HRS, MIN, SEC, and..?

[LMFAOschwarz]

Are there any blu-ray owners out there who can identify what the writing is beneath the switches on the bridge chronometer? It looks very "real", and I'm sure the switches were cobbled from some device or other, and I just got curious what the writing was when I watched The Mark of Gideon last night.



(Wow, only a member for eight months and I've attained the rank of Captain?! I almost feel like Chris Pine! )

 

[Push The Button]

The buttons and switches underneath are labelled:
Time reset hour
Time reset min-10 min
Light switch
Clock switch

It does look like something that was recycled from a real piece of machinery or an airplane cockpit. FYI, many of the controls that were on the bridge on Enterprise were recycled from junk airplanes and other real world equipment.

The CGI version created for TOS-R doesn't have these buttons and switches, just the two readouts, which are renamed Stardate and Shipboard.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Thanks, Mr. Button! Interesting that the text actually relates to time, I didn't expect that.

Now it has me wondering where the analogue number wheels came from, they're somewhat large. I wonder if they're the same type that were found in old gas pumps?

Back in the 70's, I'd read during the time of the production of The Motion Picture that the sets were being updated from the tv versions. For whatever reason, the first thing I thought of was that bridge chronometer, wondering if they'd use LED numbers, as they were somewhat new at the time.

I did not know about the salvaged aircraft parts!

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I always loved the chronometer. My first frame grab of it was made with my mother's ("old style, 20th century") camera on a tripod. This was back when you had to take your film to Fotomat and wait a week to ten days for prints.

By contrast, I've read today's young TOS fans saying it was a piece of low-tech junk that dates the show. F them.

It looks like the number wheels had yellowed by the third season. They were white in "The Naked Time"

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

It looks like the number wheels had yellowed by the third season. They were white in "The Naked Time"

Now that you mention it, I can see that. Maybe they used yellow-tinted bulbs, perhaps...or maybe the numbers were printed on paper which was wrapped around the discs. Nothing yellows as nicely as paper!

 

[Timo]

Then there's the oft-quoted fact that the second tumblers are out of synch with the minute tumblers. That is, when the seconds roll over to double-zero, the minutes are one step behind: 5:58, 5:59, 5:00, 6:01...

The same goes in reverse for those occasions where the chronometer runs backwards, of course. One wonders what sort of a time reference the chronometer anchors itself to, as clearly it isn't measuring shipboard time there!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[GSchnitzer]

At Star Trek Phase II, we spare no effort to get the details just right.

Penwood Electronics made these "Numechron"-style digital clocks in their Tymeter Electronics division from the 1930s to the late 1970s.

A hunt on ebay for any or all of these terms ("Penwood," "Numechron," and "Tymeter") will turn up between two and three zillion of these old-style "flip clocks" of various vintages in various conditions. They made clocks with different fonts; you may have to hunt a bit for the font and colors you want. (And yes, the wheels are made out of ivory-colored plastic, so combined with incandescent bulbs, the wheels will look yellowish.)

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

I had a funny feeling, G, that you'd chime in on this topic!

Thanks for the info! You're like a one-man Google in matters of the Original Series!

 

[Ronald Held]

At Star Trek Phase II, we spare no effort to get the details just right.

Penwood Electronics made these "Numechron"-style digital clocks in their Tymeter Electronics division from the 1930s to the late 1970s.

A hunt on ebay for any or all of these terms ("Penwood," "Numechron," and "Tymeter") will turn up between two and three zillion of these old-style "flip clocks" of various vintages in various conditions. They made clocks with different fonts; you may have to hunt a bit for the font and colors you want. (And yes, the wheels are made out of ivory-colored plastic, so combined with incandescent bulbs, the wheels will look yellowish.)

Thanks for those details, Greg.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I had no idea digital clocks went back to the 1930s. Very nice to know!

 

[Timo]

[rant] I doesn't really make sense to divide clocks to "analog" and "digital" on basis of two types of rotating display. There's no fundamental difference between a clock displaying digits by rotating them into view and a clock displaying digits by rotating a pointer to point at them.

