Vee haz DUFA

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The beastie arrives.


Wil's packing was top notch. Everything looked good.

Zo...

OK I'll keep you in suspense no longer.



A guy could learn a lot about gongs. This one did. Turns out, gongs were quite a thing in the 20's. 

J. A. Olson posted some excellent details about German gongs that take us well beyond simply coiled vs. straight rod. I'll quote him:

"The gong sold the clock, as cited in a NAWCC bulletin article a few years ago. And indeed, many makers tried out different gong blocks throughout the years. Each maker was attempting to out-do one another in terms of how good their clocks sounded."

Take a look at the example photos Olson includes in that post. You'll see a few coiled examples but about a dozen straight rod examples, all mounted vertically. 

I guess the Largo was DUFA's foot forward in the gong world. DUFA did create a single coil version for some other clocks, still using the Largo gong brand name. Regardless, I had what I wanted.

The clock appeared to be intact and original. Some wood worm holes. Some cracks. The crown cracked in transit. It was glued on so an easy repair.

But the clock itself ran fine once set up.

And the Largo gong sounds lovely. 

Two more tidbits...



You'll recall that DUFA was sold to Kienzle in 1930. Apparently a few years earlier DUFA turned to the renown Gustav Becker to source some of their movements.

I happen to have a GB clock. Here's a somewhat goofy way to compare the movements but rather that remove the movement from the GB I'll go to my photo archive. 

GB on the left, DUFA on the right.

It's a bit worn and needs some work but overall it's in fine shape.

I'll finish this episode with tidbit 2, a yet-to-be-solved mystery.

If you look at the full front of the clock there's a little plate on the bottom.



It's metal, possibly silver, and hammered into it is an inscription. The little dots are hard for these eyes to gather into actual letters so I've yet to translate it. 

But there's a part I can translate.

At the end of the inscription, lower right.

1930

That pretty definitely dates the clock as no younger than 1930 and likely it was manufactured in the late 20's.

The big learnings are still ahead.

Bushing and strike train set up.

Fun!





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