[Hammarlund] Hammarlund Clockworks -- An Historical Perspective
Barry Hauser
[email protected]
Tue, 16 Dec 2003 10:52:10 -0500
Hi Duane
Right you are on the clock thing.
You see, the origins of the clock gambit goes back to the days when
Hammarlund was located on West 34th Street in Manhattan, a about two
blocks west of Penn Station which was and is used by commuters from Long
Island and New Jersey. No doubt some Hammarlundians communed while
commuting with advertising and marketing types on the long ride in and
out. From my years of experience doing this, the ride into the city was
more risky in terms of getting ideas one might actually attempt to apply
on the job. On the ride back home, most of us were too pooped and
probably would safely forget any of those ideas before morning.
Somewhere along the line, they came up with the idea for the optional
clock. I can just imagine the brainstorming meeting. "Hey guys, let's
give 'em a clock right in the radio, or as an option so we can up-sell it
either as a C-suffix model or as an aftermarket add-on." Retort:
"Whaddya talkin' about Charlie! Clocks belong on the wall or shelf.
Y'mean ta' tell me, after all the trouble our engineers go to to keep the
noise out, you want to stick an electric clock INSIDE THE RADIO!
(expletive deleted)!"
You have to picture the scene -- a smoke filled room -- everyone smoked
those days whether they liked it or not. So, "in the fog of war" in the
war room, the clock idea was sold. One of the guys was either a Madison
Avenue type or had been talking to one on the train. He chimed in at the
critical moment: "The problem is that we only have higher ticket items
with few smaller follow-on products to sell our customers. A guy works
his way up to a Hammarlund and typically just buys one and that's it --
for a long time. Then, when they want to move up, they sell or trade
their radios and we're competing with our own used merchandise. This guy
on the train said the best marketing gimmick is Gillette. They
practically give the razor away so they can SELL you the blades. We have
no blades to sell. Even when the tubes burn out, they buy the regular
brands, not ours."
That hatched another idea - the most devilish. "That means another hole
in the front panel. What do we do about the non-clock models? A metal
plate? That's not going to look good." Idea guy: "That's the beauty of
it. We give them the clock lens and a white blank insert with the logo.
Then, months and months of staring at that blank will sell the
aftermarket clock kit for us! And, if the clocks break down, we can sell
'em a new one."
Then there was some more brainstorming about giving the clock more of a
purpose and it became a clock radio mechanism that could be set to warm
up the receiver in advance, and so on. But, the rest is history. OK,
the above isn't exactly history, it's my reconstruction thereof.
Of course, the Hammarlundians could not foresee that their products would
be in use for a half century or more, going into the next millenium and
hence, did not order and stockpile enough add-on kits for the long range
demand as the blanks and non-working clocks continue to do their
aftermarket selling -- long after everyone was gone and Hammarlund was no
more. (Understandable, as that degree of advance marketing is still not
popular in today's smokeless war rooms.)
Even now, the concept continues to work. A logo blank or non-working
clock creates a need in the mind of the owner, a craving for
completeness, whether or not it makes utilitarian sense and there's a
clock on the wall, another one wrist and you can buy a digital watch that
will display in 24 hour format at Walgreens for three dollars on sale.
Or you can buy an "atomic" watch or clock that's linked by radio to the
Cesium time standard in Ft. Collins. Or, you can change the settings on
your PC to display a giant clock face and even annunciate the time at
whatever intervals you want. Plus you can download a free program that
will keep the PC system time in synch with the time standard over the
Internet so it's always right on. Yup -- there are probably now a
jillion reasons why one does not need the clock in the radio. That's
why, after all that work to get mine going in the HQ-180, I wired in a
switch to shut it off, heh heh.
I have an HQ-170 with the original lens and blank Hammarlund logo. It's
going to stay that way, so now I have one of each.
But, for many nowadays, it's a big deal if the clock is there and it
still works. It's a completion fetish that was created about a half
century ago -- on 34th Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues.
Duckin' and coverin'
Barry
On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 02:42:04 -0500 "Duane Fischer, W8DBF"
<[email protected]> writes:
And when you get done with all of this, will the clock even keep
correct time? Will you actually look at it for the time? Or just
take.jpg and mail
them around for bragging rights? Will you actually sit there and listen
to
short-wave, fill out a log sheet and note the time from the clock, I
think that was
its original purpose, at least I heard that rumor once someplace. Those
were in
the old days when people could actually tell what time it was by the
hand
positions and those numerals on the watch face, without having it spoken
by pushing a
button and some Oriental voice speaking the time or flashing numbers on
a
handless watch face with a little tiny lcd display so you can keep an
eye on the
Playboy channel with your wireless Dick Tracy satellite link watch.
