The Ghost Girls might have been the envy of the other girls in town, but no one yet realized just how much danger they were being subjected to. It has a cracked front lens that I would like to replace. This dustproofing is accomplished by fittings around the set knobs and winding keys and on the regulator. However, there`s no easy way for you to tell; there were no labeling requirements then as we have now. Stopping this practice drastically reduced the amount of radium ingested and therefore, the incidence of malignancy. Medical researchers extended the use of radium to cure impotence in men and women by creating fertility drugs with the element to "stimulate" reproduction. Next year, well have been married for 49 years, Mary Ann said. Baby Ben and other Westclox clocks and watches have been assigned styles. For the town of Peruwhich had tied much of its identity to Westclox for the better part of a centurythe damage went beyond financial. His bigger job was to design a system so the power companies could regulate their generator so the clock could keep time. They made the most of the perk, wearing their good dresses to the plant so theyd shine in the dance halls at night, and even painting radium onto their teeth for a smile that would knock their suitors dead.. . Can you help Stoddard: The first Big Bens and Baby Bens went on the market in 1910 and they were wind ups. Style 5 dial design]. Westclox began as the United Clock Company in Peru, Illinois in 1885. The precise, delicate skill of painting clock dials with radium powder promised a much higher salary than most factory jobs available to women at the time (upwards of $18 a week), and the company soon employed as many as 200 female workers in its Ottawa plant. They made them with wooden works until about 1840, then with brass gears and I like some of the early brass-geared American clocks. When did Westclox stop using radium? It was discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898. Kind regards, Ben van Vliet. It is a wind up. Thanks. But the chances that you have a radium clock are slim, unless it is very old. [Left: The first national Big Ben advertisement appears in the. National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors Inc (A 501c3 non-profit corporation). The story begins with a Connecticut clockmaker named Charles Stahlberg getting a patent for a new alarm clock design in 1885. Geiger counters could pick up readings from pants returned from a dry cleaner and from clothes stored away in a cedar chest. From that point on I really liked those. They can be identified by having the modern type of flat head screws with shoulders instead of round head screws, and by having a 1910 patent date on the back even though the case is style 1a. Is Westclox a good brand? I recently added the Big Ben Style 1 and Baby Ben Style 1 Dial and Back types. Theyre making some really nice reproductions of it in China and if you dont know what youre looking for you could be fooled easily. Site of the Old Westclox factory 211-201 Hunter Street, Peterborough Ontario. This was a wonderful article to read. Theres a clock that came down the family, my great great granddad bought it used in about 1885, it was actually sold new in about 1839, one of the first of the weight-driven brass clocks. My Grandmother had a Westclox in her house. Importantly, the health risks tied to these old clocks is generally believed to be quite minimal, so long as one avoids long-term exposure or directly ingesting the paint as the Ghost Girls had. They made the most of the perk, wearing their good dresses to the plant so theyd shine in the dance halls at night, and even painting radium onto their teeth for a smile that would knock their suitors dead., When I went home and washed my hands in a dark bathroom, they would appear luminous and ghostly,, My clothes, hanging in a dark closet, gave off a phosphorescent glare. Over time, she contracted terrible cancerous tumors, lost most of her teeth, and suffered countless other health problems. thanks for your time, was doing research.. Appears from search engine a conversation about D batteries but cant find it in the text.. Can anyone inform me of the different size of D? We have photos of all the employees between 1927-1945 at the Peterborough Ontario Location but not much else. Radium dials usually lose their ability to glow in the dark in a period ranging anywhere from a few years to several decades, but all will cease to glow at some point. Frank Baker. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that watches with radium dials should not be taken apart[5] without proper training, technique, and facilities. CAN SOMEONE TELL ME HOW TO RELEASE THE CLICK ON A WESTCLOX MANS WRISTWATCH MODEL A-201? This practice resulted in the ingestion of radium, which caused serious jaw-bone degeneration and malignancy and other dental diseases. Read more about "Radium Girls" here. var year = today.getFullYear() That way I got myself another Baby Ben, bringing my collection to three by age 12. Dozens of radium dial painters around the country developed similar symptoms, although the effects could take years to manifest, making it more difficult to pinpoint the phenomenon from its first cases in the early 1920s. it has a picture of a huck finn type boy,carying 2 bottles of coke& a fishing pole,with his dog. In the early 1920s, when the company introduced a new series of Big Ben and Baby Ben clocks with luminous dials, the work of painting on this special, glow-in-the-dark element was outsourced to the Radium Dial Companyan independent business located just up the road in the neighboring town of Ottawa, IL. Gordon Goodrum