the bytown times

The Bytown Times ISSN 1712—2799

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

November Meeting Highlights 1-4

Peter Kushnir 5

Bill Pullen 6

Executive Elections 7

Meeting Location 7

Annual Trash & Treasure Auction 7

Westclox Alarm Clocks for Deaf and Blind Users

8-9

Repairing an Offset / Indirect

Winding Assembly

10-11

Wine and Cheese Party 12

Editor’s & President’s Corners 12

NOVEMBER MEETING HIGHLIGHTS

Our next meeting….

Pinecrest Recreation Centre 2250 Torquay Ave, Ottawa, ON

1:30 PM, January 27, 2019

***********

Note!! This is our Annual Trash and Treasure Auction

(There will be no Mart!!!)

********* Show and Tell

Whatever you like!!

VOLUME 39 NO. 1 JANUARY 27, 2019

On a crisp, chilly day in November, 45 members and guests arrived to enjoy a full mart and numerous excellent presenta-tions.

Featured Presentation Robert St-Louis has a keen interest in early French watches. He doesn’t just collect the watches, he re-searches the makers, their families and their businesses. Recently, he acquired a watch movement that was particularly fascinating. It was a repeater from the shop of André-Charles Caron in Paris, circa 1750.

In his presentation, A Watchmak-er’s Shop on Rue Saint-Denis in Paris, Robert presented the story of Caron, his son, other fa-mous “horlogers” who worked in Caron’s shop, the watchmak-ing business in Paris in the 18th Century and the watch that started it all.

The watch itself has a verge escapement and fusee with a broken chain. It is missing the motion works, the repeater mechanism, dial, hands and case. Nonetheless, it has all the features of a watch of the 1750’s, including a beautiful pierced balance cock and a Tompion style silver dial for adjusting the hairspring. To give a sense of what the watch may have looked like, Robert showed a number of pictures of similar watches from the era and a cross section of a similar move-ment.

Caron was born in 1698, son of a poor French Protestant watchmaker. After serving in the French Cavalry, he moved to Paris where (to be politically more acceptable) he became Catholic and opened his first shop in 1722. He married and had fourteen children, of which only six survived, five girls and one boy.

Caron’s son, Pierre Auguste, began his apprenticeship in 1745, working alongside J-A Lepine who had joined the elder Caron in 1744. However, due to his bad behaviour, Caron kicked Pierre Auguste from the shop and home—at least tem-porarily. J-A Lepine married one of Caron’s daughters and became a partner in the business in 1756, taking it over in 1761 when Caron retired. André-Charles died in 1775.

Robert’s presentation included maps of the areas of Paris where Caron and later, Lepine, had their shops, in the heart of the watchmaking district. He described how Caron’s shop might have looked, using an image of a typical “horloger’s” shop from that era. Cont’d P2

Robert St-Louis enjoying the Show and Tell presentations

The Caron Repeater Watch movement

THE BYTOWN TIMES Page 2


President : Don Purchase [email protected]

Vice President: Kevin West [email protected]

Editor ByTown Times Gary Fox [email protected]

Secretary Paul Sonnichsen [email protected]

CHAPTER OFFICERS

Auditor: Jean Paul Tourigny

Immediate Past President: Daniel Burgoyne

Treasurer:

Ray Springer

Education & Workshop Chairman: Dan Hudon

From P1 Caron’s son was musically very talented and his nightly musical escapades distracted him from learning the watchmaking trade, which ultimate-ly caused his expulsion from the elder Caron’s shop and home. However, the two overcame their differences and Pierre Auguste returned to his apprenticeship, becoming a talented hor-loger, supplying watches to the Royal Family.

In 1755, the younger Caron abandoned his ca-reer as an horloger and established himself as a courtier, assuming official roles. He became a close associate of the King, acting as both an emissary and spy! In addition to teaching the King’s daughters how to play the harp, he ap-parently even became an arms dealer, selling weapons to the Americans in their revolution against the British crown! He married twice but was widowed both times. He adopted the name Beaumarchais, probably to distance himself from his family’s poor Protestant background.

Robert noted that Beaumarchais was indeed a talented watchmaker. He had a public fight with the well known watchmaker Lepaute over his invention of a double virgule es-capement. He was ultimately vindicated by l’Academie Sciences in Paris.

Beaumarchais remained in touch with Lepine who went on to revolutionize watchmaking with his thinner, lighter watches, abandoning the fusee, adopting a going barrel, and re-placing the full top plate with individual bridges and cocks. Perhaps the Lepine advanc-es were influenced by the Carons!

