THE TEMUKA CLOCK.

Temuka Leader, Issue 707, 8 December 1881, Page 3

THE TEMUKA CLOCK.

At last the long and much talked of clock | is au fait accompli. For some few days past Mr Adam?, of Chri.stchurch, has been busily engaged in its erection in the tower o f St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church and now the residents of Temuka are enabled to tell the correct time from their own public clock v e now proc?ed to give a descripl ion of it : The clock was manufactured by Messrs E. Pent and Co., of London, whose name is sufficient guarantee for its excellence. T e finest turret clock in the world -viz., the one at the Houses of Parliament, in London, was made by the same firm, snd although ours is not of such pretentious proportions it is a splended specimen of accurate work. The frame is of cast iron bolted on to massive iron, bracelets built into the wall, the large Wheels are of cast iron and the smaller one s of brass, the pinions of the '' going" or timekeeping train are of the description known as lantern pinions, and the others are of the usual form, All the wearing parts are hardened steel, well polished, thereby reducing friction to a minimum. The escapment is of the pin wheel kind driving a pendulum of about 601bs and of such a length as to cause it to make one beat per second, the rod is made from zinc and steel, so arranged as to compensate for the variationa of temperature. The weights for driTing the quarter and hour striking trains weigh about 3001bs each and are suspended by Tire ropes. Fljs or fans are fitted to these trains sotl at the speed of the striking may be easily regulated. The manner in which it strikes the hours (that is bringing in the first stroke of the hour at the end of the third quarter, so as to produce a musical peal) is a great improvement on the old style and is now generally adopted, although it may be at first a little puzzling to to those accustomed to the more ancient method. The dials, four in number, are about twenty feet above clock and sixty from the ground they are 4ft 3in in diameter, and made of sheet copper. A rod leads from ths clock to a nest of bevelled wheels behind the dials to give motion to the hands. Weighted levers are fixed behind each hand to balance it so preventing undue strain on the mechanism. Great credit is due to Messrs Dent and Co., for the admirable manner in which it was packed so as to stand its long journey ■without th> slightest, thing being damaged. There is one great. great fault wilh the p* clock that i* a pity it wps and that is the dials are too small to be seen in even the main road. This defect might, however, be greatly obviated were the dials painted black and the numerals gilded, instead of the white back ground and black minerals. We trust that our remarks in this respect will be ere long acted upen.