An overflow crowd attended on the cool February morning. The mart had something new, a large display of new clock parts, spread over several tables. Dozens of quartz movements at fifty cents a piece and new clock dials going for the tidy sum of one dollar. Needless to day, much of this merchandise disappeared rather quickly.
Ken Simons walks us through time, beginning with the sand clock around 1500 BC, and the water clock around 325 BC. The next big step was in the mid 1600’s with the mechanical clock. The pendulum clock as we know it was introduced around 1700. Then came balance wheel clocks, which is the basis for mechanical watches. Each innovation brought with it higher accuracy.
With the discovery of the quartz movement, the accuracy of watches and clocks is 10 to the 5th power. WWV time became standard in the USA in 1917, and was initially located in Washington D. C. It used the Shortt double pendulum clock from 1921 to 1923. In 1930, WWV was moved to Beltsville, MD, then moved to Fort Collins, CO in 1966, and has been there since. Fort Collins was chosen because of the favorable condition for broadcast, due to conductivity in the ground. WWVH started their operation in 1948. WWVB went on the air in 1956 at 60 KHZ. WWV in Colorado presently uses 2 lateral cesium frequency standards and as of 1999 they began using the NIST-F1 Cesium fountain frequency standard which has the capability of accuracy to within about 0.1 nanoseconds per day. WWV also uses about 2 dozen cesium portable frequency standards like the unit in the photo. They use these units to verify timekeeping of their system and the 30 similar systems world wide. The cesium unit in Ken’s clock is no longer operative.
Many 18-size Hunting Case Watches were on display by the watch focus group. Kent Singer, one of the leaders of the focus group, was absent as he was in the process of moving to the Savannah area. We wish Kent the best with his new job and home, and hope that he will still visit the Chapter as often as he can.
Quite a variety of clocks were for sale at the Mart, as can be seen from the picture below. There was something for just about everyone, ranging from ogees to quartz movements, and vintage electric clocks to clock face reproductions.
