A "thinking clock" with no hands and designed to make time-telling difficult has just been invented and built by an ingenious Benton Harbor manufacturer, Alfred L. Sohm, who operates the Acme Game company at the Benton Harbor Industrial center.

The clock, first of its kind ever to be built, announces the hours by a complicated system of lights, buzzers, chimes, and bells. Its inventor proudly claims that several minutes will be required by the average person to tell from the new clock just what time it is.

While the person is trying to tell the time, he will receive all sorts of other information that is designed to distract his attention and confuse him even further. The revolutionary design of the new instrument is expected by its builder to make "clock watching" a fascinating pursuit.

While the new device is perhaps reminiscent of a Rube Goldberg patent, apparently there is a sound principle behind it. The object is to attract attention and discussion for advertising purposes. Instead of merely glancing at the hands of a clock to get the time, people using this clock will have to ponder a bit, and meanwhile they will be taking in concentrated doses of advertising.

Philosophical ads existed before Brainbeau. They can still be found in the back pages of magazines like Gnosis, Fate or Biblical Archeology Review. Typically, such ads proclaim "Esoteric Secrets of the Egyptians can be Yours," "You Possess Hidden Powers," and once in a while something like, "Jesus Never Existed." While ads such as these might lead you something philosophical, their main purpose is to peddle books and amulets, not to communicate ideas.

For Brainbeau, the ads themselves were esoteric truths. Those who sent Self Addressed Stamped Envelopes (SASE) to Brainbeau expecting to receive literature, products or information received even more ads! They revealed Brainbeau's plans, bit by bit, ad by ad. Several sheets of closely spaced Brainbeau ads could be fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, but the resulting picture would be just another sheet of ads.