Reply With QuoteThat double three-legged gravity escapement really is rather cool.
#clocknerd
That double three-legged gravity escapement really is rather cool.
#clocknerd
Fascinating that it takes about 1.5 hrs to wind. Perhaps a motorised winder might be considered.
Very interesting and very impressive indeed!
I had never considered the accuracy aspect of the clock, let alone how it was achieved. I see there are a few full length documentaries on YouTube, which I'm now going to add to my 'to do' list.
Thanks OP.
There was series on the BBC about the Palace of Westminster and it featured the Elizabeth Tower and the Great Clock (a.k.a. Big Ben). Well worth a look if it's repeated.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
And what happens this coming weekend: Behind the clock face...only with the opposite adjustment.
That was a great video, ta.
Very interesting, that is quite an amazing bit of engineering for the time. Many thanks
It was all explained on ''Blue Peter''. a few years ago.
Impressive stuff. How did they explain the gravity escapement? I'd be interested to learn, as I quite often find it tricky to convey the way that the "arms" and "legs" (as well as the pendulum) interact.Originally Posted by number2
Fascinating. I like that adding/removing an old penny to the pendulum is the equivalent of laying your wristwatch on it's side or face up/face down.
They have some trouble with the timing of the bongs occasionally. I listen to PM then the 6 o'clock news frequently. They play the pre hour strike gongs, gone A short intro and wait for the clock to strike 6. Unfortunately that wait can be anything from a second or 2 to 25 seconds, an eternity on radio!
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Yes, it's fun listening to the news reader trying to get the timing just right.
It's even more fun listening to them trying to fit a shipping forecast into its five minute slot. You get a feeling for those that have some idea of what it's about and who might be paying attention by the phrasing that they introduce.
Have a go at writing down the forecast, using shorthand abbreviations, as it is being broadcast. This was an exercise I had to do when learning navigation. It makes it a lot more difficult if the announcer is simply reading it out without pausing in the usual places.
The clock features (briefly) at the start of Precision: The Measure of All Things - 1. Time and Distance:
Professor Marcus du Sautoy explores why we are driven to measure and quantify the world around us. He begins by telling the story of the metre and the second.
There was a really interesting talk by Keith Scobie-Youngs at the Antiquarian Horological Society's Annual General Meeting this year, entitled Catastrophe in the Tower. He described the time that the weights fell and the clock was silent for c14 hours...
10lb objects were driven through the ceiling by the accident, in which the weight fell 200ft onto sandbags lying at the bottom of the tower. He suggested that the weight line was probably shorter than it should have been, so when the weight fell, it never actually hit the bottom...
Accurate to within two seconds a week is pretty damn impressive.
For everyone who need some more about pendulum.
Even if it looks hard to understand it is very simple and worth to study a little.
http://web.mit.edu/8.01t/www/materia.../chapter24.pdf
I have a copy of this: A Rudimentary Treatise on Clocks and Watches and Bells by Baron Edmund Beckett Grimthorpe (from 1874). It's been digitized and has some interesting information:
https://archive.org/stream/arudiment.../n143/mode/2up
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