Colgate Clock

The commonplace octagonal Colgate clock, confronting Manhattan, goes back to 1924 when it was gotten underway on December 1 by Jersey City's Mayor Frank Hague. Situated on the previous site of Colgate-Palmolive and Company, it is an indication of the time when industrial facilities overwhelmed the Jersey City's waterfront. The clock's outline was motivated by the state of a bar of Octagon Soap, first made by Colgate as a clothing chemical.

The surface of the clock is 1,963.5 square feet and 50 feet in width. The moment hand is 25 feet, 10 inches long; the hour hand is 20 feet long. The timepiece can be balanced and is kept up to remain at one moment of exact time. There was a little ace time at Colgate that was checked against the US Naval Observatory in Washington, DC. The clock's instrument resembles that of a conventional divider clock with weights and wheels, however, is fueled by twenty-eight vast volt batteries that are revived.

After just about thirty-one years of persevering through the components, the time was ceased at 9:30 a.m. on June 13, 1955, for repairs. A New York Times article reports that ". . . the overlaid wooden hands, waterlogged on wet or damp days . . . , had Colgate mechanics bent-legged changing stabilizers to keep the time perfectly. . . . Another blame had grown, as well. The steel trusses that help the hands had rusted. The new clock hands will have an aluminum center with porcelain steel confronting. They and the quarter-hour focus will have fluorescent lighting when the catch gets traveling once more, rather than the old incandescents" Meyer Berger, "About New York." New York Times 11 July 1955.