I have never seen or heard of this sort of thing, besides the Skillcraft government clocks that you find in almost every government installation, a clock purpose built for army use. The Chelsea clock company is still in business but this particular example was made in the 40s sometime before brass was limited as a strategic material and Chelsea converted to a Bakelite type of case. Chelsea made a large number of clocks for Navy use and some for army message centers where logging times of message traffic is important.

Before futzing around with this clock, as I did find these are fairly rare, I decided to take it to a professional and found that KC Clock in Overland Park, KS ( Kansas City Watches and Watch Repair – KC Watch | Overland Park, Kansas ) has someone familiar with the Chelseas. He stated it was in good shape internally and to leave it be as it is. I would have polished the brass, but apparently there is a coating on this that would be damaged if I had done that. I also would have been tempted to repaint the illuminated spots on the face, but KC Clock discouraged that as well to preserve its original state and I will take their advice. If I do need it worked on, I will definitely take it to KC Clock as they were very helpful and willing to share their knowledge on this clock.

This clock is completely mechanical, powered by an internal spring wound with a key seen to the right using the shaft on the numeral 6. Time is set with a dial on the left side. I wound it a few turns and was very surprised to find it lasted at least a week and held time the entire cycle. Ill have to wind it fully and see what its endurance is, but I suspect quite awhile.

I will have to build the wooden carrying case that it would have been issued with, but it will be a neat addition to my overall communications shelter setup.

I fully assembled the Model 28 and it looks great. It is working in ‘test’ mode, where the device ignores the signal loop and behaves like a typewriter. It is a bit loud, however.

When I got it, there were foam panels stuck inside the housing, but the foam had thoroughly disintegrated. This foam was there to deaden some of the noise this machine makes when operating. Replacing this isn’t straightforward, since these haven’t been made in decades, and these likely wouldn’t have been a part offered by Teletype in any case.

Cleaning the interior of the housing was quite a chore. The foam was easy to remove as it turned to powder when touched, but the adhesive was some tough stuff. I used citrus oil based GooGone which was effective, but needed significant soak time to soften the adhesive, then quite a bit of scrubbing to remove it. It took a couple of cycles of this to remove most of the old adhesive. To finish, I scrubbed with dawn dish soap to remove the citrus oils, then finished with simple green.

I thought through some ways to replace this material, such as quilting something. It occurred to me that carpet squares may be just the material for this. They are light, somewhat rigid, and I was able to find a decent color approximation.

Making the templates from scratch paper and cutting the carpet is fairly straightforward, but the adhesive on the carpet squares isn’t sufficient for a vertical installation. They do offer a spray adhesive with the carpet squares that seems highly effective. When using it, it sticks quite firmly very quickly so placement has to be accurate. These carpet squares should be durable and dampen the noise of the machine without looking out of place.

Next project is the loop interface to a computer provided by Deramp – Model 15 Interface. It will take quite a bit of assembly, so I don’t anticipate a fast build, but with a signal loop I’ll be able to use this close to its original purpose.