Dreger Clock

Last updated
The Restored Dreger Clock in 2009 ClockDone 4.jpg
The Restored Dreger Clock in 2009
The Dreger Clock in 1998 DregerClock1998.jpg
The Dreger Clock in 1998

The Dreger Clock is a large town clock with 19 different dials and displays which tell the local (California) time, the time in 12 international cities (New York, Liverpool, Paris, Berlin, Saint Petersburg, Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Rome and Mexico City), the phase of the moon, the date and the day of the week. It was built between 1928 and 1933 by Andrew Dreger, Sr., a German immigrant to the United States, who was a blacksmith and watchmaker. The clock stood in front of his home in Long Beach, California for almost 20 years, until his death. It was then moved to Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California, where it remained for over 50 years. The clock underwent restoration during 2008 and 2009 and on September 25, 2009, the clock was installed in the Buena Park Historical District in front of the Whitaker-Jaynes house.

Contents

Clock's maker and early history

The Dreger Clock was built by Andrew Dreger Sr., whose family were pioneers to the early settlements of Anaheim, Long Beach and Buena Park. Andrew developed many mechanical skills during his life. He repaired bicycles and mechanical items, he worked with metal as a blacksmith and other jobs requiring mechanical and hand crafting skills. Toward the latter years of his life he took up watch and clock repair. Soon he became fascinated with the idea of building a large electrically powered clock that could tell the time in major cities around the world.

He first built a pendulum powered indoor clock with multiple clock faces. Immediately after completing it he started on the much larger, town clock version that would be electrically powered. It took him 5 years to build his masterpiece. When finished he placed it outside his home on Anaheim Street in Long Beach and for almost 20 years he kept it in working order.

Unusual internal movement

The Dreger Clock has a number of unusual characteristics in regard to its internal movements. First of all, the clock is powered and regulated by a simple 110 V electrical motor. There is no pendulum in the clock, as there is in other large street clocks such as the Jessop's Clock. The movement of the clock is simple yet effective. Mechanical power is distributed to each clock face from the central location of the motor, and geared down and transferred to the various displays on the clock's three display faces. The international face of the clock uses what amounts to a bicycle chain drive to transfer mechanical power to each of the smaller international city clocks.

Another unusual feature of this clock is that originally, Andrew Dreger Sr. set it to display the solar time of the international cities rather than the, by then accepted, time zone times. This means the minute hands of the international cities were not always pointing to the same minute. In 1933 when the Dreger Clock was completed, the time zone standard was well established, however solar time was the setting used, as seen in early photos of the clock in some of the historical articles about the clock. When the clock was moved to Knott's Berry Farm in 1952-53, the clock faces were adjusted to the time zone standard, where all minute hands are in agreement, and only the hour hands are different.

Restoration Project

In 2007 the Dreger Clock was purchased by the Buena Park Historical Society and an extensive restoration effort began. The clock is undergoing complete dis-assembly, cleaning, painting and repair. The "date & phase of the moon" face was found to be badly cracked, so a new hand-painted face was created to replace the original. The original face is now on display in the city's history museum, the Whitaker-Jaynes house. Some of the decorative exterior wood was found to have severe water damage and was replaced with machined aluminum replica parts, and re-painted. The mechanism of the clock is in very good shape considering that the clock is over 75 years old. cleaning and a few minor part replacements were all that was needed to get the clock running properly again. A new stand post was designed and set in the Buena Park Historical District near the Whitaker-Jaynes house facing Beach Boulevard (SR 39). This location became the new home for the Dreger Clock on September 25, 2009. The dedication event for the restoration of the clock was held on Saturday, October 3, 2009.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buena Park, California</span> City in California, United States

Buena Park is a city in northern Orange County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census its population was 84,034. It is the location of several tourist attractions, including Knott's Berry Farm. It is about 12 miles (20 km) northwest of downtown Santa Ana, the county seat, and is within the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Knott</span> Knotts Berry Farm founder (1889–1981)

Walter Marvin Knott was an American farmer who founded the Knott's Berry Farm amusement park in California, introduced the Boysenberry, and made Knott's Berry Farm boysenberry preserves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knott's Berry Farm</span> Amusement park in Buena Park, California

Knott's Berry Farm is a 57-acre (2,500,000 sq ft) theme park located in Buena Park, California, owned and operated by Cedar Fair. In March 2015, it was ranked as the twelfth-most-visited theme park in North America, while averaging approximately 4 million visitors per year. The park features over 40 rides, including roller coasters, family rides, dark rides, and water rides.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boysenberry</span> Hybrid species of berry

The boysenberry is a cross between the European raspberry, European blackberry, American dewberry, and loganberry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clock of the Long Now</span> Mechanical clock designed to keep time for 10,000 years

The Clock of the Long Now, also called the 10,000-year clock, is a mechanical clock under construction that is designed to keep time for 10,000 years. It is being built by the Long Now Foundation. A two-meter prototype is on display at the Science Museum in London. As of June 2018, two more prototypes are on display at The Long Now Museum & Store at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clock face</span> Dial of an analogue clock or watch

