Baby Ben

My partner has this Baby Ben alarm clock that belonged to her father. According to my research Westclox of Peterborough, Ontario produced this clock from 1956 to 1964. It is still in good working order. It is heavy for its size and has a very quiet movement. The ticking can hardly be heard from a couple feet away.

Younger people may never have seen a wind-up alarm clock. There are two winding keys on the back. One is for the alarm mechanism and one for the clock mechanism. At the top of the rear is a button that is pulled to turn on the alarm. Below it and a bit to the right is a knob to set the alarm time which is indicated by a hand on the front face of the clock. To the right of that knob is a screw adjustment with F and S stamped on the back plate. This is used to speed up or slow down the clock to ensure it is keeping proper time. In my younger days I used to set my clock to the fastest setting. I would never know exactly what time it was and I had to assume the time was correct. This gave me a few more minutes to shake the sleep off. The centre knob is for adjusting the time. At the bottom right is a loud/soft lever to adjust the volume of the alarm bell from "ho hum, time to get up" to "GET YOUR LAZY SELF OUT OF BED NOW!!!!!" The hour and minute hands on the face are luminous and can be seen in the dark providing enough light has shone on them prior to lights-0ut.