Snakeoil
Well-Known Member
My Dad was in the USAAF during WWII. He was fortunate and never left the US. He was airframe and powerplant certified and became a flight inspector for incoming aircraft from the various companies that built them. When the war ended, he was involved in the closing process of various bases in TX. He watched them tow a brand new P-38 with a damaged nose gear, into a pit they dug with a dozer and burned it.
Anyway, Pop was able to scrounge a few things during the base closing process and part of that was clocks from B-29 bombers. I remember there being at least 2 in the family. One was at my Grandparent's house and someone had made a wood base for it and it sat on a shelf in the informal dining room. The other was in our house and it was always somewhere in the house and I played with it a bit as a kid. It has a radium dial and I would take it into the dark to see the number glow.
So, I've been watching a lot of WWII documentaries on YouTube as part of my breakfast and lunch entertainment. It got me thinking about that clock. I thought I knew where it was and found it. I wound it up and set it to the time on my computer. That was last week. It's an 8-day clock made by Waltham. It lost about 10 minutes over the week. Not bad when you consider the lube is 80 years old. I wound it again today and it's still running merrily on my desk. If only we made things that well today.
Anyway, Pop was able to scrounge a few things during the base closing process and part of that was clocks from B-29 bombers. I remember there being at least 2 in the family. One was at my Grandparent's house and someone had made a wood base for it and it sat on a shelf in the informal dining room. The other was in our house and it was always somewhere in the house and I played with it a bit as a kid. It has a radium dial and I would take it into the dark to see the number glow.
So, I've been watching a lot of WWII documentaries on YouTube as part of my breakfast and lunch entertainment. It got me thinking about that clock. I thought I knew where it was and found it. I wound it up and set it to the time on my computer. That was last week. It's an 8-day clock made by Waltham. It lost about 10 minutes over the week. Not bad when you consider the lube is 80 years old. I wound it again today and it's still running merrily on my desk. If only we made things that well today.