I always wanted a Godfather Drosselmeyer grandfather clock. Something like this only with a big damn... I think the original may have been an owl, but I want a Raven, up top... definitely with the moon movement... weight-driven, Westminster chimes, with an eight-hour shut-off... unless I live in a house big enough I can leave it on all night. (I think it'd be kind of cool to hear the big clock cue up 4am from far and away down the stairs... not enough to wake one up, but enough to hear reasonably clearly if already so... e-g-f-b, e-f-g-e; g-e-f-b, b-f-g-e, E, E, E, E... (being E Major, the G's and F's are sharp...)
The cool bit is there are five note sequences, and they're done in continuous order, so that the mechanical strikers can be on a rotary, and the position of the hands controls how far each chime goes.
15: Sequence 1, g-f-e-b 30: Sequence 2 and 3, which are the first two above. (this is the "first half" of the traditional chime) 45: Sequence 4, 5 (the second two above), 1 00: 2-3-4-5 + hours
One of my more memorable moments is arriving at Westminster Station, looking up at the clock on the tower, and noting that it was 11:46. "We're not going anywhere for about fifteen minutes, mmmkay?" The hands went straight up, the clock rang off the chimes, and Big Ben tolled the full twelve.
Lucky me, too; the bells are silent for the next three years while the clock undergoes restoration, with a few exceptions: it would've rang Sunday before last at noon for Remembrance Sunday, and it will strike Midnight at the end of the year. They'll likely use the electric strikers for that rather than the old Victorian clockworks, to make it accurate; the first stroke of midnight is supposed to be +/- 1 second, and since the works aren't currently running, it would be virtually impossible to tune it in 15 minutes' runtime... they'll probably trigger the strikers off the BBC Pips, since the lightspeed distance from Rampisham Down (BBC transmitters) to Westminster is negligible, and a lot easier than trying to rig a signal from Greenwich itself all the way up into the bell tower... :)
I've always been fascinated by mechanical clocks. A long time ago -- '50's, IIRC, Scientific American had an article on the Shortt–Synchronome clock. Very cool.
I haven't thought about it for years, but I think it would be cool to build a wooden, pendulum, digital clock, with 7-segment readouts.
We used to hear these sometimes growing up. I would love to get my hands on a dead one-sometimes it was a bit difficult to get the owners to let us touch theres because of the delicacy. I do remember one where the bird came out of its hous on the hour, though-back when I was about5 or 6, maybe? It's a fuzzy child's memory but it's definitely there.
This was definitely a fascinating and fun read. :)
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ysabetwordsmith
(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-22 08:27 am (UTC)The cool bit is there are five note sequences, and they're done in continuous order, so that the mechanical strikers can be on a rotary, and the position of the hands controls how far each chime goes.
15: Sequence 1, g-f-e-b
30: Sequence 2 and 3, which are the first two above. (this is the "first half" of the traditional chime)
45: Sequence 4, 5 (the second two above), 1
00: 2-3-4-5 + hours
One of my more memorable moments is arriving at Westminster Station, looking up at the clock on the tower, and noting that it was 11:46. "We're not going anywhere for about fifteen minutes, mmmkay?" The hands went straight up, the clock rang off the chimes, and Big Ben tolled the full twelve.
Lucky me, too; the bells are silent for the next three years while the clock undergoes restoration, with a few exceptions: it would've rang Sunday before last at noon for Remembrance Sunday, and it will strike Midnight at the end of the year. They'll likely use the electric strikers for that rather than the old Victorian clockworks, to make it accurate; the first stroke of midnight is supposed to be +/- 1 second, and since the works aren't currently running, it would be virtually impossible to tune it in 15 minutes' runtime... they'll probably trigger the strikers off the BBC Pips, since the lightspeed distance from Rampisham Down (BBC transmitters) to Westminster is negligible, and a lot easier than trying to rig a signal from Greenwich itself all the way up into the bell tower... :)
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-22 04:29 pm (UTC)I haven't thought about it for years, but I think it would be cool to build a wooden, pendulum, digital clock, with 7-segment readouts.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-11-22 05:12 pm (UTC)We used to hear these sometimes growing up. I would love to get my hands on a dead one-sometimes it was a bit difficult to get the owners to let us touch theres because of the delicacy. I do remember one where the bird came out of its hous on the hour, though-back when I was about5 or 6, maybe? It's a fuzzy child's memory but it's definitely there.
This was definitely a fascinating and fun read. :)
-Fallon~
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