In 2020, I bought an old broken clock on eBay for $60 on a lark. I wanted to tinker with something and see if I could figure out how it works.
Since that time, I spent literally thousands of hours immersed in horology. Everything from clock repair where I started, to learning how to use a lathe and a mill, studying the impact of clockmaking on the industrial revolution in early America and the history of maritime navigation, building an atomic NTP server from a rubidium engine bought off eBay and a raspberry Pi, becoming friends with several of the Antique Roadshow experts, volunteering to help build a pollinator meadow at a small clock museum nearby…
It’s amazing to me how much of an effect that little junky impulse buy had on how I’m living my life these days.
I know you're joking, but actually, that is true. That original clock never got fixed. I damaged and lost enough parts that I'd have to fabricate too much for it to be worthwhile, and I have plenty of more interesting clocks to work on now.
I've got mostly antiques at my house, 1750-1880. Not a ton of vintage 20th century stuff that would have radium. I was looking a bit ago at the old W. M. Gilbert Clock Company factory building in Connecticut that was for sale (not actually to buy, just thought it was interesting) and the biggest issue for whoever was going to be the buyer was that it was quite contaminated from the radium dial painting they did there in the 1930's.
Since that time, I spent literally thousands of hours immersed in horology. Everything from clock repair where I started, to learning how to use a lathe and a mill, studying the impact of clockmaking on the industrial revolution in early America and the history of maritime navigation, building an atomic NTP server from a rubidium engine bought off eBay and a raspberry Pi, becoming friends with several of the Antique Roadshow experts, volunteering to help build a pollinator meadow at a small clock museum nearby…
It’s amazing to me how much of an effect that little junky impulse buy had on how I’m living my life these days.