Robert closed his presentation showing pictures of components of the Caron watch, highlighting the pur-pose of each. At the end, Robert was inundated with questions from an enthusiastic audience.

Robert’s presentation is on the club’s website under Educational Information.

http://ottawaclocksandwatches.ca/Figures/Education/Caron%20-%20A%20watchmakers%20shop%20in%20Paris%20in%201750.pdf

A typical 1750’s era Horloger’s shop probably very much like Caron’s

Pierre-Auguste Caron AKA Beaumarchais



Arnold describing the Daigneault auction and the two Birks Clocks he acquired. Allan Symons Advertising Clock / Watch with alarm.

Show and Tell There were four excellent presentations:

First, long time member, Arnold from Montreal, talked about the Gilles Daigneault clock auction. The Daigneault collection was perhaps the largest privately owned in Canada. The auction featured 325 clocks, and was very well organized, including a catalogue with pictures and a description for each item. Bidding was both on-line and on-site. Sale prices were all over the map, but some bargains were to be found. Arnold happily snared two Birks clocks, one a Becker! Allan Symons was up next and presented two items. The first was a mantel clock from the Fleet Time Com-pany Ltd. From Montreal. The movement was likely German made and the clock probably from the 1930’s. The second item was a Canadian Advertising clock in the shape of an pocket watch. The clock was from a shop in Sherbrooke, Quebec, advertising their “Poudres Nervines” to handle headaches (“Mal de Tete” on the dial). The clock has an alarm mechanism.

J. P. Tourigny was next with his early Casio Quartz Clock. It was multi-functioned with four alarms, calculator and stop watch among other features. The clock is battery powered, but has an input for power from house-hold current. Finally, John Ruhland showed an interesting modern clock made in Japan and shaped like a ball on a stand. The clock case had a chromed plastic look and a sharp blue dial. The interesting aspect of the clock was the model name on the dial “Canadian Time”. Shades of the Artur Pequegnat Canadian Time model

J.P. Tourigny with his early Casio clock

Allan Symons with

his 1930’s Fleet Time Co clock

John Ruhland

describes his Japa-

nese “Canadian

Time” clock

THE BYTOWN TIMES

NOVEMBER MEETING MISCELLANEOUS PHOTOS

Daniel Burgoyne collecting the dues!

Is Jan Selles sporting a new beard?

Smile, Maynard Dokken!

Nick Sidor & Tom Clifford share a laugh with Maynard Dokken listening

Bill Jarvis & Tom Devey in deep thought

Welcome back Brian MacDonald

Ray Springer and Miklos Valcamas enjoying a short break

Erin Fox at the Mart Table

Georges Royer & Don Pur-chase chatting up a storm

PETER KUSHNIR


Sadly, long time Ottawa Chapter member and Montreal Chapter President, Peter Kush-nir, passed away on November 12, 2018 at 91 years of age. Peter was born in Bozhyk-iv, Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine and, after his service in the 1st Division of the Ukrainian National Army in WW II AND a dramatic escape from a POW camp, he moved to Can-ada via England.

Peter arrived in Windsor, Ontario with limited English but exceptional watch making skills learned at the Technical School in the Ukraine. He went job hunting and, after seeing a sign in the Helmos shop window that advertised watch re-pair, he walked in and, using his broken English and his hands, he asked for a job. The owner gave him a test,

which Peter aced and he was immediately hired. He started at Helmos in 1947 and worked there for a few years while saving some money to open his own store, “Kushnir’s Watch and Jewelry Repair” on Queen Street in Toronto. A few years later he added a retail area in his store and sold prestigious brands such as Patek Philippe, Wittnauer, Vacheron, Gruen, Certina, and Zenith. He found Bulova and Rolex too aggressive and refused to carry their brands! Peter sold his store in 1963 and became a representative for Zenith and Certina as well his own brand named “Granite Jewelry Ltd”.

It is not very well known that Peter approached Zenith to re-quest a modification to their cal-iber “RR56” so that it would meet the North American Rail-way Standards. He ordered 1000 of these modified watches, 500 with the Montgomery dial and 500 with the 24-hour Canadian railway dial. The watches were deliv-ered to the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1956, even though Peter was not then working for the CPR and had ordered the watches through his own company “Granite Jewelry Ltd.” These are now exceptionally rare timepieces.

Peter started with CPR in 1964 where he worked until 1988 when he was severely injured in a car acci-dent leading to early retirement.

