Hi Tom... Not only Telechron were very popular electric clock movements, they were BY FAR the very best mechanical movements ever made.
When young, i've opened A LOT of used electro-mechanical clock movements, and most of them showed evident traces of wear. Worn-out gear pinions, dried-out and seized brass/steel bushings, dried-out and cracked nylon pinions (Nylon tends to harden and shrink with time and heat, so Nylon parts shall NEVER be put on a traction stress when manufactured) were frequent on old clock movements, but NEVER on Telechrons, except very rare cases of pinion wear on the output shaft (3.6 RPM) Telechron movements were very unique. The motors were two-pole shaded pole synchronous motors with an external solenoid and a completly sealed rotor stuck within the poles pieces. The self-starting rotor, composed of three spring steel disks forced in place on a smooth shaft and spinning at 3600 RPM (60 Hz) was inside a sealed cylindrical aluminum gearbox (older gearboxes were in a copper sealed box) containing not only the rotor shaft, but also a 1000:1 reduction geartrain. Pinions were made of stacked thin steel pinion disks forced on the shaft to form single solid pinions. The faster rotating gears plates were made of some kind of red-orange colored fiber material and the slower rotating (higher torque) plates, of soft brass. The gear holding plates were made of thick alunimum with a thinner aluminum subplate that prevented the gears from sliding longitudinally, but far more important, the thin space between the plates and subplates had a capital role: Keeping a fine capillary oil film between the plate and subplate, that film kept the gear shafts permanently lubricated, thus eliminating all trace of wear. Even the gears themselves (the rotor was spinning at 3600 RPM and the second gear, at 864 RPM) didn't show any trace of wear, even under a magnifying glass. I even remember the gear ratios of a Telechron: Rotor: 12 toothed pinion (3600 RPM) Second gear: 50 tooth fiber plate coupled to a 12 tooth pinion R:r: 4.1666667:1 Third gear: 54 tooth fiber plate coupled to a 18 tooth pinion R:r: 4.5:1 Fourth gear: 60 tooth fiber plate coupled to a 12 tooth pinion R:r: 3.3333333:1 Fifth gear: 60 tooth brass plate coupled to a 12 tooth pinion R:r: 4:1 Output gear: 60 tooth brass plate coupled to an external 10 tooth pinion R:r: 4:1 4.16667*4.5*3.333333*4*4=1000 Definitely a fine movement! I still use an oooold Telechron at my shop. 73 de Normand VE2UM --- "Tom Van Baak (mobile)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > See Mitchell's SWCC page at: > http://www.telechron.com/ > > /tvb > > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list > [email protected] > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > ____________________________________________________________________________________ Need Mail bonding? Go to the Yahoo! Mail Q&A for great tips from Yahoo! Answers users. http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396546091 _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list [email protected] https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
