Several dial versions were made over that time period. The first was a rounded-end, Catalin plastic case model (see below) that was produced from the late 1940s to the late 1950s. Of course, modern equivalents have ‘talking time’ that is based on push button, battery-operated, voice chip circuits.Ī FLASHING LIGHT TO WAKE YOU UP There were two styles of the Westclox MOONBEAM model electric alarm clock for people whose hearing was impaired. There was also a flip-cover Braille wristwatch – the CNIB may still sell these today. Production numbers were much lower than for the regular version, and so they are rarer to find today. The museum has Braille examples for most of the Baby Ben design periods. The exposed dials show the wear expected after years of use.
Fingers could identify the position of the minute and hour hands and their positions relative to the hour markers. Westclox called them BRAILLE alarm clocks, which were available for people with poor eyesight. The quarter-hour markers were pointed cones flat ‘nail heads’ were located at each five minute position. TOUCH FOR THE TIME As early as the mid 1930s the company started to modify some of the regular windup Baby Bens by leaving off the glass (and later plastic) dial cover and adding metal hour markers that could be felt with the fingers. The two major models starting in 1908 were the Big Ben (named after the largest bell at Westminster in London, England) and the slightly later, smaller Baby Ben. The first factory for Westclox (the Western Clock Company) outside the United States was set up in Peterborough, Ontario around 1920 to produce windup alarm clocks for the growing Canadian market. WESTCLOX BRAILLE and MOONBEAM ALARM CLOCKS
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