Peter was a staunch supporter of the Ottawa chapter, attending most

meetings and the annual picnic until very recently. While he was outspoken (and one might say stubborn) he was always ready to answer technical questions from local members and to show interesting and unique timepieces along with their history at our meetings. You were always welcome to visit him at his home shop where he was hap-py to help with repairs.

Peter will be missed. His sometimes gruff demeanor masked a friendly soul and gentle-man. Was he really talented? Darryl Lesser said of him… “He was a true, genuine Master watchmaker that can melt a steel leg from a table and build a working time-piece.” Truer words were never spoken! We will miss Peter and send our sincere con-dolences to his family and friends

Gary Fox, with input from Tom Wilcox and Darryl Lesser

Peter frequently gave Show and Tell presentations

Peter came to many Ottawa Chapter picnics, this one was at Maynard Dokken’s cottage. Peter is seen here with his

friend, the late Charles Locke

Peter in his home workshop

THE BYTOWN TIMES

BILL PULLEN

Sadly, we lost another good friend and long time member this past month. Bill Pul-len passed away on December 13, 2018 in the Ottawa Civic Hospital at the age of 91.

Bill was native to Scotland and, although he arrived in Canada in 1954, you could still hear the hint of the Scottish brogue in his talk. Bill was a talented clock repairer but was perhaps best known for his jolly smile and for talking with anyone about clocks, history or even fine whiskey. His basement shop was the stereotypical jum-ble of clocks, tools, and parts just like all of us, but also where he kept his computer, a device which caused him frequent frustration. Fortunately, his son Ian was report-ed to be a whiz hand at resolving the issues!

Bill regularly attended club meetings and social events and was always chatting up members and making new friends. He supported the club’s outreach initiatives by

participating in events to attract new members or entertain seniors.

I will miss Bill and his friendly banter at our meetings. He was a gentle soul and a true gentleman. We send our heartfelt condolences to Bill’s family and many friends. A Celebration of Life will be held in May.

Bill and Rita chatting with Maynard Dokken at a club Wine and Cheese Party

Bill enjoyed the club picnics (2013)

Bill and Pete Graham in deep conversation

Bill gave frequent talks at club meetings here in 2011 and 2002

Bill spoke at a seniors centre in 2013

Bill with councillor Diane Holmes’ & her fascinating watchman’s clock

which he repaired (2012)

EXECUTIVE ELECTIONS (AND SOME NEW FACES)


Our January and March meetings will be held in the west end at the Pinecrest Recreation Complex, just off Baseline Road at Cen-trepointe, between Greenbank Road and Woodroffe Avenue. The Centre is attached to the Barbara Anne Scott Arena. The address is:

2250 Torquay Ave, Ottawa, ON

The Centre provides a room with space for 75 people and also has a smaller room which might serve as a future location for Dan Hudon’s clock repair courses. We have contracted for two meetings only so that members will have the opportunity to check out the room and determine if this is where we will stay. The centre is easy to find off Baseline Road between Woodroffe and Greenbank. At the traffic lights, turn north onto Cobden and take an immediate right turn onto Torquay. The intersection of Cobden and Baseline is easy to identify with Angelo’s Garage and Sean’s Garage on either side of Cobden.

MEETING LOCATION!!

Every two years, the club holds elections for the executive. The elections are held at the November meeting with the new executive taking over in the following January.

This year, the incumbents for the following positions were returned by acclamation: Don Purchase, President; Ray Springer, Treasurer; and Paul Sonnichsen, Secretary. Two Director positions remained unchanged with Dan Hudon serving as Director of Education and Gary Fox as Newsletter Editor. Daniel Burgoyne will continue as Past President.

Two new faces join the leadership team. Kevin West was elected Vice President and Tom Devey has taken over responsibility for col-lecting dues and maintaining the membership list. Welcome to the team, Kevin and Tom! Thank you for being willing to serve! Kevin West Tom Devey

ANNUAL TRASH AND TREASURE AUCTION

Don’t forget that January’s meeting will feature our Annual Trash and Treasure Auction! Bring all the stuff hidden in boxes under your work bench that you

know you will never use or get around to fixing, and make a bit of money!

REMEMBER!!! There is No Mart at the January Meeting

All sales will be by auction!!

