Accidental Mysteries

Benjamin Franklin said: “lost time is never found again.” Einstein proved that time is relative. Clocks, watches and timepieces of all sorts tell us where we are within our 24-hour daily allotment of time. Once you use time, it is forever gone. The present becomes the past as fast as you experience it, it falls away held only by our memory and our now sophisticated ways to capture it. This week, I take a look at some man-made devices that keep us… on time.


Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo) and Bennye Gatteys from the television program Captain Kangaroo, 1959, with Grandfather Clock.


Clock stopped at moment of Hiroshima impact.


Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre; Melted clock, Cass Technical High School


Image of peach radio by Cassia Beck.


Custom, one-of-a-kind camera clocks from Van Dusen Clockworks.


A 1950s Kit Cat clock.


Self-taught artist Frank Jones, c. 1968-1969, Smithsonian American Art Museum


1960s classic IBM Clock.


Silent film star Harold Lloyd in “Safety First,” 1923.


Detail from work by self-taught artist Adolf Wolfli (1864-1930).


George Nelson mid-century clock by Knoll, 1950s.


Nixie clock containing wire-mesh anode and multiple cathodes in the shape of numerals.


U.S. Army military clock, manufactured by Chelsea Clock Company, c. 1920-1930.


U.S. Government clock with 24-hour dial, manufactured by Chelsea Clock Company, c. 1920-1930.


Group of simple mechanical school/industrial clocks, France, c. 1930


Waltham dashboard car clock, simple form, nickel casing, American c. 1920


Steampunk clock designed by Amahl Shukup, using a 1910 clockcase and found industrial parts.


Single digit steampunk nixie clock.


Diagram of a clock assembly.


The time 11:11 seems to have meaning for many people.


Burned room with clock at abandoned Emge Foods Plant in Fort Branch, Indiana.


Vintage watch face by Newgate.


Westclox Earth paperweight clock — 1936-1938


1930s Ingersoll vintage “Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf” alarm clock