Edwards Master Clock
Circa 1950
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By 1940 master clocks had come a long way and the new electric clocks were accurate. However, in 1940s and 1950s there was still
a problem with power outages in many areas. If a factory had 300 clocks and the power went out during the night, in the morning all
300 clocks would be wrong and need to be reset. The Edwards Master Clock was one solution. The clock on the left is an electric clock.
The clock on the right is a mechanical clock that is automatically wound by the electric clock so it is always wound. If the electric power
went off for any reason, the mechanical clock would start to run and would indicate how long the power was off. When the power would come
back on, all of the clocks through out the building would automatically advance by however many hours or minutes the mechanical clock indicated the
power had been off.
The unit with the drum that is located above the master clock is a Edwards Program Unit. Pins could be placed in the drums for different times of the day
in 5 minute intervals and when that pin hit the contact point, it would ring a bell. The drum program unit would also advance to the correct time when the power would come back on,
if the power had gone off.
Inside each slave or remote clock there was a second motor that ran at a much higher speed than the standard motor. As long as the mechanical
clock was still showing time off, the clocks would be advancing at a higher speed. As soon as the mechanical clock was back to zero, the clocks
would all go back to regular speed.
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