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Pellaton Timer 1935 Copy.Pdf Fast Times At Speed With Vacheron & Constantin In The 1930s V&C Annales, 1934 T h e é b a u c h e w o r k s h o p continued its work for the city factories and from one order we got the idea of making a portable recording device, to a tenth of a second, for sports models. Mr. Pellaton, in his spare time, studied this device. V&C Annales, 1935 Mr. Pellaton developed a recording device, of his design, on a metallic strip. Light, p o r t a b l e , w i t h a w a t c h movement that was able to be a d j u s t e d t o t h e h i g h e s t precision, and not influenced by magnetism or numerous I was reminded time changes; this device had a of an extraordinary timepiece in the collection of Vacheron great advantage over others that were known at the time - it Constantin while reviewing photos of our visit to Geneva in 2015. was precise, easily read, and at We toured Le Chronographe Dans Le Temps exhibition at the Maison a very modest price. and came upon a most interesting piece. On the placard, the boxy Its first success was at the two-part device from 1935 was described as a portable time- Automobile Grand Prix in recording apparatus capable of measuring to the nearest 1/500 of a Berne, in August 1935, when second, printing on a metallic strip. It was intended for auto races, Mr. Pellaton was the only official watchmaker. ski competitions, horse-riding events and aeronautical meetings. What really sparked my interest was the background display which We suddenly received an order read: for four devices, of which two were from the Automobile Club SHATTERED! The World’s Land Speed Record falls to Sir Suisse, and two were from the Malcolm Campbell. Aéro-Club de Suisse, at Fr 2,500 each. A bit of searching connected this proclamation with the land speed record of Malcolm Campbell on the Bonneville Salt Flats in September of 1935. There Campbell broke the elusive 300 mph barrier and achieved 301.331 mph. Albert Pellaton But I could find nothing to support the implied presence of V&C’s It may be surprising to know that timer at Bonneville. A photograph of the officials’ stand clearly Albert Pellaton’s twenty-six years revealed a completely different device with paper strip. with Vacheron & Constantin was longer than his tenure at IWC. The Nevertheless, a legitimate connection with Malcolm Campbell’s nephew of James Pellaton, Albert record-breaking endeavours was eventually found. Just not on was engaged as an apprentice land. technician in 1918 at the age of twenty. He remained with V&C The unusual timer made another public appearance in 2019. until 1944, rising to chief technician with a staff of two inspectors and Although not illustrated in the press release, and thus missed by seventy-five workers. the cut-and-paste watch blogs, Vacheron Constantin included Pellaton’s timer in their exhibit; Diptyques - A History of Berne Grand Prix Colaborations. As posted by Michèle Brunner on the website WorldTempus, some additional details were revealed. I can only imagine with envy the excitement of those looking over the starting grid at the 2nd Grand Prix of Switzerland on 25 August 1935. Powerhouse teams from The device was truly portable, weighing less than 5 kg, with a case Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz of Duralumin alloy enclosing a high-frequency movement were set against Italians from operating at 72,000 vibrations/hour. Times were recorded on Maserati and Alfa Romeo, with a lone Bugatti in the mix. aluminum strips which could store up to 2,000 individual events on one spool, although the battery was good for only about 1,000. They faced 70 laps of the fast and notorious Bremgarten track in the Any reference to a land speed record was now omitted. While the forests near Berne. One driver was focus of the display was its development as a “collaboration” with seriously injured in practice and rain made the track slick from the Albert Pellaton, mention was also made of the timer’s use by Sir start. Fearlessly, Rudy Caracciola Malcolm Campbell on Lake Hallwil, Switzerland, for the world and his Mercedes W25 grabbed water speed record. Here was something that could be verified. the lead from the flag and soon set a lap record. After 40 laps, his teammate Fagioli tucked in behind and so they remained until the finish, with Auto Union taking 3rd and 4th place. The Bremgarten track continued to host car and motorcycle races until On the still waters of the Hallwilersee, canton of Aargau, on 17 1954 