The art teacher, Mrs Harrison at Alcester Grammar School wrote to the BBC about Michael’s clock and 3 weeks later a telegram arrived. Dated 7th April 1955.

All His Own         A Clock Built from ‘Scroungings’

In a corner of the dining-room of an old farmhouse at Walcot, Haselor, near Alcester, stands a neat grandfather clock, with an unusual and elaborate face. To-morrow the clock will be dismantled, packed into the family car and its 16-year-old constructor and his father will set out for London.

On Sunday afternoon television viewers will see and hear Michael Finnemore demonstrate this product of his acute mechanical mind and clever hands in a programme All Your Own.

The clock shown here, chimes at each quarter and strikes the hours, but has a lever to check all this if desired. It gives the date, and indicates the phases of the moon and signs of the Zodiac. It gives the current  G.M.T. of sunrise and sunset, and shows the small variation between sundial time and G.M.T.

The hour hand moves round once in 24 hours and a superimposed disc gives the correct time practically anywhere in the world. A second hand has been included.

The mechanism has “99 cogs and bicycle bells, curtain rods, bits of pump and various other scroungings went into the works.”

Michael is the second son of Mr. and Mrs. Philip T. Finnemore, and a pupil at Alcester Grammar School.

Copied from the Birmingham Post. April 29th 1955

Arriving at an indoor car park, near the hotel, late at night, the car park attendant  wanted to park the car himself but my father wouldn’t let him. The attendant got very annoyed with my father and he then decides to race round to the other side of the car, opens the front passenger door and jumps in. There was one almighty howl, then shrieking with pain. What he hadn’t realised was that there were only metal brackets sticking up from the floor because the front seat had been removed to make space for the clock!

The car was the first new car that my father had bought and the waiting time to get one, took years after the war. It was the top of the range Wolseley 6/80 and had a six cylinder engine, the gear change was on the steering column and the handbrake was near the driver’s door. It had leather seats and it even had a fitted heater! A lot of police forces had this make and model of car. The car was my fathers’ pride and joy and no stranger was going to drive it, and especially for a tip!

MY TELEVISION DEBUT continued.

We had to be at the studios again at a quarter past ten the next morning, when, for the first time, we went into the televising studio. This was a very large room with about forty cameramen and other "back-room boys" wearing headphones. They were operating the electrically-driven cameras, which moved across the room without a sound.

After I had reassembled my clock once more we had a rehearsal which was mainly for the benefit of the cameramen, so that they could get their positions after each item. They were televising us and we could see ourselves on the monitors, but they were not transmitting it.

In the afternoon we had another rehearsal, which was a complete run through of the afternoon's programme. After this I set the clock ready for the actual programme, and then we went for tea. It was now about twenty to five, and before I had even drunk my tea, I heard this over the loud speaker system: "Will the owner of the grandfather clock come to studio E immediately." At once the thought that it had been knocked over crossed my mind and I began to get worried. When we reached the studio after getting lost on the way, we found that it had only been knocked, and, as a result, it had set the pendulum vibrating at a terrific rate. In five minutes it had covered three hours to the accompaniment, of course, of the chimes and strikes. All I had to do was to steady the pendulum; at which the astonished onlookers remarked: "We thought of doing that, but we thought we had better not touch it."

Soon after we had finished tea the programme went on the air and the moment I had been waiting for, for three weeks was, at last, materialising. Nevertheless, my worries were not over yet, because, in running round the back of the cameras to get to me, Huw Wheldon tripped over a cable and landed at my feet. He managed to get up just in time and the viewers received no indication of what had happened.

Taking things all round, we had a very interesting and enjoyable week-end, and I might add, for the benefit of some humourists, that as far as I know, shares in the TV tube trade have not gone up.

M. P. FlNNEMORE (VA).

It was only from Baron Rothschild offering Michael a job in his clock manufacturing company!

McDonald Hobley the well-known television presenter telephoned the message to the studio after the live broadcast had finished.

The “All Your Own” programme, each week featured about 5 children demonstrating their talents or showing off their collections. It was on Children’s Hour between 5.00—6.00pm. Harry Corbett & Sooty was on first and then at 5.20pm “All Your Own”.

The TV Series of "All Your Own" ran from 1952-1961.

My Dear Michael.......... About a month ago I saw you on Television....... And the master piece A Meccano grandfather clock.
     Well I have been a Meccano builder for 20 years and I 've been over a year trying to get my grandfather clock to go....... its the old super leaflet (21) and written in German as no Meccano leaflets have been printed since the war on clocks. I've written to Meccano Liverpool and no results.

But you were on TV with this wonderful clock...... I've never seen anything so clever!...really I think you would be surprised the number of people I have heard remark about this clock.
     Well Michael....... I wrote to the TV studios and they gave me your address.
I wonder can you help me in this detail......... How much the weight is? The length of pendulum? and how do you fix chain on weights...... mine is one.......... Would you give this information....... will you be able to publish this in Meccano Ltd.... or is there a leaflet how you made this clock.

This letter below was the one that Michael was most interested in from a job point of view and eventually he went and worked for the company after getting a First Class Honours Degree in Electrical Engineering at University College London.

ELECTRONIC BRAINS

Electronics. This is a word of which we hear more and more every day. Whenever we pick up the paper we read of some new development or use to which this comparatively new science has been put. When I read about these things, I wonder how it is all done, so you can imagine my delight when, during the summer holidays, I was invited to look round the works of a firm which specialises in the making of electronic calculating machines. Of course I accepted the invitation, and a date was fixed for me to go.

The tour started in the morning, when my father and I presented ourselves at the firm's offices in Park Lane, London. Here we had a demonstration of all the machines made by the firm, showing us the numerous uses to which they could be put. All of them were not electronically operated, but, nevertheless, they were all very complicated.

The machines are all worked on the punch-card system. With this system the data for any problem to be calculated is punched in a card in terms of holes. The card is then fed into the machine, which distinguishes between their positions and then types or punches the result at the other end of the machine.

After dinner, we were taken out to Letchworth to see the actual building of the machines. Here we saw the construction of tabulators, used by large firms to work out their pay rolls, bills and many other jobs.

We then came on to the electronic section, where the building of electronic computers was taking place. These gigantic machines, which would completely cover one side of an average room, were just one mass of wires and valves. There were so many valves, in fact, that the machine had to he kept cool by means of a built-in fan.

With this machine it is possible to analyse, say, the readings obtained from the test flights of aircraft or even calculate the structure of a new chemical crystal. This is made possible by the fact that it has a memory, and can remember data until it is ready to bring it into use.

Another machine which I am sure would be very welcome in the Science Sixth was the electronic calculator. This machine is able to multiply, divide, add, subtract, or even work out equations, at the rate of one hundred problems per minute.

All the machines are made with great precision, and even the manufacture of the cards is no less than a work of art. These cards, which are made of a special type of thin cardboard, have to he made with a great accuracy and checked electrically for any impurity which would otherwise have an effect on the machine.

These highly mathematical machines are becoming ever more popular throughout the world for all manner of jobs, from the filing of criminal records at Scotland Yard to the analysis of the last census. The main emphasis, however, is always on research to improve and to cut down costs, so who knows, the Science Sixth may yet get their electronic calculator, hearing in mind that the present one costs about £20,000 to build!

M. P. FINNEMORE (VI).