I have a clock in for repair that is a bit puzzling. I think it must be a marriage, but maybe someone knows better.

It is a Seth Thomas Sonora 5 or 4 bell chime. There are five bells, but the movement configuration only allows the use of four of the bells.

Seth Thomas had many vairations of particular movement styles. These were indicated by letters, but I can's seem to find out what these letters stand for.

The time and strike movement is marked "89AG" Does anyone know what the "A" and the "G" indicate?

The chime movement is marked "90B" and the hammers are modified with an extra wire to life them on the hour strike. Does anyone know what the "B" variation means on the chime movement?

In this picture notice that there are FIVE bells.

Notice in this picture there are four hammers, and where the fifth hammer would go on other models, is a lift wire for the four bells. This is used to count the hour.

Does anybody know what the "AG" indicates?

AGgravating?

Andy

Tom,I own two Seth Thomas Mantle Clocks with the dual movements.One is a five bell Sonora Chime on bells and the other is a Sonora on four rods.My five bell #89 is marked #89D as best I can make it out but I will tell you that Seth Thomas made a multitude of #89 movements and I mean a ton of em.Some are half and hour strike,some rack and snail,some open plate,some full plate,and forget about all the various pendulum lengths.I can't really tell you why you don't have your hour strike hammer on your #89.My own guess ,its the wrong #89 and #90,kinda looks like a chime rod setup to me with that horizontal hammer lift but I could be dead wrong.I can only tell you that my Sonora has an hour hammer in the proper place
I guess,to answer your question,the alphabetical designations after the numerals #89 are put there to distinguish between the numerous types of #89 movements available.At least thats the way I read it.
Sorry I couldn't be more help to you.I dug through both of my Seth Thomas books plus Conover,Oh Yeah in his illustration he has an #89AM,go figure.I wish i could dazzle you with a scholarly Seth Thomas reply but that's about the limit of my research skills
Respectfully,Bob Fullerton

Bob,
Thank you very much for your reply. My own Sonora (Shown HERE with others.) is a five bell and has, as you described, the #89 movement and a #90B movement also. The difference between my #90B and the #90B in the clock in question is the set of extra wires above the normal hammer shafts that allows them to be picked up by the wire for the hour stike. So now we have a variation within the same factory number!! ?? Unless someone switched the hammers. ??

Hi Tom,
I have a 4 rod chime Sonora that has an 89AM movement with a 119 chime unit. The T/S unit has the exact same striking arrangement that your 89AG has and the hammers on the chime unit has the upper wires so they can be lifted from the T/S unit. The third hammer from the door has its upper wire clipped so the hour strike in a three note chord. S/T did some strange things!!

Joe

I talked with Tom Chapell about this clock. Tom is extremely knowledeable about Sonora Chime clocks. He wrote the introduction to the Sonora section in Tran's Seth Thomas book.

He said that when he first came across this situation he figured, as I did, that this was a marriage. However, he says that he has seen over 50 since then and believes that this is correct and as it came from the factory.

I want to thank Tom for taking the time to return my call.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Seth-Thomas-SONORA-CHIME-5-Bell-LAR...QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Here's another interesting Sonora Tom,this one chimes on four bells and has a gong for the hour strike.I've never seen one like that.How about you or any of the other Sonora fanciers?
Respectfully,Bob Fullerton

The 89AE has the hour strike hammer

Jerry

GREETINGS TOM, I WANT TO RETRACT THE STATEMENTS I MADE IN MY FIRST POST. THE CHIME MOVEMENT IS FOR A 4 BELL MOVEMENT YOUR TIME AND STRIKE MOVEMENT I BELIEVE IS CORRECT. I WAS VERY WRONG IN MY FIRST POST. EDDIE