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Author Topic: Hour Ball Steam Toy (Josef Falk No. 219) from the Morton A. Hirschberg Steam Toy Collection  (Read 161 times)

txlabman

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A fun little accessory. I bought the lot for the Bing Drop Hammer. And this was a bonus. 🤠

I have no idea of the Maker. Any help would be appreciated. UPDATE: Identified by Walter as a Josef Falk No. 219.


crazydoug

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Well, that's different!
crazydoug

Nick

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One heck of an awesome bonus Charlie

Might have to build an Erector set bell ringer like this...
Nick

classixs

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A very nice rarity there Charlie, thanks for sharing  :)
Cheers
Jan
WEBSITE: SteamUp YOUTUBE: SteamUp

txlabman

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Doug, Nick and Jan:

Thanks for the feedback.

It was a great bonus and cleaned up well.

Charlie

Mi Steam

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Really different and interesting.
Carl "There is a better way for everything. Find it."TAE


txlabman

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Parallelmotion enlightened me on the history of Hour Balls and their function before the industrial age:

"They were used in ports and dropped at specific times so that mariners could set their ship's chronometers accordingly. Now we only drop one in Times Square at New Years."

He also recommended a book by Dava Sobel entitled "Longitude" about John Harrison, an 18th-century clockmaker who created the first clock (chronometer) sufficiently accurate to be used to determine longitude at sea—an important development in navigation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitude_(book)

Stoker

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There was also a docudrama put out by PBS or History channel I think, entitled "Longitude", and is an excellent video documenting the trials and tribulations of Mr. Harrison against engrained governmental stasis, prejudice, gross incompetence and corruption .... were it ever thus!!!
"Information is not knowledge, Knowledge is not wisdom, Wisdom is not truth, Truth is not beauty, Beauty is not love, Love is not music: Music is THE BEST...   
Wisdom is the domain of the Wis (which is extinct). Beauty is a French phonetic corruption of a short cloth neck ornament currently in resurgence..."
F. Zappa ... by way of Mary, the girl from the bus.

Nick

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Thank you for the added history from Brent
Nick

txlabman

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Thank you for the added history from Brent

You are Welcome Nick!

Today, I got a copy of Dava Sobel's book "Longitude, The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of his Time". 

An excellent read so far.

RedRyder

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Thank you for sharing the Hour Ball and thank you for the history lesson!

Gil

txlabman

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Thank you for sharing the Hour Ball and thank you for the history lesson!

Gil

Glad I could reciprocate (for once) Gil.

Every time I visit with you I get a new history lesson on something related to steam engines or hit and miss engines. 😎