WONDERFUL CLOCKS

Evening Star, Issue 19796, 21 February 1928, Page 8

WONDERFUL CLOCKS

STRAWS THAT TELL THE TIME A clock that is, a good one makes a capital wedding present. Henry VIH. apparently thought so, for it is said that he gave the old clock at Windsor Castle to Anne Boleyn on her wadding morning. It is still working. Glastonbury Abbey clock ran for about 500 years without a stop, whilst the church clock at East Hendren, a Berkshire village, which was stopped recently for repairs, has told the correct time day in and day out for four centuries.

It is claimed, however, that the clock in Rye parish church, which also has just, been renovated, is the oldest public clock still in service with its original mechanism, writes a correspondent of the ‘ Commonwealth Jeweller and Watchmaker.’ It was built in 1515—at a total cost of £2 15s 4d! Gannon balls were used as weights, and the quarters were sounded by two life-size bronze figures of “quarter-boys.” Eight-day movements in clocks were introduced about 1690. About that time nearly all clocks wore constructed with calendar dials, then considered to bo more important than the minute hand.

Freak clocks were greatly favored years ago. Fan-shaped clocks were constructed, also some in the form of a suspended bird cage. There was a sudden fashion once for mystery clocks —just two hands on a glass dial. Where were the works? Usually the mechanism was about the size of a penny, and concealed in the knobs opposite the pointer end of the fingers. Moving weights inside the knobs caused the fingers to revolve. In Munich, Germany, there is a clock made, entirely of straw, no glue even being used. Astronomical clocks once enjoyed considerable popularity. A good example is found in an abbey in the New Forest. Another, with its sun. moon, and signs of the zodiac, can bo seen at Hampton Court, England. It was made about 1540.

Many stories are told of this famous timepiece, which is known as the “ clock of death.” On the death of Anne of Denmark, wife of Janies 1., it is said that the clock stopped suddenly. Several instances are recorded of the clock stopping on more recent occasions, the latest of these sinister coincidences being reported not many months ago. Self-winding clocks are one of the recent developments in timekeeping. Current from the mains start a small motor every twenty-four hours, and rewinds the clock. Synchronised clocks are common nowadays. One master clock automatically controls a group of others so that they all register exactly the same time.

The biggest clock in the British Empire, now being built at Clydebank, and which has four dials each 26ft across, will be controlled electrically from Greenwich in this way. Electric clocks also control apparatus recording the movements of staff ami watchmen, while the system is being adopted in schools, where a master clock rings bells in the class rooms at certain hours.

The world’s largest clock is said to be in the Jersey City factory of Colgate and Company, ft is wound by a I h.p. motor, and has a diameter of 50ft. The minute hand is 38ft long, while the. hour hand measures 27ft. the hands together weighing 3.8251 b. More than 200 lamps placed round thedial make it easy to tell the time by night.