when the Le Mans tragedy September 1938, Albert Pellaton’s timer officially marked a new water saw Switzerland ban motorsports speed record of 130.93 mph by Malcolm Campbell piloting the Merlin- outright. engined Blue Bird K3. According to the website malcolm-campbell.ch, Before the Germans swept the the achievement was recorded using a timer supplied by Vacheron & podium, a bona fide record- Constantin, operated by the President of the Fédération Suisse breaking driver had already Motonautique, Albert Schmidt. crossed the line at the prelude Voiturette race. Brevet No. 184994 - 20 September 1935 Gwenda Stewart held close to fifty class records on motorcycles and three-wheel cycle cars before moving to automobiles in 1930. She drove Monte Carlo and Le Mans twice. On this day mechanical problems robbed her Derby-Maserati of power yet she managed to limp to the finish in last place but still running. Blue Bird K3 Campbell’s 23-foot hydroplane boat was smaller and lighter than its rivals. Powered by a Rolls- Royce Merlin “R” race engine, the engineers nevertheless predicted 130 mph. On 1 September 1937, the boat p u t i n t o L a k e M a g g i o re i n Switzerland and promptly set a new water speed record of 126.32 mph. The next day he advanced the mark to 129.5 mph. Campbell realized that hull design limited further speeds and was already imagining its replacement when K3 Photo-electric control panel and foil ribbon for Pellaton’s timer (Author’s was introduced to Lake Hallwil the photos) following year for its ultimate record of 130.93 mph as timed by Pellaton’s apparatus. L’Oiseau blue After a twenty-year restoration, Blue Bird K3 ran once again on There is much about Sir Malcolm Campbell online and I welcome Lake Maggiore in July of 2018. It you to search it out. For this narrative, I thought you might enjoy must have sounded wonderful. hearing about the stage play that inspired the name for his cars, boats, and even an airplane. L’Oiseau bleu (The Blue Bird) premiered in Moscow in 1908 and, over the years, has been presented on television, radio, as an opera, a novel, and several movies including one with Shirley Temple and another starring Elizabeth Taylor. Maurice Maeterlinck’s play was compared by contemporary critics with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, and Peter Pan. Today, we would likely add The Wizard of Oz, perhaps even A Christmas Carol, to that list. The protagonists, two children, move through a magical world on a quest for The Blue Bird of Happiness, guided by the spirit of Light and wielding “the diamond that makes people see”. Act IV, Scene II gives a taste of their progress through this parable. Here they encounter superficial pleasures in the deceptively- named Palace of Happiness. The Luxury of Being Rich, the Luxury of Being a Landowner, the Luxury of Satisfied Vanity, the twins Luxury of Drinking when you are not Thirsty and Eating when you are not Hungry, the Luxury of Knowing Nothing, the Luxury of Doing Nothing, and the Luxury of Sleeping more than Necessary sit at the table for the Big Luxuries of this Earth, indulging in endless food, drink and music. But when the diamond shines on this orgy of excess, the Luxuries are revealed as naked, hideous, and lamentable as they flee to the shadows in the Cave of Miseries. Looking around, the children wonder where they have been taken, as their surroundings are now so bright and beautiful. Light reveals her wisdom; “We have not moved, it is your eyes that see differently. We now behold the truth of things…” O f p a r t i c u l a r i n t e r e s t t o Campbell, we may speculate, were the scenes confronting According to Campbell’s grand- destiny: “Each man has to seek daughter Gina Campbell at out his own special aptitude for ginacampbellqso.com, Malcolm a higher life in the midst of the saw The Blue Bird on the stage of humble and inevitable reality of the Haymarket Theatre in London during its year-long run in 1909. daily existence. Than this, there Gina relates the story: can be no nobler aim in life.” He was so inspired by the play’s The Blue Bird of Happiness theme that, on the way home from represents the unattainable the theatre, he woke the local quest for an absolute state of ironmonger and bought all the blue happiness which, instead, paint in the shop. In the small resides within each individual’s hours of the morning, he painted perceptions. Like the Wizard of his racing car, naming her “Blue Oz, the children awaken in the Bird”.
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