Oak with lift up glazed frontMovement:
Size: 17 inches high, 19 inches wide and about 6 inches deep.
Driven from a master clock as a slave, this has settings for days and hours and controls a mercury switch and is believed to have been used to time factory breaks and working hours.Notes:
"Programme Controller" is the name given by synchronome to their programmer.A scan of the entry in the Synchronome catalogue of about 1960 is available for download but be warned, it is a large file.The Synchronome catalogue of circa 1927 has a reference to a controller but no picture. I understand a model with a wheel was brought out circa 1930 and that this model with the mercury switch dates from the 1960s
The function of the mercury switch is to provide a contact able to switch 5amps at 250 volts. Additionally it appears that the earlier model rang the bells for 30 seconds and this was found to be too long so Synchronome, in the later model, introduced a "Duration Reducer" which operated for approximately 20-12 seconds.