MODERN WAYS CATCH UP
NEW ELECTRIC CLOCK
The electric age has arrived for historic St. Michael’s Episcopal Church. Its huge clock and chimes which for almost two centuries Charlestonians have looked up to with confidence, is going to get new electric works, states an American newspaper.
Operated until now by gravity, the clock has had many serious lapses into inaction and inaccuracy in recent years. So the City Council, with the advice and consent of the vestry of St. Michael’s, has appropriated 2400 dollars for electric works.
The clock was installed in the towering steeple in 1764, three years after the church was opened. Built by a London clockmaker, Aynsworth Thwayts, he described it as a “strong 30-hour clock to show the lour on the largest bell and the quarters of four bells, as the Royal Exchange London.” For more than 50 years the city has paid its city hall janitor 300 dollars annually to climb the steeple once a day and wind the giant time piece. To tourist minded Charleston, the clock and chimes and St. Michael’s itself have been among the chief attractions for visitors.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BPB19461113.2.30
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Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 49, 13 November 1946, Page 6
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187MODERN WAYS CATCH UP Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 49, 13 November 1946, Page 6
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