1944 Seth Thomas U S. Coast Guard Radiobeacon Clock

1944 Seth Thomas U S. Coast Guard Radiobeacon Clock

Clock: Seth Thomas
Manufacturer: Wallace & Tiernan Products Inc.
Date: 6-26-44
For: U.S. Coast Guard

For as long as I remember this grandfather clock has been in the house. I recently got it running again. There's a knob on the bottom of the pendulum that shortens or extends the swing(weight) of the pendulum. That's how you dial in the time and make it accurate.

**Fun Fact: Tiernan is the name of one of my grandkids!

There's a plaque inside indicating its a U S. Coast Guard Radiobeacon Clock. There are also some mounting holes on the left side of the case. Something was mounted in that area.

WHAT'S A RADIOBEACON CLOCK?
"In the past, air travel was point-to-point across the country with rotating searchlight beacons and later radio receivers with directional antenna. The co-pilot decoded the location of the radio-beacon on a printed route map."

"There was a maximum of six radio beacons on one frequency in a given area. Each station had three clocks using only one at a time. Clocks were set to signals from WWV. Each clock had a micro switch that would turn on the beacon at its assigned time. It would broadcast for one minute then go off air for the next beacon to have its turn. If there were less than six beacon in the chain one would take its place and broadcast twice during the sequence. This was all done to save radio frequency spectrum.?
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The user would tune their automatic direction finding (ADF) receiver to the assigned frequency and could see his needle swing from one station to the next thus fixing their position by just tuning to one frequency between 285-325 kHz."

WALLACE & TIERNAN PRODUCTS INC
"Charles Wallace and Martin Tiernan founded the firm of Wallace & Tiernan in New York in 1913. Their primary product was equipment for the chlorination of water. The company moved to Belleville, New Jersey in 1921. They began making precision pressure instruments in 1930."

SETH THOMAS (born Aug. 19, 1785, Wolcott, Conn., U.S.—died Jan. 29, 1859, Plymouth Hollow, Conn.)
"American clock manufacturer who was one of the pioneers in the mass production of clocks and the founder of one of the most important clock companies in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries."