The clock
My father once worked in Limerick.
He was promoted which involved a move. When he left there he was presented with a wall mounted mains powered clock. Or maybe he nicked it. Knowing my father anything is possible.
Anyhows he moved to Cork and the clock went with him.
After some years he was promoted again and moved to Dublin and once again the clock traveled. After some more years I arrived on the scene and as a toddler I became familiar with that clock, and through it I learned to tell the time. It was mounted over the back door and was the most accurate clock in the house. It was the master clock, as it were.
After many more years the clock [and the family] moved to Wicklow, to The Manor. The clock is still there mounted over the back door and still as accurate as ever.
I never paid the clock much attention as it was just something that was always there. It is somehow part of the house and part of the family. It is a constant through time.
We recently had a couple of power cuts and of course the clock stopped. For once I didn’t bother resetting it after one of the cuts. It had developed a rattle and a tick that sounded a bit off. It was time for a bit of maintenance.
A couple of days ago I took it down, disassembled it and gave the works a thorough clean and re-oiling. I put it back up and it’s now working perfectly and completely silently, sweeping away the seconds, minutes and hours.
Of late I have taken an increasing interest in antiques [seeing as I’m one?]. I decided to find out a little more about the clock. I knew it was unusual in modern times as it has a smooth sweeping second-hand. Modern clocks tend to jerk off the seconds whereas my clock just gently sweeps them by.
I finally found a little more information about the clock. It is described as a WWII Bakelite industrial clock and was manufactured by Smiths around the nineteen forties. It seems to be quite desirable and there were a few for sale at varying prices up to in excess of €300. Not bad?
My clock isn’t worth that much as it lost its glass [though that’s easily fixed if I wanted to bother] and the Bakelite case is cracked after an unfortunate incidence involving gravity. The face is showing its age too and is hardly pristine. However it still keeps perfect time and I have no intention of ever parting with it.
It’s too much part of the family.
And it’s a lot older than me.
What my clock would look like if it was cleaned up a bit.
What was the old song (clean version) about my grandfathers clock – best to look after it I think!
Maybe they’ll bury it with me when my time comes?
Pass it on to the daughter?
Probably a synchronous motor.
My folks had a clock with one. The motor moves round, smoothly, synchronized with the 50Hz mains electric. Had a little “flick” lever to start it after it was plugged in. Gentle hum if you listen close. And the mains is continually adjusted to always keep step with the time standards: over the short term it is allowed to deviate a bit but long term it is exact. Which is probably why your clock keeps such accurate time.
Even if using the term “Master” is problematic and indicative that both the concept of time and your clock have hetro-normative white patriarchal supremacist oppressor natures. You should denounce it or you might receive a visit from someone to check your thinking and whether you’ve committed a hate crime.
It is indeed a synchronous motor. It takes a little patience to get it running which I do by repeatedly pushing in the time setting spindle.
I use the term Master in the sense that all household timepieces can be set to the Master time as it is the most accurate. Time is essential in this household as Herself has to know when to turn on the Six O’Clock News.
I might point out that the clock is black and is therefore exempt from any woke bullshit.
A Clock of Colour! Dats all right den 🙂
BTW, just noticed that your opening line “My father once worked in Limerick” is in itself like the opening line of a Limerick. Partial recursion?
All da best 🙂
If it had been the older type of pendulum “Master” I wonder what happened to all the slaves when he “nicked it”? And don’t worry about its condition, antiques expert Drew Pritchard (of the UK TV show “Salvage Hunters”) would call that “Patina”…