Just
use a dead clock with an overtorqued mainspring or frozen armature from
battery
acid droppings, save the time, money and frustration (we already know
you
will turn around and try to sell it to finance your retirement in six
months!)
and buy a cheap Baby Ben at a yard sale for fifty cents. They do keep
good
time, but you do have to exert a little daily effort to wind them up,
but think of
it this way, you are not filling up the planet with dead batteries! If
you
are too cheap, AKA frugal, to spring for the fifty cent clock, just tune
in
WWV for free on the Hammarlund and practice setting the UTC, or is it
CUT, time
on the HQ clock. Who cares if it does not work, only the French
understand
UTC, called coordinated universal time, but written as universal time
coordinated, and we are not speaking to them anyhow, since they
flocculated on our war
plans to put a cork in the tyrant of Iraq who oiled his roller blades
with fat
squeezed out of Camels by using imported French wine presses, just
pouring their
wine down our toilets to clean the sewer lines or pep up the bacteria in
our
septic tanks and seepage beds. Besides, nobody made any of these old
electric
clocks that kept anything close to the correct time, the ones General
Motores
put in their cars lost and gained more minutes than speeches at the
Academy Award
events! Just show your grand kids one of those clocks or watches with
a hour
and minute hand on them and ask them what time it is! "It's time you got
a new
watch grandpa, that thing is older than time!" My personal favorite was
the very rare Hammarlund model produced for an extremely short period of
time,
that had the little pendulum powered clock with the Monkey that swung
out on the
banana vine every hour and gave you a bird!
Truthfully now, does anybody 'really' use the HQ clocks to tell time
with?
Crawling back behind the couch for shelter from flying words and
bird droppings
> -
>
> ----------
> From: Barry Hauser <[email protected]>
> To: [email protected]
> Cc: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [Hammarlund] A Hammarlund newbie says hello.
> Date: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 12:51 AM
>
> Hi Craig and List
>
> That's a simplex rather than a synchronous. They say it has 20
> times the
> torque, which might be good to avoid stalling -- or maybe not.
>
> One question is whether that replacement motor is more or less noisy
> --
> mechanically or electrically.
>
> Actually, the part I harvested from the old alarm clock looks like
> this
> item:
>
> http://www.merritts.com/store2/main/product.asp?ProductID=82218
>
> As I recall, it was an H-type rotor, I'm less sure about the MS3632
> designation. Generally the field coil assembly is still good. The
> small
> cylindrical end of the rotor snugly fits into the field coil
> assembly
> which is rotated so the gear meshes. However, I had to swap the
> small
> drive gear between the old and new rotors -- the "new" one wasn't
> right.
> You have to do that carefully as they are brass and rather soft, so
> work
> around in a circle gently prying up with a suitable tool, like a
> jeweler's screwdriver.
>
> The replacement rotor is somewhat more money than the replacement
> motor
> -- $35, and there is some chance of going wrong.
>
> Another factor is the RPM's. The replacement motor is 1 rpm, which
> sounds right
>
> I think I paid something like $3 for that alarm clock -- a simple
> '50's
> pink one for a girl's bedroom, I guess. There may be a clue from
> the
> outside. I believe the ones with the H-rotor will have clock model
> numbers with an H- prefix. If you can find them cheap enough, you
> can do
> several tries before you equal the cost of that replacement rotor.
> Before going after a clock or that replacement rotor, I suggest you
> pull
> the clock, disassemble as needed to read whatever markings on the
> motor
> and the rotor itself. I'll take a peek on the e-place to see if
> there
> are any likely candidates and privately send them to you -- if I
> find
> any.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Barry
>
>
> On Mon, 15 Dec 2003 22:28:31 -0500 "Craig Roberts"
> <[email protected]>
> writes:
> > Hello Barry and friends,
> >
> > Thanks for tip on swapping Telechron motors, Barry. I was thinking
>
> > of doing
> > just that and had planned to stalk Ebay and a few yard sales.
> Then,
> > I found
> > a source online for replacement Telechron-compatible motors. This
>
> > one looks
> > like it would mate with the clockworks, doesn't it?
> >
> > http://www.merritts.com/store2/main/product.asp?ProductID=81484
> >
> > I'm going to contact the vendor tomorrow with some Hammarlund
> clock
> > specs
> > and a picture and let y'all know.
> >
> > Thanks again & 73,
> >
> > Craig
> > W3CRR
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > List Administrator: Duane Fischer W8DBF
> > ** For Assistance: [email protected] **
> > ----
> > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/hammarlund
> >
> >
>
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