|
General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc. |
|
Thread Tools |
29th Mar 2020, 2:30 pm | #1 |
Nonode
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Preston, Lancashire, UK.
Posts: 2,511
|
Salvage Hunters
I just caught an episode of 'Salvage Hunters' on Quest TV, where a number of splendid BBC Studio clocks made by Gents of Leicester were acquired (I didn't see that bit of the programme). Back at the restoration base it was declared "these were intended to be driven by a Master Clock, so we have to replace the entire mechanism", which they did, installing a ubiquitous quartz movement and replacement hands, thus totally destroying the originality and authenticity of a historic item.
When will people learn that a slave/impulse clock can be driven by a modern Impulse Generator in place of the original Master Clock, without any need to wreck the original item? Andy |
29th Mar 2020, 2:36 pm | #2 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Madrid, Spain / Wirral, UK
Posts: 7,498
|
Re: Salvage Hunters
Shocking. Ignorance disseminated on a grand scale.
__________________
Regards, Ben. |
29th Mar 2020, 2:41 pm | #3 |
Nonode
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Preston, Lancashire, UK.
Posts: 2,511
|
Re: Salvage Hunters
What really annoys me is that the perpetrators would claim to be professionals with a serious interest in history.
Andy |
29th Mar 2020, 2:59 pm | #4 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Worksop, Nottinghamshire, UK.
Posts: 5,554
|
Re: Salvage Hunters
They are stupid.
You only need to count down the mains frequency and feed them with the pulses as they would have been when they were new. |
29th Mar 2020, 4:16 pm | #5 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Staffordshire Moorlands, UK.
Posts: 5,271
|
Re: Salvage Hunters
Here's the item in question if anyone missed the programme.
https://www.drewpritchard.co.uk/prod...-studiio-clock
__________________
Kevin |
29th Mar 2020, 4:24 pm | #6 |
Heptode
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Birmingham, West Midlands, UK.
Posts: 708
|
Re: Salvage Hunters
Seen what Salvage Hunters do to clocks before...
They stick a 5 quid quartz movement onto the huge weighty hands of an even larger public building ancient clock (I wonder if the mech lasts longer than the battery?) |
29th Mar 2020, 5:00 pm | #7 |
Heptode
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Rugby, Warwickshire, UK.
Posts: 824
|
Re: Salvage Hunters
Quick turn around, quick money, that is essentially what the program is about...
__________________
Greg BVWS committee chairman |
29th Mar 2020, 5:30 pm | #8 |
Octode
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Belper Derbyshire
Posts: 1,935
|
Re: Salvage Hunters
Least they didn’t change the red bulbs for trendy blue LED ones!!
Christopher Capener
__________________
Interests in the collection and restoration of Tefifon players and 405 line television |
29th Mar 2020, 5:35 pm | #9 |
Heptode
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Winchester, Hampshire, UK.
Posts: 638
|
Re: Salvage Hunters
We had these all over our studio centre, I think they were driven by a bi-phase pulse from the master unit. In the end they were all replaced with modern time code versions, but, there was one that couldn’t be replaced. It’s quite common for a clock to be positioned high up in a tv studio so that people on the floor can see it and keep track of time. In our case, these clocks were mounted high up just below the lighting gantry. It must have been approaching 3ft in diameter and there was no modern equivalent being manufactured any more. One of my very clever colleagues designed and built a timecode>pulse decoder to drive the original clocks. To the best of my knowledge they are still there 50 years later and about 20 years after they were interfaced to the new decoders.
|
29th Mar 2020, 5:46 pm | #10 |
Heptode
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: East London, UK.
Posts: 761
|
Re: Salvage Hunters
Pure nostalgia.............my working life was ruled by these clocks when I worked as a tech op at Broadcasting House from Dec 70 to June 77 so very sad to see them end up like this!
|
30th Mar 2020, 8:00 am | #11 |
Tetrode
Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, UK.
Posts: 63
|
Re: Salvage Hunters
I think most larger GPO/BT Strowger telephone exchanges had these Gent clock systems installed at the time of construction. I remember an old boy explaining how it worked when I was an apprentice back in the sixties. Is Gents pronounced with a hard or soft G?
I nearly bought a car from a Mr. S. Windle. but I found a big hole in the cill. A least I gave him a chance with his dodgy name! |
30th Mar 2020, 8:50 am | #12 | |
Heptode
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Winchester, Hampshire, UK.
Posts: 638
|
Re: Salvage Hunters
Quote:
|
|
30th Mar 2020, 10:31 am | #13 |
Octode
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: West Midlands, UK.
Posts: 1,571
|
Re: Salvage Hunters
When ever I mention restoration to the uninitiated, especially the time involved, I get the "oh, I saw XYZ on TV and they did it in a week". They then proceed to tell me how it's all done. (Had an instance a only a couple of months ago. I change the subject.) Well, if it's on TV it must be right.
A lot of us on this forum must have wasted an awful lot of time - time that we could have spent, feet up, watching TV... OT I remember Doolittle & Dalley in Kidderminster. Went past the office in, I think, Mason Road, frequently in my youth. About twenty years ago a friend of mine had his house conveyancing done by a firm called Wright Hassall. |
30th Mar 2020, 10:53 am | #14 |
Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Fife, Scotland, UK.
Posts: 22,881
|
Re: Salvage Hunters
I suppose the fun ends with Mr Box, the undertaker, whose shop I passed a few weeks ago.
David
__________________
Can't afford the volcanic island yet, but the plans for my monorail and the goons' uniforms are done |
30th Mar 2020, 10:59 am | #15 |
Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Ipswich, Suffolk, IP4, UK.
Posts: 21,288
|
Re: Salvage Hunters
Indeed it does. Thread closed.
__________________
Graham. Forum Moderator Reach for your meter before you reach for your soldering iron. |