Wiring help needed on a '39 Internation/ibm clock

[James W]

My Dad gave me his old International clock (Style No. D.G. 561-2, Serial No. 563479, Date October 23, 1939) made by International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). He purchased it at an estate sale a few years back. As seen in the photos, it has 3 wires that come out of the back of the clock- all black. I am looking for instruction on how or if I can wire this clock to "plug in"; also assuming you must need some sort of a master control to adjust the time electronically? Would anyone have a copy of a vintage owners manual digital or otherwise for this? Thank you, James in Wisconsin

 

[harold bain]

Hi, James, welcome to the message board. Your clock is a "minute impulse" type slave clock that needs either a master clock or a pulse generator to run it. Plugging it into a wall outlet will quickly fry the coils. The third wire is for correction pulses. It runs on 24 volts DC, pulsed once a minute.

 

[James W]

Thanks for the response Harold. Do you have a simple pulse generator that you could recommend to work with this clock, and how would one determine where/to what these 3 black wires would go to? Merry Christmas, James in Wisconsin

 

[harold bain]

I'm not sure who makes pulse generators to run these slave clocks. Maybe someone else will have a contact for you.
A simple one can be made with a 1 rpm motor with a cam and a microswitch, set to give a two second pulse once a minute. You would also need a 24 volt transformer and a rectifier.
Taking the back cover off, you will find that one wire goes to the coils, and the other two go to the correction contacts. With no master clock correction, the two wires going to the contacts can be joined together.

 

[harold]

Hans supplied the information on a previous post.

:http://radioclockcontrol.com/

 

[Mike Phelan]

Neat layout, but I can't see the price anywhere.

I'll be making one from scrapbox bits, but I guess James doesn't want to wait for a month or three!

I will post the result on here when I've made it. I will probably divide the 50Hz mains down or use the seconds hand on a cheap quartz clock, with an optocoupler.

 

[skruft]

When I made my first "master clock" impulser I used a 1rpm clock motor with a rare earth magnet glued to a second hand, which passes by a magnetic reed switch of the kind you see on doors in old-time burglar alarm systems. The duration of the impulse can be varied just by moving the reed switch closer or farther from the motor. Eventually it became much more complicated with relays, pilot lights, buttons, a power supply, etc. but that was the heart of it.

 

[ibm clock]

Contact Ken at www.kensclockclinic.com for an impulser for your ibm clock. I have one I bought from him and it works great.

Where in Wisc. are you? I may be close enough to drop buy and help you.

 

[ibm clock]

In the enclosed pic of a movement see the wire labels. Basically connecting to a master clock you have A B C wires. Please note. A and C wires can be reversed and clock will still work. B wire is always on the right side of the micro-switch. Basically to connect to an impusler, you must jump the B and C terminals on the micro-switch. Connect A wire to impulser and C wire to impulser. B wire can be removed from switch. This insures switch continuity at all times as clock switches back and forth from B to C wire during the correction cycle. A impulser will let you run the clock, but you won't have correction ability that a master clock will give you. You just made your 3 wire clock a two wire clock, ready for an external impulser like the one Ken sells.

 

[ibm clock]

I'm going to make a correction to my above post and picture. Typically, the A wire is connected to the left side of the microswitch, the B wire is connected on the right side of the microswitch,and the coil wire is connected to the middle terminal. The C wire and coil wire is connected to a terminal on the bottom left side of the movement. This is how it should be when connected to a Master Clock. Connecting to an impulser, it would work as described in the above post.

 

[James W]

You know, I hate to bring up an old post, and also to admit that working on the clock hasn't crossed my mind in some time, but I wanted to show this to you folks. It blew my mind when I saw it. The information (Order number, serial number, build date) for my clock are all listed below. This morning I got the itch to look for an impulse & came across a company in New Hampshire called www.piexx.com , they build an impulse for slave clocks run off of batteries. http://www.piexx.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=5

Now they also have an informational PDF file on the product, its installation & use. I downloaded it, opened it and the very first clock on the page I thought, wow! Looks a lot like mine! The photo of their clock is below! The company is out of New Hampshire- who knows where the clock was from; Same 1939 order number! Very next serial number from mine! Very same build date! I thought it was worth sharing.
James Wallace
Columbus, Wisconsin

 

[restavation]

I am new to this group but am posting in the hope of finding some help among kindred spirits. Mr. Wallace's photo of the really clean impulse movement and controller caught my eye on the web, which led me here. My current project would seemingly be right in this group's wheelhouse; restoration of the remaining IBM synchronized impulse system originally installed in Cincinnati Union Terminal in 1932/33. We've returned 10 clocks to service so far with more to come depending on parts availability. I'll post some photos for general consumption shortly.

 

[harold bain]

Hi, Restavation, welcome to the message board. These slave clocks were very well built, and should last a good long time with a little cleaning and oiling. They turn up quite often on ebay if you need more of them. What do you have for a master clock?

 

[restavation]

Hi Harold, it's me from the IBM System Resurrection thread. I saw this thread and posted here first before starting a thread dedicated to my project. I've been looking for more secondaries, dials, movements, etc not much has I'd hoped. We can move the discussion over to the other thread if you wish.

 

[restavation]

James, wecome to the forum! Have you been able to make some progress with your clock? BTW, what diameter does it happen to be. Looks about 15" but wanted to check just to gauge similar photos I see on-line.

Patrick

 

[harold bain]

Yes, best to keep the conversation in one place, on your other thread.
James may not reply, as his last activity on the message board was shortly after his post here, so he's likely not watching.