If These Shirts Could Talk: The Tantalizing Tales Behind Used Clothes
Jockeying for Position: How Boxers and Briefs Got Into Men's Pants
Gloriously Grotesque 19th-Century Pipes
In the Hot Seat: Is Your Antique Windsor a Fake?
Love at First Kite: How Pizza and Pente Led to One Oklahoman's High-Flying Obsession
Blood, Sweat, and Steel: My Afternoon with the Ace of Swords
'The Great Gatsby' Still Gets Flappers Wrong
Say Ahhh: An Oral Surgeon's Quest to Reimagine the Garage-Band Guitar
Forget TV Pickers, Meet the Real Mavericks of the Antiques World
Coveting The Craziest Cat-People Collectibles
Posted 2 years ago
rlwindle
(189 items)
This is the Lux "Mystery Rotary" (see fourth picture) Clock that became know as the "Tape Measure" Clock because of it resemblence to a tape measure case. It was tauted as, The first "Different" Clock in Centuries. Invented by Herman F. Lux, owner of the Lux Clock Manufacturing Company, Inc. of Waterbury , Connecticut . The application for the patent for this clock was filed in April of 1935. This clock was marketed in two diameters sizes 5 and 3 inches. This is the more common 5 inch in diameter and measures in at 3.5" height. The 3 inch ones are rarer. They were marketed in various colors, this one is nickel or grey.
The clock winds smoothly and will run out a full wind (30 hours) while keeping time as accurate as could be read from the linear "tape measure" time scale on this unique desk piece. According to Lux records, it contains a Lux 30 hour guaranteed non-over wind movement. The case is in decent shape with a spots where paint has chipped off and age has taken it's toll. The brass tape measure scale is clean all the way around. On the base of clock there is a fold down winding knob and a speed adjustment lever. Factory engraved on the base are the words: "MADE IN U.S.A. Pat. No. D-95,184". Both sizes have the same patent number engraved on them.
Definite a novelty and conversation piece, this clock operates by having the round top holding the linear or "tape measure" scale rotate around the fixed base that holds a pointer. The top will make one revolution in 12 hours. The "tape measure" strip has the hours designated in large numbers and smaller numbers for the 15, 30, 45 minute marks, lines for the in-between 5-minute increments.
To set the clock you simply turn the top until the pointer aligns with the proper time on the scale. Then you just set it down, and the top will rotate slowly and imperceptibly, while ticking "like a train"! The time is read by noting where the pointer intersects the scale. Very cool.
It did not come with the box, I found the box picture on the internet.
Art Deco ClocksClock design was heavily influenced in the 1920s and ’30s by Art Deco, a ma…