A more fundamental difference could be claimed to separate a clock face that only has the hour arm (in which case there is only one digit being shown, and finer detail is divined by watching the gradual creep of the arm from digit to digit) from a clock face that has three arms (one for identifying the hours digit, another for identifying the minutes digit, and a third one for the seconds digit). The former is truly analog, the latter is truly digital.

Of course, "digital" may also refer to the mechanism by which the time count is created: is it an analog, continuous spring winding out, or a digital, discrete oscillator going tic-toc? But even that doesn't adequately separate an old-fashioned mechanical clock from a modern electronic one in the fashion that the word "digital" commonly is applied. [/rant]

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Metryq]

[rant]There's no fundamental difference between a clock displaying digits by rotating them into view and a clock displaying digits by rotating a pointer to point at them.[/rant]

How about a clock with a static "gnomon" and a face that rotates to tell time? That's the approach I took when building a "Time Machine" clock for a friend many years ago. The motor to rotate the face is the standard clock motor sold in craft shops.

 

[Timo]

Wow, I love that!

(...That one would be analog by any standard, as there's only one "digit" in evidence - or a continuous "line" of time without discrete steps. The same as with a static face and one arm.)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[publiusr]

By contrast, I've read today's young TOS fans saying it was a piece of low-tech junk that dates the show. F them.

My thoughts exactly. I love nixie tubes as well--only Russia still makes them IIRC
http://www.tubehobby.com/store.php?cat=2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixie_tube
http://www.sphere.bc.ca/test/nixies2.html

More http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_clock

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

By contrast, I've read today's young TOS fans saying it was a piece of low-tech junk that dates the show. F them.

Agreed!

They (and we) should thank our lucky stars the show wasn't made earlier. I can imagine that if it had, we could have had a row of round clocks over the viewscreen labeled 'Earth time', 'Lunar time', 'Mars time', 'Altair time', etc.

 

[Avro Arrow]

How about a clock with a static "gnomon" and a face that rotates to tell time? That's the approach I took when building a "Time Machine" clock for a friend many years ago. The motor to rotate the face is the standard clock motor sold in craft shops.

Nothing to add to the timepiece discussion, but I just have to say... that is amazing! Incredible work!

 

[Metryq]

Nothing to add to the timepiece discussion, but I just have to say... that is amazing! Incredible work!

Thanks. I cringe when I look at it now—I built that clock about 20 years ago. The Time Machine is fist-sized; the wooden base of the machine (not the checkerboard display base) is 9 cm long. The brass "rails" are fuel tubing for RC airplanes. The LEDs are the only details that might make the model appear larger than it is, but those LEDs are actually a sub-mini size.

I just wish I had taken a shot in reduced lighting. The whole thing lights up.

 

[Borjis]

By contrast, I've read today's young TOS fans saying it was a piece of low-tech junk that dates the show. F them.

My thoughts exactly. I love nixie tubes as well--only Russia still makes them IIRC
http://www.tubehobby.com/store.php?cat=2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixie_tube
http://www.sphere.bc.ca/test/nixies2.html

More http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_clock

whoa! I wondered what those were. you see them near the end of Goldfinger.

 

[publiusr]

This is all what I call a NORAD look.

Take a look at the original film THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, especially as you see the words come chattering across, as printed by this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Selectric_typewriter#mediaviewer/File:IBM_Selectric_typeball.jpg

That lent a feeling of importance to information that is lacking if something just blinks on the screen. Reel to reel machines look important, even if they are primitive.

Look at these http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/301193470082?item=301193470082&lgeo=1&vectorid=229466

Slides http://www.ebay.com/sch/Consumer-Electronics-/293/i.html?_nkw=slider+knobs
http://www.smcelectronics.com/knob.htm
http://www.daco.co.uk/modular-controllers?gclid=COv6yrmI-r4CFQMT7AodoHkAQA
http://oldcomputers.net/

To me a touch screen is something you add to the equipment above

http://www.theatlantic.com/technolo...cts-vs-the-catalog-of-obsolete-skills/244678/

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

At Star Trek Phase II, we spare no effort to get the details just right.

You are not kidding. Who on earth (today) would have been able to source Penwood Electronics if they were trying to replicate the chronometer on TOS?

Love the attention to details.