The Daily Record (Baltimore, MD), September 24, 2005, Saturday

Copyright 2005 Dolan Media Newswires
The Daily Record (Baltimore, MD)

September 24, 2005 Saturday

SECTION: NEWS

HEADLINE: National Watch and Clock Museum in Pennsylvania chronicles the science of measuring time

BYLINE: Mary E. Medland

BODY:
Unless we're late, most of us don't give a whole lot of thought to our wristwatches, nor the alarm clock until it's time to shut it off and start another day.
But hike on up to Lancaster County, Pa., for a visit to the National Watch and Clock Museum, and you'll never think the same about horology -- "the science of measuring time" or "the art of making timepieces."
Before there was the museum, there was the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, which was founded in 1943 by hobbyists, educators, collectors, students and pretty much anyone fascinated with timekeeping. By the early 1950s, the association's secretary, collector Earl Strickler, had grown the organization and raised enough money to hire a number of people to work with him from his home.
Continuing to grow, in 1971 the association purchased a building from Pennsylvania Power and Light with the intention of opening a museum and housing the association's administrative staff. In 1977, the nonprofit museum opened its doors to the public.
In 1999, a $7 million renovation was completed; the museum, which started off as 8,000 square feet, has doubled in size. Today, the museum boasts North America's largest collection of time-keeping artifacts, a 30-person staff and 15,000 annual visitors, and the association has grown to some 26,000 members from 55 countries.
Originally there were 1,000 pieces on display; now, about 20 percent of the 12,000 items in the collection can be seen.
For those wishing to research the provenance of the clock passed down from grandparents or purchased in an antique store, the museum has a library and research center with nearly 5,000 sources of information -- computers, videos, books and journals -- that are available to the public. On the second Saturday of every month there are different programs and speakers.
A few of the standout items at the museum include a table clock that dates to 1570, sundials from the 17th century and, in the Asian section, an antique clock with a stick of incense that burns for precisely one hour. At the end of that hour, a ball is dropped -- the resulting noise alerting those in earshot of the time.
In the 18th-century gallery, there are musical clocks that date back to the late 1700s. Describing an elaborate German glass bell musical clock from 1770, the museum writes, "Typical of clocks of this period, this Black Forest musical clock has a wooden movement with verge escapement " or 'cow's tail' pendulum. " The 30-hour movement strikes the quarter-hour and hour. Six melodies are each played through twice, when manually selected, on nine original glass bells. The carved and painted wooden dial features an armorial crest with crown. Two standing lions flank the chapter ring. Gold and silver leaf accents the red and blue paint."
Another nifty clock in the collection is the conical pendulum statue clock. Dating to 1875, it is an 11-foot French clock that was made by a Monsieur E. Farcot for display the following year at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. With a silver-bronze statue of a woman and a marble-and-onyx base, the pendulum, which is attached to the woman's hand, does not swing from side to side as is typical, but rather swings conically.
From the 19th-century collection, there's an alarm clock that does not go off at a specific time, but rather after a certain period of time has passed. Made in Paris by Monsieur H. Laresche; Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was a client.
Apparently getting workers out of bed to head off for the salt mines is not a new problem. Around 1910, an unknown American clockmaker came up with the kitschy "Tugaslugabed." The clock itself was bolted to the floor and before nodding off, dead-to-the-world sleepers wrapped a ring around their toe (ring and clock were connected by string.) When the alarm went off the next morning, the clock gave a good, hard tug to the toe-ring's string.
In addition to the museum's permanent exhibit, there's a temporary show -- through June 2006 -- that will charm all ages. "What's in Your Cereal Box? American Pop Culture Timepieces" features more than 125 timepieces, many of which were given as premiums by cereal manufacturers, including Cocoa Puffs, Lucky Charms and Cheerios.
The genesis for the exhibit began in the early 1970s when Ursula Metsker -- author of "Time: A Premium" -- noticed on the label of a can of Starkist tuna that all she had to do to get a watch was to send in the label. She did, and an addiction was begun.
Celebrities in this watch-wall-alarm clock exhibit include Bart Simpson, Mr. Peanut, Superman, Pocahontas, the California Raisins, Little Mermaid, Pillsbury Doughboy, Morris the Cat, Mickey Mantle, Mickey Mouse, and Beauty and the Beast.
The National Watch and Clock Museum
514 Poplar St.
Columbia, Pa. 17512-2130
Hours of operation:
April-December
Tuesday-Saturday, 10-5
Sunday, 12-4 p.m.
January-March
Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Closed Sundays, Mondays and major holidays.
Admission:
Adult -- $7
Senior citizen (60+) -- $6
Family (two adults and children) -- $20
Child (ages 6-16) -- $4
Free to members of National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors and their dependents
Engle Clock
One can only guess what it was that Stephen Engle was smoking when he spent 20 years creating the clock that was billed as the Eighth Wonder of the World. It's an 11-foot-high, 8-foot-wide, 3-foot-deep, 1,049-pound clock that has a cast of characters that includes Jesus, all 12 of the apostles, Satan, Father Time, the Grim Reaper, Orpheus and Linus.
If that's not enough, it also has a platoon of Continental Army soldiers who rush past Molly Pitcher on their way to the Battle of Monmouth. And, Engle added characters who play background music.
Engle begins the hour by reminding us of our mortality with a skeleton banging a bone on a skull. In the hour's remaining 15-minute increments, Father Time makes an appearance, as do figures representing youth and middle age, the latter of which happens to be a dead ringer for Stephen Engle. Forty minutes into the hour, the Continental soldiers charge by, and 15 minutes later, the apostles make their appearance.
Once Engle completed his magnificent opus, he turned the clock over to a Captain and Mrs. Reid, who dubbed it the Eighth Wonder and proceeded to schlep it around the United States -- charging a small fee for admission. Due to the fragility of the clock, it does not run continuously. However, when visitors reach a critical mass, museum guides are happy to put it through an entire hour-long performance in about 10 minutes.
School of Horology
Ready for a career change? There is world-wide a shortage of skilled clock and watch repairmen and restoration experts.
The School of Horology, which opened in 1995, is right across the street from the National Clock and Watch Museum in Lancaster, Pa. There are two programs -- one in watch and clock repair and another in restoration -- which are certified by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges of Technology.
Enrolled students take courses such as Hairsprings, Cuckoo Clock Repair, Introduction to Escapements and Reversed Painting on Glass. The clock repair program consists of 10 70-hour courses in two-week increments.
And a few of the schools students are not at all who one would expect.
Arthur Finn retired from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill's School of Medicine, where he had been a professor of medicine and cell and molecular physiology. He enrolled to determine how his 1795 English grandfather clock actually worked. He's now back home in Carolina in a new profession -- with a four-month waiting list for his newly acquired skills.
With a degree in labor relations from Cornell University, an MBA from Santa Clara University and a good run as a recruiting services consultant for the telecommunications, computer and consulting industries, Gene Wypyski decided it was time to expand his love of his antique clock collection one step further and headed for the school. Today, he and his wife own an antique clock shop in Georgia.