
Clocks · Clock
CEEFAX clock Serial No. 1 GE7/7.
- Maker / attribution
- British Broadcasting Corporation (maker)
- Date
- 1974
- Historical period
- Quartz Revolution (1969 – 1990)
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Place
- United Kingdom, United Kingdom
- Object type
- Clock
- Dimensions
- overall: 225 mm x 485 mm x 410 mm, 5.5 kg
- Holding institution
- Science Museum Group, London
- Accession / object no.
- 2012-5118/603
- Catalogue title (original)
- CEEFAX Clock
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Science Museum Group, London (object number 2012-5118/603), this is a clock by British Broadcasting Corporation, made in United Kingdom, United Kingdom, dated 1974. The Atlas places it in the Quartz Revolution period (1969 – 1990) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: overall: 225 mm x 485 mm x 410 mm, 5.5 kg. The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Science Museum Group description
This unit generated the clock for broadcast in the BBC’s onscreen text information service CEEFAX. Accurate time information was provided by the MSF receiver, contained in a weatherproof box, which was fed to the rack unit. CEEFAX was the first teletext service, transmitting data in the television transmission vertical blanking interval. It was launched by the BBC on 23 September 1974. The onscreen graphic pages provided information, including up-to-date news and services such as subtitling. CEEFAX ended following the closure of analogue transmissions in 2012. The MSF signal is the national time reference. The time signal is controlled by caesium atomic clocks and was broadcast from Rugby Radio Station until 2007. MSF is the morse code sent as part of the time signal and CEEFAX is a pun on ‘see facts’, neither are acronyms.
Historical context
Quartz Revolution (1969 – 1990)
Seiko's Astron begins mass quartz timekeeping; traditional industries contract sharply.
Quartz movements and digital displays made accurate clocks cheap and ubiquitous after the early 1970s. LED and LCD clocks, clock radios and radio-controlled clocks appeared, while traditional mechanical clockmaking contracted sharply in Germany, France and Britain.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Modern Mechanical Horology
Atlas type guide
Domestic clocks
A clock combines four systems: a source of power (falling weight, coiled spring, or later electricity), a gear train that divides time, an escapement and oscillator that regulate it (foliot, pendulum or balance), and an indicating system of dial and hands or a bell. Its history runs from the large iron weight-driven clocks of the late thirteenth century to Renaissance spring-driven table clocks, the pendulum revolution of 1656, the factory clocks of the nineteenth century and electric and quartz clocks of the twentieth.
Domestic clocks also reflect regional furniture and decorative traditions — English longcase and bracket clocks, French pendules, Viennese regulators, Black Forest and American shelf clocks — and therefore record changing tastes as much as technical progress.
What to look for
- How the clock is powered: weights, spring barrel, fusee, electric coil.
- The oscillator: foliot, short pendulum, long seconds pendulum or balance.
- Whether it strikes: hour only (count wheel) or hours and quarters (rack striking).
- The maker or retailer's name on dial and movement, and any factory trademarks.
- Signs of alteration — replaced dials, converted escapements, 'married' cases.
Dating clues
- Before 1656 clocks used foliots or balances; after, most domestic clocks have pendulums.
- Anchor escapements spread after c. 1670; minute hands became common at the same time.
- Factory production in America and Germany transformed prices after c. 1840.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
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