Friday, September 12, 2008

Clock Stops at Inventor's Death

Carl Reiner, My Anecdotal Life (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003), pp. 198, 206.

[Irving Reiner, Carl Reiner's father, was a watchmaker and inventor. His last invention was a clock powered by a "quasi-perpetual battery."]

He continued to work on this project for many years, finally handcrafting a handsome brass-trimmed, glass-domed pendulum clock. He was awarded two patents, one for the simple three-geared clock and one for a static-electricity battery that was capable of delivering two thousand volts and one milliamp.

By the time the patent papers came through, the clock had been in our dining/living room, proudly perched atop a breakfront -- or china closet, as my folks referred to it -- and had been ticking away for more than twenty years without once stopping.

* * *
[Irving Reiner's death was marked by a "strange coincidence." His other son, Charlie,] noticed that the perpetual battery, which had been powering Pop's clock for over fifty years, expired -- on the very day our father had.

[E766.1 Clock stops at moment of owner's death.]

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