You see, besides having having awesome midcentury industrial design, each classroom clock was wired to a central clock on school grounds. According to IBM Collectables, it stayed synchronised to that main timekeeper using magnets.
The clock has a 110 volt motor and also has 110 volt clutch magnet. The 110 volt motor is wired to a regular lamp cord for use in the house. The clutch magnet was used in conjunction with a master clock to keep time same as the master clock. The front view of this clock including bezel glass is in prestine condition,so don’t rely on the picture as it is showing background reflections.
In a few years, I’m sure classrooms will use the internet for its time syncing, but for something that existed 50-60 years ago, this is pretty ingenious. [IBM Collectables]
Antipodean
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 9:30 AMMust be an American thing because the clocks in the school I went to, although plugged into a socket, kept abysmal time! Plus no school I went to had such poor workmanship in the brickwork either!
KRS1
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 10:03 AMWe had the centralised clocks at my uni (which was built in the 70′s I think). I don’t recall them saying IBM though… I do recall that each minute, the things made a loud gear noise to move the big hand… If you happened to be in the right spot, you could hear five or six clocks all change at once… deafening (sort of).
David
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 10:48 AMthey still do this at parliment house in australia, fiddling with the clocks could prevent a minister voting so they take it serius. your not allowed to go nar the freeking things for love nor money
translator
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 11:10 AMThey still do this at Parliament House in Australia. Fiddling with the clocks could prevent a minister from voting, so they take it seriously. You’re not allowed to go near the freaking tings for love nor money.
Just This Guy ...
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 12:15 PMThe grammar Nazi strikes again.
Though in this case I think it’s justified.
Literacy. It’s a real thing.
Eccentric
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 1:16 PMThat’s fine, now given the guy can’t edit his post, how does he fix it? We all make typos and grammar errors every now and then, unfortunately, the comments section won’t allow you to fix it once posted! For all those thumb up their ass smartasses who are thinking, well read it first before posting,… I guarantee, if you made a mistake like that, you will miss it no matter how many mistakes you make! Oh, and it would also be a big help if the type size was big enough to read in the first place!
Eccentric
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 1:17 PMActually for “translator”
Just This Guy ...
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 12:12 PMDefinitely not in any of the schools I went to here in Oz, but they did have linked clocks in the one school I went to in the U.K. in the late 60′s.
Sylver
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 12:50 PMThe clocks at my school ran off a single AA battery, and were covered in spitballs.
A Rod H
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 6:11 PMI’m sure I’ve been to some schools where they used to have this, but as most of them don’t have a maintenance budget or can’t be arsed to do it, all such system’s aren’t used.