A few weeks ago I went to the MIT Swapfest to poke around and look at the cool stuff that was there.  Naturally, I came back with a bag full of random crap including one very cool item:  A Durant Precision Counter.

The box!

I found it at one of the vendor tables outside.  It came in its original box with the original manual-complete with notes from the previous owner.  I really wondered why I was buying it.  I didn’t know if it would work, I didn’t know if it only ran on AC, and I didn’t really have a plan for it.  Not that I would expect any of that to stop me, because those thoughts have never stopped me from acquiring piles of crap.

A counter is just what it sounds like-it counts.  The display is kind of like a combination lock; there are four dials with the numbers 0-9 on them that rotate.  Each time the button is pressed it increments by one until it gets to 9999 and resets to 0000.  Normally, this is done completely mechanically, but this counter is way cooler than a mechanical one.  The mechanical linkage that increments the counter can also be actuated by an electromagnet!

The counter, sitting on the breadboard I am building the clock on

Anyways, I have to do something with it.  Four-digits of novel display-o-power.  Clicky.  Mechanical.  Cool.  Clearly I should turn it into a clock!