coolest clock in the world

[neko]

i know what i want for christmas already......

 

Maev Kennedy on Cambridge University's monstrous new clock | Art and design | guardian.co.uk

 

The hour approaches. The beast's jaws gape, its tail quivers and then snap! Another minute has been devoured, and the hour strikes with the ominous clonk of a chain dropping into a coffin. The creature blinks twice in satisfaction.

 

"It is terrifying, it is meant to be," said John Taylor, the creator and funder of an extraordinary new clock to be unveiled tomorrow by Stephen Hawking at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge. "Basically I view time as not on your side. He'll eat up every minute of your life, and as soon as one has gone he's salivating for the next. It's not a bad thing to remind students of. I never felt like this until I woke up on my 70th birthday, and was stricken at the thought of how much I still wanted to do, and how little time remained."

 

Christopher de Hamel, an expert on medieval manuscripts and Fellow Librarian at Corpus Christi, described the clock as "hypnotically beautiful - and deeply disturbing".

 

Hawking, celebrated as the author of A Brief History of Time, is returning from the launch of the particle accelerator at Cern in Switzerland to unveil Taylor's sinister vision of his subject.

 

Taylor is an inventor whose thermostat switch is incorporated in 600m electric kettles all over the world. He first gave £2.5m for a new undergraduate library at his old college, and then offered to create and donate the £1m Corpus clock to the library. The work has involved 200 people, including engineers, sculptors, scientists, jewellers and calligraphers. Taylor regularly flew over in his own plane from his home on the Isle of Man to keep an eye as beady as his creature's on the work.

 

For all its apparent eccentricity, the clock is based on solidly traditional clockwork - unusual in these days of digital electronic clocks. It has taken seven years' research and construction, incorporates six patented inventions, and is predicted to run for at least 250 years assuming the world lasts that long.

 

Engineer Stewart Huxley refuses to reveal the secret of its tricks, which include the pendulum occasionally apparently catching and stopping for a heartbeat, and then swinging faster to catch up.

 

The rippling gold-plated dial was made by exploding a thin sheet of stainless steel onto a mould underwater: none of the team actually saw it happen because the only place in the world which could make it was a secret military research institute in Holland.

 

The monster momentarily stops the turning dial with its foot to mark the minutes, shown as blue LED lights shining through slots. It was originally conceived by Taylor as a literal interpretation of the grasshopper escapement invented by his hero, the Georgian clockmaker John Harrison whose fabulously accurate mechanisms solved the problem of establishing longitude at sea.

 

The creature, modelled by sculptor Matthew Sanderson, was inspired by medieval armour and gradually became more ominous: part-lizard, part-stag beetle, a Chronophage – time eater.

[Elmyn Noos]

I'm sure it's ace and all that, but I thought it looked a bit shit.

[neko]

well, if you get one for christmas, you can re-gift it to me.

 

did you watch the short video ?

[Elmyn Noos]

well, if you get one for christmas, you can re-gift it to me.

 

did you watch the short video ?

 

Yeah I did, but I read the description first which conjured up an image that was much better than the actual clock turned out to be in the vid.

 

Quite possibly though I could be a man of very poor taste in expensive clocks.

[RedinSweden]

It cost a million and they reckon it will last for 250 years. that is 4,000 quid a year. For fucks sake, i bought a black digital watch, with a stop watch, backlight and alarm for 3 quid and it last 4 years, which is 75p a year. I bet that isn't even waterproof down to 50m like mine was either.

[neko]

Yeah I did, but I read the description first which conjured up an image that was much better than the actual clock turned out to be in the vid.

 

Quite possibly though I could be a man of very poor taste in expensive clocks.

 

you know, you're right - for something that took seven years to make, involving over 200 people, and meant to run for 250 years, they probably could have done a better job of filming it.

 

it's a clock ! maybe worth showing for a minute at least ? and turn some lights on as well ?

[Elmyn Noos]

i know what i want for christmas already......

 

Maev Kennedy on Cambridge University's monstrous new clock | Art and design | guardian.co.uk

 

The hour approaches. The beast's jaws gape, its tail quivers and then snap! Another minute has been devoured, and the hour strikes with the ominous clonk of a chain dropping into a coffin. The creature blinks twice in satisfaction.

 

"It is terrifying, it is meant to be," said John Taylor, the creator and funder of an extraordinary new clock to be unveiled tomorrow by Stephen Hawking at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge. "Basically I view time as not on your side. He'll eat up every minute of your life, and as soon as one has gone he's salivating for the next. It's not a bad thing to remind students of. I never felt like this until I woke up on my 70th birthday, and was stricken at the thought of how much I still wanted to do, and how little time remained."

 

Christopher de Hamel, an expert on medieval manuscripts and Fellow Librarian at Corpus Christi, described the clock as "hypnotically beautiful - and deeply disturbing".

 

Hawking, celebrated as the author of A Brief History of Time, is returning from the launch of the particle accelerator at Cern in Switzerland to unveil Taylor's sinister vision of his subject.

 

Taylor is an inventor whose thermostat switch is incorporated in 600m electric kettles all over the world. He first gave £2.5m for a new undergraduate library at his old college, and then offered to create and donate the £1m Corpus clock to the library. The work has involved 200 people, including engineers, sculptors, scientists, jewellers and calligraphers. Taylor regularly flew over in his own plane from his home on the Isle of Man to keep an eye as beady as his creature's on the work.

 

For all its apparent eccentricity, the clock is based on solidly traditional clockwork - unusual in these days of digital electronic clocks. It has taken seven years' research and construction, incorporates six patented inventions, and is predicted to run for at least 250 years assuming the world lasts that long.

 

Engineer Stewart Huxley refuses to reveal the secret of its tricks, which include the pendulum occasionally apparently catching and stopping for a heartbeat, and then swinging faster to catch up.

 

The rippling gold-plated dial was made by exploding a thin sheet of stainless steel onto a mould underwater: none of the team actually saw it happen because the only place in the world which could make it was a secret military research institute in Holland.

 

The monster momentarily stops the turning dial with its foot to mark the minutes, shown as blue LED lights shining through slots. It was originally conceived by Taylor as a literal interpretation of the grasshopper escapement invented by his hero, the Georgian clockmaker John Harrison whose fabulously accurate mechanisms solved the problem of establishing longitude at sea.

 

The creature, modelled by sculptor Matthew Sanderson, was inspired by medieval armour and gradually became more ominous: part-lizard, part-stag beetle, a Chronophage – time eater.

 

The dutch must be shit at keeping secrets if a Cambridge clockmaker knew where to get his dial made.

 

Boffin: "hmm.. we need to explode this metal sheet to make a dial for our clock, but nowhere can this be done"

 

James Boond: "Actually wee can doo it in oor top secret military research base"

 

Boffin: "Oh yeah, the one in Eindhoven?"

 

Boond: " Jah, that's the one. I mean, what base?"

[Hooch]

Not bad that, you know what I want though, the Sugarhill gang alarm clock off Scrubs.

 

[RJ Fan club]

 

End of thread.

[Guest davelfc]