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Seth Thomas in Towerclocks.org

Original Seth Thomas Listing A

Original Seth Thomas Listing B

Seth Thomas Listing A&B Linked according to Criteria 1

 

THANKS to Donn Lathrop for the listings.
And Donn, I want to publicly apologize for taking so long to give a better look to these listings!

For the people to know:
As far as we know there are two paper listings with Seth Thomas clocks. One has information about the clock, like model and year, the other one, has very little information about the clock itself, but says WHERE it was installed. And the worst part, those 2 listings aren't linked by any logical relationship...
This brings us to a problem, how to link them?
I begun with the obvious one, (when there was only ONE clock in one city, and it appeared in both listings, we could safely assume that both listings were talking about the very same clock, right?
Then we could aproach to some pattern, both listings were more or less ordered the same way, so when for a city, there where the same number of clock for both listings, we could also assume that we were talking about the same clocks, ordered in the same way...

How far are we?
Well, we *should* have about the half of the listings linked, and I doubt we can go further with them.

Why aren't they in the main clock listings?
Because before being able to include them in the main clock listing at towerclocks.org, I would like to verify their existance. Only those verified, or those that we have a lot of information should be there.

To end with this, remember that this listings are really big... about 3000 records

Criteria 1

WHEN
there is only 1 clock in a city in list A
AND
there is only 1 clock in a city in list B
WE ASSUME
that both listings are referring to the same clock

Criteria 2 (Generalization of Criteria 1) (Still being implemented in the database)

WHEN
there are n clocks in a city in list A (discarding, dials, trimms, pieces, repairs, etc)
AND
there are n clocks in a city in list B
WE ASSUME
that both listings are referring to the same clocks
AND
that both listings have those clocks ordered in the same way.

Test Case #1

Listing A , State = MA, City = Lawrence Verify in Listing A
    #1 - IDA = 1116 - Year = 1899
    #2 - IDA = 1117 - Year = 1892
Listing B , State = MA, City = Lawrence Verify in Listing B
    #1 - IDB = 713 - Place = Bruce School
    #2 - IDB = 714 - Place = John L. Rollins School
According to criteria 2, the clock at John L. Rollins School, Lawrence, MA should have been made in 1892
Independent Verification:
Rollins School Tower Clock Restoration 1993 Towerclocks.org
Quote:
"Description of Clock: 1893 Seth Thomas double 3-legged gravity escapement striker. Zinc tube temperature compensating pendulum. Mechanism located approximately 40' below the dials."
(He seems to be quoting the installation date, rather than the make or the purchase date)

Test Case #2

Listing A , State = NJ, City = Jersey City Verify in Listing A
    #1 - IDA = 1609 - Year = 1912 - Model = 16
    -- - IDA = 1610 - Year = 1924 - Model = Setting Device (We can discard this one)
    -- - IDA = 1611 - Year = 1915 - Model = Trimmings (We can discard this one)
    #2 - IDA = 1612 - Year = 1928 - Model = 15 Special
    -- - IDA = 1613 - Year = 1920 - Model = #7 Bracket (We can discard this one)
    #3 - IDA = 1614 - Year = 1888 - Model = 4
    #4 - IDA = 1615 - Year = 1924 - Model = 18 PW West
    #5 - IDA = 1616 - Year = 1872 - Model = 0
    -- - IDA = 1617 - Year = 1932 - Model = Dial (We can discard this one)
    -- - IDA = 1618 - Year = 1906 - Model = 89 Remn. (We can discard this one, seems to be a remontoire)
    #6 - IDA = 1619 - Year = 1929 - Model = 2PW
Listing B , State = NJ, City = Jersey City Verify in Listing B
    #1 - IDB = 982 - Place = Colgate & Co.
    #2 - IDB = 983 - Place = German Evangelical Reformed Church
    #3 - IDB = 984 - Place = Goodman Warehouse Corporation
    #4 - IDB = 985 - Place = Greek Church
    #5 - IDB = 986 - Place = Kost & Baird, Inc.
    #6 - IDB = 987 - Place = Loew's Journal Square Theatre
According to criteria 2, the clock at Loew's Journal Square Theatre have been made in 1929
Independent Verification:
The Most Lavish Temple of Entertainment in New Jersey
http://www.loewsjersey.org/
Towerclocks.org

Quote:
"The Loew’s Jersey opened its polished brass doors on September 28, 1929"

I know this might be a weak link, but seems to be better than nothing. Unfortunately I don't have further information on other clocks to verify this criterias. Perhaps you can help, if you know any information about a clock, just drop me a few lines.

Warm regards to you all

Javier Albinarrate

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Webmaster: Javier Albinarrate