Bells for prayer or other significant events have, through history, been the only form of broadcasting time.  Towers were the most practical method to display time both by sound and later, visually.  In the 14th century mechanical clocks were beginning to be available and in the mid-eighteen hundreds clocks began to appear on the bell towers, and the bell systems were usually retained.  The word clock is closely related to the word bell.

 

          These large, heavy clocks are weight driven and were always located far up in the tower so that the force of the descending weights could furnish mechanical power for a few days.  This location also offered a direct link to the hands of the clock.

 

          The keeper would, however, be required to climb to the top of the tower several times a week to wind the weights up again.

 

          Our bell tower fills the same purpose as of yore; however, in these days of smart phones, the tower is also the icon for times square, sundial park and Russell Crossroads.

 

          This clock mechanism was made in Germany around 1750 and was used there in a train station and long past World War II.  This device is a great example of the classic weight driven mechanism.  The clock alone weighs several hundred pounds.

 

          A clock is simply the manager and driving force for the several clock faces and the pilot dial on the machine.  The clock also chimes and rings a quarter hour bell and an hour bell.

 

          Normally, very few people were able to see the clock as it was always far up in the tower and behind the clock faces.  This example differs quite significantly—the clock works, here, are at eye level in order to be observed close at hand.  This of course allows the weights only a few feet to descend providing an endurance of little over an hour.  The remedy for this was by designing a very complex arrangement – calling for a unique system for rewinding the weights.  The clock itself has not been altered, however, everything else (in blue) has been designed to let the clock run exactly as it would in a normal situation.

 

          The length of the pendulum dictates a swing cycle or beat of thirty seconds—everything else simply multiplies this time period into minutes and hours.  You will see that after sixty seconds a “counter” triggers to advance the system one 1/60 of a revolution.  This displays one minute on the pilot face and all three of the primary faces.

 

          The whirly gig simply prevents a sudden stop of the delicate mechanism.

 

          Though the timing of the first cycle or swing of a pendulum is constant it will eventually slow and stop if it does not get the proper nudge at every beat.  See if you can determine the source of this added energy.

 

Ben Russell 2017