Westclox Logan Electric Alarm Clock Made in November 1945

The “Logan” electric alarm clock was one of the first new products that Westclox introduced after world war II. Produced from October 1945 through 1953, Logan was made with both plain and luminous dials. Logan has an ivory color painted metal case 4 3/4 inches tall, a convex glass lens, a self-starting model M2 synchronous electric motor, and a power interruption indicator.

Here’s a plain (non-luminous) Logan that I repaired for a customer. It has the date code 11 45 (November 1945) on both the motor and the back plate of the movement. Thus, this is an early example.

The red dot in the dial is the power outage indicator. After you plug the clock into a power outlet, you tilt the clock backward and slightly upside down. This resets the dot to ivory color (to match the dial), and it stays this color as long as the clock has electrical power. The dot turns red again if the power fails, this signals you that the time on the clock may be incorrect and should be checked, and reset if necessary. The power outage indicator feature was common on self-starting electric clocks until around the early or mid-1950s, by which time residential electricity was more reliable.

The plastic dial on the back is for setting the time the alarm will ring. In the bottom picture you can see the alarm hammer and bell. The M2 is Westclox’s second design of electric clock motor. See clockhistory.com for more on clock motors.

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Repair job 9026. This clock apparently ran for many years without lubrication, as four pivots were rusty; of these, three were nearly worn through and was was completely worn off. See picture below:

I found replacement gear assemblies for these (they could have been repivoted if needed). I polished the pivots and installed four bushings. I used 10W-60 and 5W-40 synthetic motor oil for the pivots; the motor was lubricated with Molykote Light grease.


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