General Chat

We bought a pendulum clock in a garage sale last Saturday.

Not a genuine wind-up type, but battery operated. It is still fairly old as the battery size is 'D'

Now clocks are expected to go 'tick-tock'.

Our battery operated one in the kitchen conforms to that rule, as does the one in my study.

But the bl**dy thing we bought, whilst lovely to look at, and keeping good time, refuses to conform with the convention.

It goes 'tock-tick' :-S

It's at odds with the kitchen clock, and it's doing my flaming head in :-| :-|

Have you tried turning it upside-down?
B

Yes, but the pendulum keeps falling off :-P :-D :-D

Oh yes, another thing!

The previous owner did not like the sounds of the chimes so remove the bell.

The rest of the mechanism is still intact and every fifteen minutes it sounds as though somebody is trying to open the front door :-0

MY FATHER IN LAW COLLECTED CLOCKS OLD HUGE WIND
UP ONES,HE DIED 16 YEARS AGO,AT FIRST OH PUT ONE HE LIKED IN THE BEDROOM,LASTED 2 HRS EVERY QUARTER OF AN HOUR BOING BOING BOING THEN THE FUDDY HOUR WHO IN THERE RIGHT MIND WANT 12 CHIMES ,PUT IT DOWN STAIRS
THE FUDDY TICK ECHOED ROUND THE HOUSE AND WORSE OF ALL IT WAS AN EIIGHT DAY CHIMER ONE WIND LASTED 8 FLIPPIN DAYS AND LONG NIGHTS ,IT WAS ONLY WOUND UP ONCE,LAST SEEN DISSAPERING INTO LOFT WITH ALL THR REST

:-D :-D :-D

Dizzi, your FIL must have been a real wind-up merchant :-D :-D

the previous owner probably removed the bell because it went BONG BING

:-D

We'll never know, Scozz :-( :-D :-D

Lol why not ask someone who fixes clocks why it tocks then ticks.

Gwen you might have a valuable clock in your loft. I can never understand why someone needs to be reminded of the time that often to have it chiming so frequently

Lizxx

It's funny that you should say that PSD, as we once had a clock that only went tick tick tick

I took it to our local watchmaker who is either Swiss or German.

I told him what the problem was and he said to leave the clock with him and he would call me back within three days.

After a week, with no news, I went back to the shop which was not staffed. I could, however hear a voice coming from the cellar so decided to have a look

There was my clock strapped to a chair. the watchmaker was stood behind a desk which had a spotlight shining straight at the clock.

The man was dressed in an army uniform and he was slapping a riding crop against his leather boots as he angrily shouted at the clock

"Ve have vays of making you tock"

:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

OH's parents had 3 grandfather clocks ........ all inherited from different ancestors.


Back around 1974, in-laws decided to move to a smaller house, and needed to get rid of 2 of the clocks.


One was to come to us, one had been designated for OH's sister, and the 3rd had no home ..................... largely because it didn't work.


anyway, they shipped ours over to us, kept the one meant for sis-i-l ................... and gave the third to m-i-l's sister, who then lived in Manchester


the rationale was that M/c was a big city, and would have at least one good clockmaker living there .........................



the problem with the clock was that it had never learnt that it did not have to strike 13 at 1 am


Aunt found the proverbial little man who swore he could repair the clock.

He had it for several months, then phoned and said he'd done it.


Clock delivered to their house, set up, wound (one of those lovely chain and weight mechanisms) .......... and everyone waited


Midnight came ................... it struck twelve times

1 am ................ and it struck once, then twice .................. all the way to thirteen


Clock was stopped ................. never to go again!




It is still in the family ................. Aunt left it to her daughter, and it will now probably go to the daughter's daughter ............................ but it still sits silent and still in the corner.



Ours works well, it has been dated back to pre-1830 ........ although it is not working at the moment .............. the weight fell off one night :-0



that makes one h**l of a noise :-)


The link broke, and OH has not got around to replacing it.

we have a battery operated one that goes

tsk tsk tsk tsk

or is it chff chff chff chff?

Allan quite likely the pendulum has nothing to do with timekeeping but is just for show.........

The grandfather clock we have has a peculiar function......
when wound(chain/weights)

one week it will gain, the next week it will lose......

My youngest daughter loves everything to do with geography. ( hobby only)
We bought her lovely a clock with 5 faces, showing the times in 5 major cities around the world.

We think it's funny but It drives her mad at night
No two second hands tick at the same time.... 5 ticks per second!

We went into a clock shop in the Black Forest in Germany.

tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock

And then it was the hour....... OMG! All the Binging and Bonging and all the dome clocks chiming was bad enough, but add a thousand cuckoo clocks to the mix!

It put me off cuckoo clocks for life.

I have a large chiming mantel clock made in Germany about 1930. It was liberated by a rellie in the 8th army 1945. Despite its origins it has what are called "Westminster chimes" for the quarters and a deep set of bongs before the hour.

It is hell on wheels to set up the pendulum and it hates being moved. Once setup it keeps excellent time.

Sometimes it tick tocks but if in a bad mood tock tick which drives me nuts. A few minutes before the hourly bongs it gets in a tizzy as its gears whirr for the effort.

If we have been away leaving it unwound it retaliates with a grand salvo of bongs once wound before settling down.

Mechanical clocks and watches have personalities much better than electrical and quartz devices.

:-)

There can be a lot of patience involved in setting up a clocks' pendulum.!!

Bob,

Of course the pendulum on a battery operated clock is only for show.

Even a dim-witted Ozzie like me knows that

This was started as a 'tongue-in-cheek' thread and was not meant to be taken seriously ;-)

Allan, you had me hooked with your interesting thread as I love to repair clocks and pocket watches ... since the late 1960s.
I almost believed you ... until you wrote ...

"Ve have vays of making you tock"

I am sure you know what we all think you can do with that 'D' size battery!

Be good!

:-D :-D :-D

The art of good story telling is making it seem almost believable

As for the 'D' size battery, my internal workings require 2 'AA' batteries :-D :-D :-D :-D