General Time Corp

* Salton Inc., maker of George Foreman grills and Timex clocks, said it is buying the Westclox, Big Ben and Spartus brands from bankrupt General Time Corp. for $9.8 million to become the largest U.S. clockmaker. Norcross, Ga.-based General Time, which filed for bankruptcy protection in June, had sales of $109 million last year, Salton said. * * Baxter International Inc.

* Salton Inc., maker of George Foreman grills and Timex clocks, said it is buying the Westclox, Big Ben and Spartus brands from bankrupt General Time Corp. for $9.8 million to become the largest U.S. clockmaker. Norcross, Ga.-based General Time, which filed for bankruptcy protection in June, had sales of $109 million last year, Salton said. * * Baxter International Inc.

Here's a wake-up call for the security conscious: You can now tote an alarm clock and a motion detector in one tiny package, 7 inches by 2 1/4 inches by 1 inch. Westclox's new SleepSafe Motion Detector with Alarm Clock separates into two plastic units. One is a digital alarm clock with a snooze button that you can keep bedside. The other is the detector, which uses infrared rays to sense motion at a door or window up to 15 or so feet away, then issues a piercing alarm if anyone tries to enter.

Everybody knows an alarm clock is supposed to wake you up--here is one that will also put you to sleep. Westclox describes its new Dreamscape as both alarm clock and sleep machine that "transports consumers to another place with soothing, natural sounds." To do that, it offers three themes: * "Country" features the sound of crickets chirping to fall asleep and a rooster's crow to awaken. * "Seaside" relaxes with the sound of rolling ocean waves and wakes with a distant, sonorous foghorn.

Esther Muir, a blond wisecracking actress who appeared in about 70 films, including "A Day at the Races" with the Marx Brothers, in which she was memorably slathered with wallpaper paste, has died. She was 92. Miss Muir, who lived in Somers, N.Y., died Aug. 1 in a hospital in Mount Kisco, N.Y. Recalling with humor the wallpapering scene with Groucho Marx in the 1937 film, Miss Muir once said: "It was an unforgettable experience.