Standard Electric Central Time Clock W/ Program Tapes

This listing is for a vintage clock from the Standard Electric Time Company. It measures about 15" inches wide, 43" inches high, and 9.25" inches deep. Here's how the seller describes it:

This is an institutional central office clock, built by The Standard Electric Time Co., of Springfield, Massachusetts. A tag inside said it was a "#14", serial 437.

The clock has two cams. One cam runs about eight seconds and ran the buzzer. The unconnected cam runs 1-2 seconds which would presumably run the slave clocks.

A separate box contains a paper punch, power failed flag, key to the cabinet, a small box containing paper tape, and pins to plug into the drum for days that the buzzer was not to sound. The pushbutton on the lower left of the cabinet sounds the buzzer manually.

The clock is "programmable" via two paper-tape loops, each with two "tracks" of punched holes allowing four switch-selectable time patterns for sounding the vibrating-reed buzzer which in turn was connected to a central paging system.

The solid-wood cabinet stands 43" high, and the face is about 10 1/4" square. Included are a hand-held paper punch for "programming", several paper tapes, a key for the cabinet locks, and several pins used to disable tracks on certain days.

The clock motor requires 120V, 60Hz, a control relay requires 24VAC, and the buzzer requires 24VDC. The unit was originally designed to be direct-wired to the building, but I added a grounding power cord for the clock, and a simple DC supply for the buzzer. These are readily removable.

Condition:

The over-all condition is fair-to-good. The unit is fully functional. The relay rattles sometimes, but this is common for relays of that design, and I suspect it was always a problem. The staff of the power-failed flag is broken at the electromagnetic armature, but it could be welded or epoxied back in place.

History:

According to the tag, the unit was built December 6, 1947. It was installed in the office of the New York State Institute of Applied Arts & Sciences, now Erie County Technical Institute, when that was in the old Pierce-Arrow administration building at 1685 Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo.

The school relocated to its present new campus in Williamsville, NY, circa 1960. At that time my late father, head of the Physics Department, and I removed the clock. I used it in my garage for a few years as a clock, and to turn the lights on and off when we were away on vacation. The remaining time it has been in storage.

The clock can be picked up at our Winooski, Vermont location to save on shipping. There is no charge for pick up.