RADIO ROOM CLOCKS - by Land And Sea Collection™

RADIO ROOM CLOCKS

Safety of Life at Sea - SOLAS

The sinking of the Titanic resulted in the Radio Act of 1912 that required 24-hour radio watches. The disaster also led to clocks in the newer radio rooms featuring three-minute periods marked in red. That three minutes provided a silent period when only emergency radio messages could be transmitted.

Since 1912 these clocks were used in shipboard radio shacks. See the below diagram from the Chelsea Clock Company (USA) Special Radio Room Clock.

The US Government mil-specifications for the Chelsea clock, notes "the dial has accurate 4 second marks in red around the outside edge, over which the sweep seconds hand passes, enabling the radio operator to accurately transmit the 4 second alarm signal provided by the International Telecommunication Convention and the International Conference on Safety of Life at Sea." And later, it indicates that, "also marked in red on the dial, clearly and forcibly calling attention to the radio operator thereto, are the two 3 minute silent periods which must be observed by all radio stations at 15 and 45 minutes past each hour." Thus, the red marks on the dial edge are for the seconds alarm, and the red sector triangles for 3 minute radio silent periods on the 500 kcs. distress frequency. Later models featured additional green sectors at the top of each hour and 30 minutes past each hour for the monitoring of the 2182 kcs. distress frequency.

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