By Doug Boilesen, 2017

In April 1878 Edison wrote an article titled "The Phonograph and its Future" to identify "probabilities" for its future. One of those probabilities was 'Clocks."

Clocks. -- "The Phonographic Clock will tell you the hour of the day; call you to lunch; send your lover home at ten, etc.".

For an overview of the history of talking clocks from 1878 see The Phonograph and its Future: Clocks.

This exhibit features toy clocks from 1968 to 2000.

Several toy clocks in the 1950's and 1960's 'talked" by using a miniature phonograph and record inside the toy, however, the 1968 Mattel-a-Time Talking Clock was the first toy that was a talking clock and a working clock. There was a history, however, of talking clocks and the recorded voice going back to 1878.

FACTOLA: Frank Lambert made a lead-sleeve phonograph in 1878 for the Ansonia Clock Co with the hours of the day engraved by the inventor himself. Lambert's recording "is the "oldest direct-to-ear track of sound" existing. (Credit: Frank Lambert's Amazing Time Machine, by Aaron Cramer with additional research by Allen Koenigsberg in The Antique Phonograph Monthly, Issue 97, 1992).

Lambert's phonograph itself wasn't a talking clock but his recording included the hours of the day "One o'clock, Two o'clock, Three o'clock, Four o'clock, Five o'clock, Six o'clock, Seven o'clock, Eight o'clock, Nine o'clock, Eleven o'clock, Twelve o'clock." The APM article noted that "Ten o'clock was omitted, perhaps because Lambert was still a relatively new immigrant." It was concluded by the Cramer APM article that Lambert's testing "beyond a traditional "one, two, three...could only have been done for the full sound track necessary for a talking clock!"

Lambert's phonograph with its 2 5/8" engraved lead cylinder which included Lambert's recording of the hours of the day. (Courtesy Ibid. APM, cover page.)

 

 

In the 1970's and 1980's a variety of children's talking clocks were marketed that kept time and spoke messages using a small phonograph "record." These talking alarm clocks featured pop culture characters like Howdy Doody, Big Bird, Batman, Charlie Brown, Mickey Mouse -- each, with its respective voice, telling the child that it was time to get up.

In 1979 Sharp released the world's first quartz-based talking clocks and in the 1990's computer chips replaced records in talking clocks.

The following clocks were displayed in 2017 at the Westminster Public Library, Westminster, CO, in the Phonographia.com and Friends of the Phonograph exhibit titled "Talking Clocks and the Phonograph."

 

A few other Time related Phonographia