A clock face is the part of an analog clock that displays time through the use of a flat dial with reference marks, and revolving pointers turning on concentric shafts at the center, called hands. In its most basic, globally recognized form, the periphery of the dial is numbered 1 through 12 indicating the hours in a 12-hour cycle, and a short hour hand makes two revolutions in a day. A long minute hand makes one revolution every hour. The face may also include a second hand, which makes one revolution per minute. The term is less commonly used for the time display on digital clocks and watches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prague astronomical clock</span> Medieval astronomical clock on the Old Town Hall building in Prague, Czech Republic

The Prague astronomical clock or Prague Orloj is a medieval astronomical clock attached to the Old Town Hall in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Movement (clockwork)</span> Mechanism of a watch or clock

In horology, a movement, also known as a caliber or calibre, is the mechanism of a watch or timepiece, as opposed to the case, which encloses and protects the movement, and the face, which displays the time. The term originated with mechanical timepieces, whose clockwork movements are made of many moving parts. The movement of a digital watch is more commonly known as a module.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California State Route 39</span> Highway in California

State Route 39 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that travels through Orange and Los Angeles counties. Its southern terminus is at Pacific Coast Highway, in Huntington Beach. SR 39's northern terminus is at Islip Saddle on Angeles Crest Highway in the Angeles National Forest, but its northernmost 4.5-mile (7.2 km) segment has been closed to public highway traffic since 1978 due to a massive mud and rockslide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Complication (horology)</span> Any feature of a timepiece beyond the display of hours, minutes and seconds

In horology, a complication is any feature of a timepiece beyond the display of hours, minutes and seconds. A timepiece indicating only hours, minutes and seconds is known as a simple movement. Common complications include date or day-of-the-week indicators, alarms, chronographs (stopwatches), and automatic winding mechanisms. Complications may be found in any clock, but they are most notable in mechanical watches where the small size makes them difficult to design and assemble. A typical date-display chronograph may have up to 250 parts, while a particularly complex watch may have a thousand or more parts. Watches with several complications are referred to as grandes complications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ghost Town & Calico Railroad</span> Attraction at Knotts Berry Farm

The Ghost Town & Calico Railway is a 3 ft narrow-gauge heritage railroad and amusement park attraction within Knott's Berry Farm, an amusement park located in Buena Park, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buena Park station</span> Passenger train station in Buena Park, California, United States

Buena Park station is a train station in Buena Park, California, United States, served by Metrolink commuter rail. It is at the center of a transit-oriented development including townhomes and a housing complex owned by the California State University, Fullerton, near the corner of Dale Street and Malvern Avenue. The station is served by Metrolink's Orange County Line and 91/Perris Valley Line.

Artesia Boulevard is a west-east thoroughfare in Los Angeles County and Orange County.

In horology, a wheel train is the gear train of a mechanical watch or clock. Although the term is used for other types of gear trains, the long history of mechanical timepieces has created a traditional terminology for their gear trains which is not used in other applications of gears.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knott's Scary Farm</span> Seasonal Halloween event

Knott's Scary Farm or Knott's Halloween Haunt is a seasonal Halloween event at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California. It is an event in which the theme park is transformed into "160 acres of horror", via a series of roaming monsters, terrifying mazes and 'scare zones'. As of 2010, it was said to be the first, largest and longest-running Halloween event to be held at a theme park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wendell "Bud" Hurlbut</span> Theme park creator and entrepreneur

Wendell "Bud" Hurlbut (1918–2011) was a designer, builder, entrepreneur, and one of the first creators of theme parks in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Knott's Berry Farm</span>

The Knott's Berry Farm amusement park in Orange County, California, originated from a berry farm owned by Walter Knott (1889–1981). In the 1920s, Knott and his wife, Cordelia, sold berries, berry preserves and pies from a roadside stand beside State Route 39, near the small town of Buena Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marion Speer</span> American art collector and author (1885–1978)

Marion Artemus “Bob” Speer (1885–1978) established the Western Trails Museum in 1936. He was a lifetime collector of Native American and Old West artifacts, and author. He built a building next to his house in Huntington Beach, California to house his collection and opened it to the public. Twenty years later, he donated his collection to Knott’s Berry Farm, where it remains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul von Klieben</span> Artist

Paul von Klieben was the key employee of Walter Knott in the early years of Knott’s Berry Farm and the restoration of the ghost town of Calico, California. He started his career in Chicago as a commercial artist and portrait painter. In 1941, he joined Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California as a staff artist, then served as art director there from 1943 until 1953. He traveled to ghost towns in the West, and designed most of the Ghost Town section of Knott’s Berry Farm. He created concept art for most of the buildings that were built there. He also drew up floor plans, oversaw the construction of buildings, and even spent some time painting concrete to look like natural rock. His Old West paintings and murals adorned the walls of many structures in the park, and his art was used extensively on menus, brochures, catalogs and other Knott’s documents.

References

33°51′51″N117°59′54″W / 33.86417°N 117.99833°W / 33.86417; -117.99833