The worst ID thread ever  

This part doesn't make sense,...
This part doesn't make sense, at least not as far as I can tell:
"the clock was suspended from the ceiling by a string and had a long "tail" off the back of it. It was suspended by the tail"
Was it suspended by the string or by the tail? Something defined as a tail usually is attached near the bottom of something, which would make it hard to suspend something by it. It would then be upside down.

Tim says
"I know that's a poor description, but any ideas?" Maybe we need yet another category, "Worst product description ever" ?
Heh heh. (That's LOL in oldspeak.) Party on !

You're right, that was bad
Here's a crude diagram that might help, along with the terms I used. The clock was free to rotate around the axis of the string since it was suspended.

I know the clock you are...
I know the clock you are talking about. It's not Nelson....GE or Sunbeam perhaps. Will try to track it down

Ah -- nice.
A picture really IS worth a certain number of words . . . !
So -- a sort of clock/mobile ? I've never seen that before. Do you have to get lucky -- or be in the right place -- to read the time ?

SDR
It seemed to stay in the same place, but I suppose a draft from the A/C or an open window could make it rotate. But hey, who needs function? The guy had about 8 other amazing clocks in the house to give him the time.

?
This?
Alessi
?Ora? ECAL/Isaure Bouyssonie
http://www.stylepark.com/en/news/a-treasure-trove-of-ideas/319921

Nice collection
of stuff, there, Rockland. But as a mobile-maker from childhood, the sight of the red clock makes me itch (Wright said bad architecture "made his teeth hurt") !
The placement of the hanging wire should be so much closer to the clock, for believable balance to occur. Is there (should there be) a concordance between actual physics and the appearance of "balance" ? Would anyone see it that way, even without practical experience ?

Telechron?
Is this it?
Your drawing immediately reminded me of it.
http://www.telechron.net/eod/8h27.htm

George Rickey
uses hidden weights to make many of his later pieces work; these stainless steel boxes would never balance on their hidden bearings without eccentric weights of some sort.
(I'd be prepared for the music on this video and turn the sound down -- or off !)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKsbxoLtveU&feature=fvwrel

Everbody dance now!
Dance!
Dance!
Dance!
Dance!
Dance!
Dance!
Dance!
Dance!
I said DANCE!

SDR, I had the pleasure of meeting Rickey
at his studio/workshop near Chatham, NY back in the eighties. While I'm not a big fan of seeing big geometric chunks stainless steel glinting in an otherwise bucolic setting, some of the pieces he had installed on the property were simply mesmerizing. Some small ones he had hovering over the surface of a babbling brook were particularly nice, I remember thinking.
Rickey couldn't have been nicer. It's a relief, sometimes, when meeting an artist doesn't somehow diminish one's appreciation of their work.

Hey!
I think that Telechron model is it! I remember it slightly differently, but that might just me my memory. Or maybe it was a slight variation if those existed. But yes, I do think that's it. Thanks.