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| The General Electric model
8B54 "Radio Traveler" clock was meant for the short wave
radio listener in the late 1930's. It contains the familiar
Telechron timer mechanism, but also featured a disk in the center of the
face which rotated with the hour hand. The disk was positioned to
correspond with the owner's local time zone. The local time in
each of the 24 time zones could, thus, be read directly from this
disk.
The timer feature could be used to turn the radio (or other appliance) on and off at selected times. Around the periphery of the clock's face are 48 metal tabs, each of which represents a 15 minute time period. The tabs are pulled out to program the timer. For example, four consecutive tabs would be pulled out to turn on the radio for one hour. As the clock runs past the programmed time, the tabs are pulled in, so the programming must be redone each time it is used. The toggle switch on the front is used to bypass the timer's switch. Unfortunately, there is no way to reposition the time zone disk without disassembling the clock, so a move to another time zone meant a trip to a clock shop as well. The list price of the Radio Traveler was $12.50. A page from a 1937 GE dealer's catalog is shown below. |
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