Posted 6 months ago
rlwindle
(149 items)
Kodel Clocks
The Kodel Electric Manufacturing Co., manufactured electric clocks under two names, "Havlin", and "Kenmore" (nothing to do with Sears). Havlin clocks are the earliest and are usually manufactured to run on 50 cycles, Kenmore brand clocks ran on 60 cycles.
The Kodel Manufacturing Co. was founded in 1917, Clarence E. Ogden who organized the Automatic Electrical Devices Co. which designed and sold a vibrating-reed rectifier to recharge radio and auto batteries in the home. This led him to enter the radio manufacturing business in 1923. He then designed a portable radio receiver called "The Kodel" and started the Kodel Manufacturing Co. Later, he merged the two companies, located in Cincinnati, Ohio, under the Kodel Radio Corp, which later became the Kodel Electric Manufacturing Co.
The Kodel Electric Manufacturing Co. had legal problems with it clocks, for Patent infringements Warren Telechron (GE/Telechron Clocks) sued them for infringement of claims 8 and 9 of patent to Henry Warren, No. 1,502,494, issued July 22, 1924, for "Time-indicating Apparatus." Claim 8 is typical, and is printed in the margin. The defendant asserts both invalidity of the claims in suit and non-infringement. Kodel lost and appealed to the 9thcircuit court of appeals.
Kodel bragged that it was the world's largest manufacturers of electric clocks.
The Leverhulme was an expensive clock when it debuted in 1929, at $50.05, however it wasn't Kenmore's most expensive clock at that time, that honor went to the Glastonbury at $70 (take that Lawson and Telechron). The Glastonbury is a very rare clock, I have seen only one come up for auction. The Leverhulme although it is used in a lot of their advertising is second to it in rarity.
This Leverhulme's case was in lousy shape, some course and fine sanding with sandpaper, and steel wool cleaned it up and Rest-A-Finish did the rest. The power indicator that flashed in the little opening under the 12 was missing, so I painted the spokes of the gear behind the face white to compensate for that. It was missing all kinds of brads and screws so I replaced them. A previous owner replaced the cord. Although the face looks cream color is is actually a matte silver this clock is not self-starting, they have to be primed in the back.
very beautiful clock!!!!!
Great clock and interesting history.