ship’s bell strike. See this web page for strike examples. Ship’s bell striking operates on a four hour cycle with pairs of bell strikes on each hour, and pairs of strikes plus a single strike on the half hour:

12:00 XX XX XX XX

12:30 X

1:00 XX

1:30 XX X

2:00 XX XX

2:30 XX XX X

3:00 XX XX XX

3:30 XX XX XX X

4:00 XX XX XX XX

and so on, repeating every 4 hours.

The inventor of the patent is Richard Kramer, and the patent was assigned to General Time Corporation (parent company of Seth Thomas at that time).

The fact that General Time, and not Hermle, received the patent, leads me to believe that this movement was specially made for Seth Thomas. Later, of course, other companies used this movement in their clocks (including the Chelsea “shipstrike” clocks).

One interesting feature of Kramer’s design is that a “dummy” strike without the bell is performed at 15 minutes before the hour. This prepares the strike for the next hour, when 1, 2, 3, or 4 pairs of strikes are sounded. In later years, the design was changed, and the “dummy” strike cycle was eliminated.

I recently overhauled a William Gilbert walnut shelf clock from the 1880s. The loop ends of the mainsprings were labeled:

W. Barnes Patented Nov. 27, 1866

The NAWCC Library & Research Center was able to give me the number of this patent: 59,943, issued to Wallace Barnes. Then I was able to find the patent on Google Patents.

Here are the mainspring ends:

The patent describes how the mainspring can be hardened, tempered and blued, then the loop end attached. The patent implies that this is the first use of a separate piece for the loop end, riveted on. Previously, the end of the spring was rolled to form the end.

Here is the text of the patent

IMPROVED METHOD OF TEMPERING CLOCK SPRINGS,
WALLACE BARNES, OF BRISTOL, CONNECTICUT.
Letters Patent No. 59,943, dated November 27, 1866.

SPECIFICATIONS

TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Be it known that I, Wallace Barnes, of Bristol, county of Hartford, and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful improvements in the mode or process of manufacturing Clock Springs; and I do hereby declare that the same is described and represented in the following specification and drawings, so as to enable others skilled in the art to produce or make the same therefrom.

The nature of this improvement will be understood from the specification and drawings.

The object desired to be attained thereby, is to produce a spririg from a poorer quality of metal, and, at the same time, render a spring of given dimensions more effective for use, and more merchantable as an article of trade. And to effect this object, the springs are first hardened in the common way. Then, after the hardening process, they are placed between metal plates having their surfaces (one or both) corrugated or perforated, so as to allow the tempering fluid to flow freely between the coils of the spring and the plates, and immersed in molten lead or its equivalent, for the purpose of drawing the temper, or, in other words, for the purpose of producing the required temper to the spring, and also to produce a true, even position of the edge of the spring relative to all parts of the coil. The advantage of this operation, or result thereof, is to produce a greater amount of effective and prolonged action of a spring of equal dimensions, and to avoid the otherwise great amount of friction or obstruction to the mechanism of a clock, &c., when compared with those now in use. Then the spring is polished and blued in the ordinary way. After the above is accomplished, a clasp, a, having a sleeve formation, c, is rivetted to the outer end of the spring, d, instead of coiling the end thereof, as in the old way. The advantage gained by the use of this process will be apparent. The spring can be finished complete its entire length, hardened, tempered, polished, and blued, before the clasp is attached thereto. The clasp may be made of any desirable metal, and secured on each side of the end of the spring by rivets between the two parts of the clasp, thus protecting the end of the spring where it is liable to break or give way, and thereby provide a more perfect sleeve, by mean’s of which it (the spring) is held more perfectly in its desired place. It also produces a more merchantable article. I believe I have thus shown the nature and process whereby I produce this improvement.

What I claim, therefore, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is—

The mode or process in the manufacture of springs for clocks, &c., substantially as described.

WALLACE BARNES. [L. S.] ,

Witnesses:
E. M. BLiss,
Jeremy W. Bliss.

The owner of an old clock often asks, “How old is it?” Some clockmaking companies helped us answer this question by putting date codes on their products. (Actually, date coding was done for business reasons, including facilitating the ordering of spare parts.) Seth Thomas is one company that put date codes on many of their clocks.

Some Seth Thomas electric clocks from the late 1940s and early 1950s have a date code stamped into the rear of the case, below the power cord opening. The code is 4 digits, and I believe that the first two digits represent the year, and the last two digits give the month.

Shown below are two examples of the “Baxter” wooden case time only clock. This clock is 8 7/16 inches wide and 4 1/2 inches tall, with a convex glass over the two-tone silver color dial.

