Expert: Martin Meyer - 5/2/2009

Question
I have a grandfather clock made by the Hanson Clock company in Rockford,Illinois. It belonged to my grandparents, and is quite old, since I am now a grandmother myself. They had the clock as long as I can remember. My husband doesn't like the chimes, and I don't know how to turn them off. There is a lever that moves up and down inside the case behind the clock face. There are doors on both sides of the clock behind the face. I have tried setting it to the up, down, and middle positions, but the clock keeps chiming. This lever is on the left side if I am looking at the front of the clock. The chimes sound beautiful to me, but my husband demands that they be silenced. I have the original directions, which have become very fragile. There is no reference to stopping the chime. I hope you can help.
      Thankyou

Answer
Hi Barbara,

Not all clocks have a chime shut off. If you do have one, it may be a lever in the dial near the "3", "9" or "12". Since you have tried the lever on your clock to no effect, it could be a chime shutoff that is not working properly, but this is not very likely. But the lever must have some purpose; does it do anything when you change its setting?

Some clocks have two strings hanging down inside the case from inside the movement. You pull down on these strings and hook them onto a hook mounted on each inside side of the clock to stop the chime and strike.

A few clocks have shut off levers which you must access from the movement through the side doors. Some clocks have fairly large L-shaped levers which can be raised to lift the chime hammers away from the chime rods.

If your clock has none of these features, it probably does not have a chime shut off.  http://www.clockmasteronline.com