THE BYTOWN TIMES

CLOCK MUSEUM NEWS

Westclox Alarm Clocks for Deaf and Blind Users

The first factory for Westclox (the Western Clock Company) outside the United States was set up in Peterbor-ough, Ontario around 1920 to produce windup alarm clocks for the growing Canadian market. The two major models starting in 1908 were the Big Ben (named after the largest bell at Westminster in London, England) and the slightly later, smaller Baby Ben. TOUCH FOR THE TIME As early as the mid 1930s the company started to modify some of the regular windup Baby Bens by leaving off the glass (and later plastic) dial cover and adding metal hour markers that could be felt with the fingers. The quarter-hour markers were pointed cones; flat ‘nail heads’ were located at each five minute position. Westclox called them BRAILLE alarm clocks, which were available for people with poor eyesight. Fingers could identify the position of the minute and hour hands and their positions relative to the hour markers. The exposed dials show the wear expected after years of use. The museum has Braille examples for most of the Baby Ben design periods. Production numbers were much lower than for the regular version, and so they are rarer to find today. There was also a flip-cover Braille wristwatch – the CNIB may still sell these today. Of course, modern equivalents have ‘talking time’ that is based on push button, battery-operated, voice chip circuits.

ca. 1960 original BRAILLE clock box

ca. 1935-1939 style Braille Baby Ben ca.1939-1949 Style Braille Baby Ben ca. 1949-1956 Style Braille Baby Ben

ca. 1956-1964 style Braille Baby Ben ca. 1964-1982 style Braille Baby Ben

CLOCK MUSEUM NEWS (CONT’D)


A FLASHING LIGHT TO WAKE YOU UP There were two styles of the Westclox MOONBEAM model elec-tric alarm clock for people whose hearing was impaired. The first was a rounded-end, Catalin plastic case model that was produced from the late 1940s to the late 1950s. Several dial versions were made over that time period. Apparently butterscotch-colour cases are the most collectable today - the colour change is thought to be caused by aging of the original white / ivory Catalin plastic.

The design was modernized to a rectangular shape for the 1960s and was available with chocolate brown and ivory coloured plastic cases. At least five different dials are known. Note that if you slept through the several minutes of the MOONBEAM’s flashing light, a loud electric buzzer would then be sure to wake you, and everyone else, up!

The museum has had visitors who were deaf. Several years ago a couple noted on my clipboard that they had ordered a battery-backup version of the earlier style now available from the L.L.Bean catalogue. Other visitors have remembered using one of these silent alarm clocks when they had to get up early to go work for a very early morning shift (for example, nurses and truck drivers). When you became familiar with it, the flashing light would wake you up but not the rest of their family.

Allan Symons, Curator

The Canadian Clock Museum http://www.canclockmuseum.ca/

Model stamped in back of early MOONBEAM

Front of a 1940s / 1950s MOON-BEAM (6½“ W) Back of 1940s / 1950s MOONBEAM

Another 1960s MOONBEAM (7½“ W, brown case)

A 1960s MOONBEAM (6½“ W, from box below)

Another style of 1940s / 1950s MOONBEAM

Another side of the 1960s MOONBEAM box A side of a 1960s MOONBEAM packing box

THE BYTOWN TIMES

HOROLOGICAL HINTS AND HOW TO’S

Repairing an Offset / Indirect Winding Assembly Non-standard winding assemblies such as the ones pictured in Figure 1 are found in movements that contain double-geared winding systems which may have single or double clicks. The model presented here has a single click system that offers no protection from the powerful mainsprings in cases of click and winding system failure. The assembly is no-

ticeable only when the movement is removed from the case.

The German movement shown in Fig-ure 1 is distinguished by indirect wind-ing assemblies for both the chime and strike trains with the chime train locat-ed on the left side of the movement. Indirect means that the winding arbors located only on the front plate indirectly wind the barrel springs by using small intermediate wheels to turn larger ratchet wheels. The offset ratchet wheels will usually have more teeth and larger diameters than the smaller wheels which hold the one-inch long winding shafts.

Mainspring winding is easily done in an assembled movement but as Figure 2 shows, winding is challenging once the barrels are removed from the move-ment as the barrel arbors lack winding squares. This explains why these barrels and their main-springs are often found in a neglected state as they are left un-attended by repairers. Figure 2 shows the usual short arbor that accompanies these barrels.

There are two ways to deal with this problem. Some clocks have direct winding capability in the time train and these styles of clocks provide a time arbor with winding square as shown in Figure 3. These arbors can sometimes be used in the offset chime and strike trains but with some difficulty because of their short lengths. A custom-made winding arbor is a better option. This new arbor as shown in Figure 4 will fit all barrels without difficulty. It is made longer to accommodate a mainspring winder and facilitates the removal and control of the mainspring from the cap end of the barrel when it is facing the front of the winder. Figure 4 shows the strike barrel with cap removed. The original arbor is in front of the barrel along with a custom-made arbor that acts as the spring re-moval tool. The length of the new arbor makes using a mainspring winder convenient and easier to handle the sleeves for clamping, removal and re-insertion of main-springs as seen in Figure 5. It is safer should there be spring failure or other faults in the spring.