I took it back and the repairman told me it was like a large Timex watch and just not worth being fixed. Some people just want one or two that they remember from childhood in good condition, so thats just the thing for them. Before we get to that, though, we have to start with the issue of geography as it concerns the business in question. While studying the types of Big Ben style 1 and 1A in WestcloxHistory.com, I noticed the reproduction style 1A, and have acquired about 5 of them. A lot of American clocks have veneer over the base wood so if thats starting to peel it can be really expensive to get fixed. The company later changed its name to the United States Radium Corporation. They typically have a round brass base with a glass dome over them; they were made in Germany from the 1890s up through the 1970s, and a lot of people collect them. I hope to document Style 5 Baby Bens this winter. It has a patent June 18-1882 and says Dakota on the back,can you tell me more? Lynda Hinshaw, At this moment I am research a clock by Falconer& co HongKong. $38.00. when did westclox stop using radium; when did westclox stop using radium. It is encased in hard polymer Plastic and the ends have rivets . The NAWCC is dedicated to providing association services, promoting interest in and encouraging the collecting of clocks and watches including disseminating knowledge of the same. The other thing is reproductions. A clock without hands might seem indifferent to the passage of time, but these old Big Ben and Baby Ben dials have some serious stories to tell. Ironically, the war that had cost them Gaston Le Roy had also stifled much of the companys European competition, opening up an even bigger share of the world marketplace in the 1920s. They had one in Brazil for a while and I think also in Hong Kong. Radium was even used in medical applications during the 20th century. Ristau said he remembered when the Westclox factory was the heart of the city, and recalled enjoying his time with Westclox. Westclox Big Ben Style 1a Alarm Clock Date Summary: 1918 - 1935 (and a reproduction was made in 1970) Characteristics: Ring on top, two legs in front, no screws through the front of the bezel. [Westclox advertisements from WWII period, ft. [5] Indeed, the body treats radium as it does calcium, storing it in bone where it may cause bone degeneration and cancer.[5]. 7&a half X 6..desk clock. People will still look for a good wind up but the quality declined in the later years just because the companies tried so hard to keep the prices low. Question: Are both 1) and 2) marriages of Style 2 mechanisms put in a Style 1A Big Ben and Style 1 Baby Ben. This has probably been discussed before but my search turned up nothingdo the luminous hands on a Big Ben alarm clock contain painted radium? Can you confirm? How do you set the time on a old fashioned alarm clock? It was a gift from him to her the year before they were married. dated:1990 ,decorated :hong cong.made in japan.cocacola tradmark. Most importantly, they were forbidden to point the tip with their lips, and they avoided to ingest or inhale the luminous paint. The only thing I found is the word Germny engraved on the back. So yes. Underneath the #12 on the face it says: G. Falconer & Co. LTD. Hong Kong. Stoddard: Some of the old American pocket watches are just beautiful so I have several in my collection. Stahlbergs company goes bankrupt not once, but twice, within its first several years. "Westclox" in italics, double hexagon legs: 1918, "Westclox" in italics, regular legs: 1918 -1922, "Westclox" in italics, very narrow lettering at bottom: "MADE BY WESTERN CLOCK CO., LA SALLE, ILL., U.S.A.", ca. Can anyone tell me about this? Even so, our case-less dials are certainly best left behind glass and out of reach, a sad reminder of a terrible and preventable episode in industrial history, the effects of which continued to plague the town of Ottawa for many years afterward. I have a Westclox Bachelor alarm clock from probably the 50s as it was always there when I was growing up. It looks like you mount it to the wall. They have meetings every two months, and educational programs, so thats a really great way to meet collectors and get all kinds of advice. It is stamped on the back of the casing DRP&GM. I have an Pine State Ice Cream Milk clock that I would like to find out how much it may be worth. While most of our Big Ben dials are black with luminous numbers, there were also white dials with black numerals in production at the same time. Also Telechron, which was a big maker of electric clocks. Required fields are marked *. A pair of teenage boys broke into the abandoned factory and set a fire that quickly spread and enveloped much of the central complex. There are also some specialty chapters, like an alarm clock chapter and a 400-day clock chapter, one that specializes in wristwatches and one on early American pocket watches. Radium was also used until the early 1970s in "glow-in-the-dark" paints, e.g., for dials on clocks, and in other industrial applications such as instrument calibration. At the end of one hand is a star and the other hand is the moon. Columbia, PA 17512 Sep 6, 2008. potz said: Afaik Radium was used right up to the 1950's. Some sources even say it was used up to 1968 in watches and 1978 in clocks. I was looking at it and said, aha! I have a similar clock. Handle on top: down alarm off; up alarm on. credit: Northern Illinois University], According to a 1909 article in Commercial America, In clocks, as in all other lines of goods, there are two classes of consumersthe millions and the millionaires.
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