The first example illustrated below has the following date codes:

• Movement: 4712 (December 1947)
• Motor: 43 1 47 (may be January 1947)
• Outside case, beneath power cord on metal cover: 4712 (December 1947)

The second example has the following date codes:

• Movement: 3 48 (March 1948)
• Motor: 5001 (January 1950)
• Outside case, beneath power cord on wood: 5002 (February 1950)

I may not be interpreting the date code exactly right. One source said that the code gives year and quarter. This can’t always be right, as the examples above show a “12″, which cannot be a quarter! I recall seeing a “13″ for these digits once, so perhaps the second two digits represent a lunar month! Westclox used lunar months at one time for their bookkeeping, but I’m not sure about Seth Thomas.

Historical Note

On the first example above the metal rear cover is recessed into the wood, whereas on the second it is not.

400 day or “Anniversary” clocks were introduced in the 1880s in Germany. Their popularity had its ups and downs, reaching a peak in the 1950s, when many U.S. servicemen sent clocks home as gifts.

For years, most 400 day clocks did not have the maker’s name or country on the dial. Later (1920s?), “Made in Germany” started appearing on the bottom of dials. Finally, in the early 1950s, it became customary for the maker’s name (or an abbreviation) to appear on the dial. Examples:

• Heco: Henry Coehler & Co. (a U.S. importer, not a maker)
• Herr: Uhrehfabrik Herr
• Kern: Kern & Sohne
• Koma: Konrad Mauch
• Kundo: Kieninger & Obergfell (K und O)
• Schatz: Aug. Schatz & Sohne (also known as Jahreuhrenfabrik)

I just repaired a Schatz (Jahresuhrenfabrik) 400 day clock that made about 1949 or 1950. The movement has no date, and says Jahresuhrenfabrik (German for Year Clock Company) in the circle around the 49. The number 49 is supposed to represent the year (1949) that this model of movement was introduced, although very similar movements had been made by this company since around 1900 or earlier.

The dial on this clock does not say “Schatz”, and I have seen other made about the same time with no name on the dial. Judging from the examples I have seen, the name Schatz starting appearing on dials around 1950 or 1951. If you have any information about this, please leave a comment below.

Repair Work

This clock had one very rough pivot (front center wheel pivot) which probably caused excessive friction. I smoothed and burnished it, polished the other pivots, and smooth broached the pivot holes.

The movement is no. 1278 in the Horolovar 400 Day Clock Repair Guide. It uses a 0.004 inch thick suspension spring.

Repair job 5015.

“Adamantine” was Seth Thomas’ trademarked name for a celluloid finish over wood. Besides the mahogany color shown here, it was made in black, white, green, brown, tan and other colors. These cases are durable, and can usually be polished to look very nice. Sometimes the colors fade with age. Adamantine clocks were made from about the 1880s to the 1920s.

This beautiful mahogany Adamantine clock came into my shop recently with a broken time mainspring. Nothing too exciting about that, but I think this clock is so nice looking that I decided to show it here. I had previously repaired it 11 years ago, overhauling the movement and polishing the case and bezel.

I replaced the broken time mainspring with a Merritt’s P-1956 3/4 by .0165 by 96 inches (the original spring was 0.0172 inch thick). The pendulum takes a superb motion (almost too good) and so an even thinner mainspring would work. During my previous overhaul, I replaced the way too strong strike mainspring (an incorrect replacement) with a spring about 0.016 inch thick.

Repair job 4981.

This nice little wooden case clock is 9-1/2 inches tall and 7-1/2 inches wide with a 3-15/16 inch time track on the dial. It was made about 1930, and has a manual-starting electric motor. The starting lever is on the back of the movement (inside the back door) and is depressed and released to start the motor.

My customer had e-mailed me and said that the starting lever had fallen off, and asked if I could put it back on. She had taken it to several clock repair shops, and they all wanted to take out the original movement and put in a new battery movement. This has been her favorite clock for many years, and she wanted it kept like original.

I agreed to have her send it to me. I unpacked it, and found the lever and mounting screw taped inside the clock. I secured the lever with the screw, plugged in the cord, started the motor, and it ran fine! I can’t understand why a clock shop would not have simply put the lever back on instead of recommending a new movement!

I blogged about this clock shortly after receiving it in April. At that time, it had an incorrect picture in the door. Lee Davis painted a reproduction on old glass for me. I am extremely pleased with this clock. The case veneer needs some repair, but I can enjoy it as it is for now.