I am a watch guy.

This clock has been in my basement, forgotten for 35 years. It was rediscovered when we had to clean up after the sump pump failed a year ago.

The clock came from my wife's grandparent's farm. She remembers it when she was small but doesn't remember if it ever ran. She doesn't remember it as anything special to her family; perhaps her uncle got it from one of his many trades.

Anyway, that's enough background. What follows is a few photos. I am hopping someone here can give me an idea of what this is.

Here's the works:

The only marking I can see:

Ron,
You have a nice tambour clock that is chiming and striking. It plays Westminster Chimes on the quarter hours, and strikes the hour count each hour.

There were many many of these made, and are still being made today. This is in one of the nicer cases. I would have to do a bit of research to try to figure out the maker. The numbers on the back call to mind German clocks. Maybe someone taht recognises the movement can jump in here while I am looking through the books.

The stampled letters appear to be "PAT" and "ANG" with a colon ':' after the G. Is ang an abbreviation for a German or other Patent Office term similiar to pending as in patent pending? I rember from my technical library days that some countries use 'examined' and 'unexamined' on patents.

Thanks Tom! That helps but of course I'd like to know more.

John: I was wondering the same thing. I tried to google "PAT ANG clock" with out success. Searching for "PAT ANG patent" returns several pages in German so that is a likely clue.

Ron

I found a German Patent site however they only show current numbers! Darn.

Is that # 43444 ?

http://library.dialog.com/bluesheets/html/bl0324.html#AI

There used to be a comprehensive discussion of various forms of patents from the major industrialized countries in the indexes to Chemical Abstracts. I don't remember if it was in the volume index (think they had two volumes each year) or in the cumulative indexes that covered several years. I haven't used that part of my brain in 8 years, so it's a bit foggy. Of course, they wouldn't be apt to pick up horological patents.

Good find Sheila! Yes 43444 is the correct number. There is also a small 22 that is hard to make out to the right of the PAT: ANG:

John: From the pipl site

quote:

"Pat Ang" is short for Patent Angemeldet or in English registered design...

so I think I clearly have a German clock!

I wonder when and who made it?

Ron

I wonder if the design patent refers to the strange gizmo sitting atop the bracket for the hammers? Other than that the back view appears very much like any other chime clock. Nice gongs too, I suspect they sound better than the usual straight rods that are placed beneath the movement or at an angle across the back of the clock. I see that the clock has only 4 hammers instead of the 5 that appear on modern German movements. I have a Junghans tambor Westminster that has only 4 hamers I think, but I can't check it today since it's in the shop.

Take a look at these.................

found while looking for Patent Angemeldet

http://www.aussieclocks.com/2005%20168%20Dec/168%20December%202005%20meet.htm

some of our own too.........

Ron,
I saw the 22 but it looked more like another number to me, the first looking something like an E then the 2.

I still wonder if this is even German! but Ron makes a good point. I don't know the German markings.

These really gained popularity in the 20s. Many Westminster chime clocks had five hammers, but some, only used four and the hour strike was a separate lifting of one or two of the hammers.

Ron...does it play westminister?

greg

Good question Greg! It does play Westminster!

It hadn't run in at least 35 years. I hadn't even thought to wind it. But now I have and it does. It doesn't run very well of course; ticks for a few seconds and that's it.

The oil has to be varnish!

Ron