Chime Train Time Train Strike Train

Fig. 1: German movement with indirect winding mechanisms

Fig.2: The short barrel arbor has no wind-

ing square

Fig. 3: The longer time train arbor with winding square

Fig. 4: A custom made arbor with winding square shown beside the

shorter barrel arbor


HOROLOGICAL HINTS AND HOW TO’S (CONT’D)

As mentioned earlier, one of the leading causes of spring fail-ure in these clocks is neglect by repairers who lack the equip-ment to get at the springs thus allowing the springs to get dirty, sticky and stressed. Mainspring winders are a must to re-move these strong springs from the barrels. Figure 6 shows typical damage that occurred to a neglected mainspring in this movement. One of the indicators that a spring is damaged is the feeling of roughness when winding.

Bearing hole wear is another critical problem that occurs in these movements and requires repair. The chime and strike winding arbors are short, limited to 1 inch in length and only the pivot length of the arbor enters the plate to a depth of about 2mm. Figure 7 shows the chime winding arbor standing up-right on the plate. The pivot end of the short arbor is inside the plate. Note: the cover plate and small transmission gear have been removed for photographic purposes. The click and ratch-

et wheel can be seen next to the winding arbor.

When the bearing hole for this arbor wears, the stability of the winding mechanism will be compromised. The short arbor will begin to tilt or be slop-py when the key is wound.

Securing a new bushing becomes a challenge. There is a possibility that regular sized bushings can be pulled out of the plate by the force exerted during wind-ing. A replacement bushing will need to be riveted in place on both sides of the plate for greater security. It is safer to use a larger surface area around the pivot hole to reduce stress at the base of the arbor. This can be done by using the circle that is scribed into the brass as a guide for inserting a larger piece of replacement brass within that circle. It can be riveted and made to blend in with the plate. A new pivot hole of the correct diameter is then introduced into the replacement plate. A final comment. Arbors from these clocks do not con-tain winding hooks to grasp the mainsprings. Rather, holes are placed in the arbors to receive pins which facil-itate winding. A closer look at the Figures in this article will reveal the various locations of the arbor holes and pins.

Fig. 5: The mainspring being removed from the barrel. Note the mainspring sleeve

Fig. 6: The outer end of this spring was torn. The end was cut off and a new hole made

and shaped to match the original. (Note the tear)

Fig. 7: The chime winding arbor is shown standing upright on the plate. The pivot end of the short arbor is inside the plate.

Dan Hudon, Education Director

THE BYTOWN TIMES

PRESIDENT’S CORNER

Our Club had a fantastic 2018, with amazing presentations from our members, Dan’s Fall training session, participation in the Toron-to Invitational and the Ottawa Mak-er Faire, and social events in the form of the Wine and Cheese party plus the picnic. A heart-felt thanks go out to all our contributors. During the year we also experimented with various venues for our meetings, culminating with a Club discussion on our collective priorities for a site. For our January meeting, we have found the Pinecrest Recreation Complex and will test it out for suitability over the next few meetings. Please provide your feedback to the executive on your thoughts of this facility. 2019 looks to be just as amazing as the previous year. If you have any thoughts on presentation top-ics please let us know. We encourage all members to participate in research and presentations, but if you’re not comfortable presenting we can present your material on your be-

EDITOR’S CORNER

Happy New Year! I wish you and your family health, happi-ness and lots of new finds for your collec-tions in 2019!!

This is looking to be a wonderful year for the club. We have exciting speakers booked, out reach events planned, and

more to come.

As usual, I thank everyone who contributed to this is-sue—Don Purchase, Allan Symons, Dan Hudon, and Erin Fox Without your input, this would be a very bor-ing colourless rag!!

Gary Fox

WINE AND CHEESE PARTY

The 2018 Annual Wine and Cheese party was held in November at “stately (?) Fox Manor” in Ottawa’s west end. Over thirty members and guests attended this annual event to feast on assorted cheeses, fruit, snack foods and, of course, a variety of red and white wines and a delicious non-alcoholic punch.

To pique the interest of the collectors, there were a few clocks and a display of Ottawa watches both private label and commemorative. The watch room was a focal point, especially a display case of antique clock and watchmaker tools! Thank you to all who joined us and made this a memorable event!

Don Purchase

the bytown times

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