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Pennwood Numechron made
"digital clocks" - cyclometers that is, and is perhaps best known for their TV Tymeter - advertised as:
"Glolite Colorama Television Lamp-Clock with Focalizer Stare-Break" (which is quite a mouth full). At least, that's how
the marketing department described it back in the 50's. Unless you grew up with those early TV's it's hard to remember what weak picture
tubes they had. Ours was in the basement, but in other homes, viewing was best done in slightly darker rooms with subdued lighting.
The folks at Pennwood gave us a clock that had a clear plastic back and a small internal light. You could stick it right on top or by your TV
to provide that faint lighting. The "focalizer stare-break" refers to the notion that if you look up from the TV every so often (at the clock),
maybe you won't get such a big headache... they got that part right certainly, even accurate today.
The Tymeter mechanism was actually patented on February 12th 1935 by Frederick A. Greenawalt, he received US Patent 1,990,645 for the tymeter mechanism.
It was manufactured and marketed by at least
2 companies (I think it's really just one?) from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. These clocks peaked in popularity in the late 1950's then
faded, as these things do eventually. Be somewhat careful with the units that "glow-in-the-dark". The units that have a
cream colored outer bezel that glows, may be doing so from Radium mixed into the paint,
they were a bit more lax on things like that in the 50's. Probably best to steer clear of those if you're collecting old clocks, dito on the alarm clocks with luminous dials and hands.
This is my only Pennwood (it doesn't glow in the dark), if you don't count a Seth Thomas I bought that turned out to
be a standard Penwood movement with a 10 cent plastic shell wrapped around it.
I think I have a mental block where these are concerned since I always lose them at auction. Like Hammond though,
I think that they OEM'd a lot since I see their movement in other clocks like the Seth Thomas I bought.
I remember when I was young (the 60's) going to the Firestation where my father worked and seeing the radio
dispatchers room. They had what seemed like an enormous radio console and right in the middle of it was a built-in
Penwood Numechron clock... The room had a certain NASA control room feel to it, always shrouded in smoke, coffee cups
littering the place. I remember being fascinated by that clock, the way that the minute dial wouldn't start moving until
the revolving second's dial hit 60.
The TV Tymeter a classic that I think they sold for the better part of several decades since
I've seen copies of this from the early 50's into the 60's. It surfaced in a number of formats, including one in which you
could put business cards in front and special advertisements (I've seen the united mine workers on the front, as well as political figures).
There are follow on's to this design, other various TV shaped versions but this one seems definitive. How about that font, and the colors?
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