4 ms·

Salisbury cathedral clock

57 points by Vigier 10y ago

dguaraglia 10y ago
I can't believe I was there and I didn't see this. Oh well, I guess I got to see the Chronophage a bunch of times (which, BTW, was super lame.)
- pcl 10y ago
  What was lame about it? I hadn't heard of it before, but it sounds pretty awesome, from the Wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Clock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Clock)
  - mrob 10y ago
    Gold + blue LEDs is about the tackiest combination I can think of. Blue LEDs were cool for a few years in the late 90s because they were new and high tech. I think they lost their fashion value in 2000 with the release of the PlayStation 2 (which had a blue power LED). By then it was obvious they were cheap and widely available. People still using blue LEDs in 2008 were clearly out of touch, and in 2016 the only way they can possibly be cool is if they're obviously ironic, which the Corpus Clock LEDs aren't.
    - Camillo 10y ago
      Blue LEDs are the worst. They are the most annoying of LEDs, in part because of their ridiculous brightness, in part because blue light just disturbs sleep more for biological reasons. If I have a device with blue LEDs in my bedroom, it gets masking tape.
      - dguaraglia 10y ago
        Yeah, I ordered a bunch of extensions cords from Amazon and they came with an extremely bright blue LED embedded in the on/off switch. Needless to say, I was no happy bunny the first night when I went to sleep with two of those in the room.
  - dguaraglia 10y ago
    As mrob pointed out, while mechanically interesting, the device looks really tacky. I might be that I had a lot of expectations about the clock, having read a bunch about it on the internet. I used to travel to Cambridge on a regular basis at the time the Chronophage was installed, and I remember one day making a point of going all the way downtown to see it... and it was just super tacky. It looked like a prop you might find in Disney World or something. Out of context, like if I saw that in the middle of London somewhere, it might have been OK. But this is Cambridge: the clock is on King's Parade, the street where all the historical colleges are, stunning historical buildings all around. You are straight across from King's College Chapel, the most iconic building in all of Cambridge. You are a few feet away from The Eagle, a pub that has been around longer than the US has existed as a Republic. And in the middle of all that, you have this gold and blue LED monstrosity. It just feels completely out of place. So yeah, if you are ever in Cambridge, I'd be more likely to recommend trying the amazing ostrich hamburgers in the street market about a block away from the Chronophage. Those are also out of place, but SO good, heh.
  - arjie 10y ago
    There's one of these at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences. http://www.hmns.org/exhibits/special-exhibitions/the-chronophage-clock/ http://www.hmns.org/exhibits/special-exhibitions/the-chronop...
  - lmm 10y ago
    The use of LEDs makes all the mechanics seem pointless, and it's very shiny, which makes it look out of place. A friend described it as "like some chav's car covered in bling".
    - dguaraglia 10y ago
      Hah, pretty much!
- david-given 10y ago
  If you like clockwork, and you happen to be in Switzerland, try and visit Lucerne: there's a free clock museum there (in one of the towers of the old city wall) full of old church clocks --- one dating from 1535. They're all running, although some are electrically wound, and they're all huge and with enough open space inside that you can see how they all work; some of them still ring. Good views over the city, too.
VSpike 10y ago
I live near Salisbury and it's amazing how many locals don't know about this clock. The Cathedral is well worth a visit for many reasons, but this alone is a pretty good one.
- PuffinBlue 10y ago
  Well count me as one of those locals, and one who has visited the Cathedral several times! I got a bit distracted by the copy of the Magna Carta the last time I was there so was a bit blinkered to everything else. Next time I'm in town I'll pop in!
- TheOtherHobbes 10y ago
  The Cathedral is definitely worth a visit. So is the town. But that whole area is fascinating. Stonehenge is a short drive North. A slightly longer drive North gets you to Avebury. Much closer is Amesbury, which has Blick Mead on the outskirts, with evidence of occupation from nearly 9000 years ago. http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Blick-Mead.pdf http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Blick...
  - dharma1 10y ago
    Nice part of the world. New Forest is only a short drive away, too, and definitely worth a visit.
guessmyname 10y ago
It saddens me that machines like this are still functional after so many years while modern technology is just a piece of garbage that cannot be expected to work after five years or less. It saddens me because with my current skills I am completely sure that whatever I try to build right now will disappear in a couple of years and people will forget about me, I cannot even imagine Google being alive in a century, or who knows, maybe when the AI evolves to the point where we will have a walking/talking machine in every house named GoogleBot :D
- JoeAltmaier 10y ago
  It took the treasury of a cathedral to create that one clock. Silicon foundaries today make 100's of millions of timepieces each year. I like the modern approach.
- lisper 10y ago
  That's more a function of the market than of our technology. I have a ~40 year old calculator that still works just fine. Partly because of that, I haven't bought a new calculator since then. Planned obsolescence produces more revenue.
- 13of40 10y ago
  If you think about it, most folks from that time weren't making clocks either. They were making lots of junk that has since been burned, buried, broken, or tossed down the out house hole. If you want to leave a legacy, you should stop being Yorman the Web Site Developer and try being Yorman the Artist or Yorman the Architect.
  - inimino 10y ago
    Most art and achitecture hasn't survived either.
- icantdrive55 10y ago
  We are letting them take take our money, and ruin this planet. We bought into the "It's cheaper to buy a new one!", and it was a huge gift to corporations, and certain individuals. It started with Laptops; then just seemed to spread like a disease. Apple products are not impossible to repair, but Apple has hidden that repair information--to even Apple Service Techs. A tech sees a bad cap on a mother board, or gets a specific error code. (A code that would map out the resistor, cap, etc. on the mother board.). The Apple tech looks up the code, and knows the repair is under a dollar in parts. But Apple says to replace the entire board, at a usually around $750. A new computer is a few hundred dollars more. We buy the new computer, and Apple has more money to hide in Ireland? Beyond crazy? (And yes, I'm using an Apple product to write this, but the minute Apple gets cute, and plans for obsolescence; I'm gone forever. I think they are doing it right now, but can't prove it.) We buy these rediculiously complicated vechicles, like they will last forever. We never buy on the basis of repairability. I know a dealership mechanic. He said he learns to repair on customer time. He is one of the better mechanics I went to automotive school with. It's a running joke at the dealership. Don't get me started on Independant shops. "Sure--we can fix!" And then the call, "Oh yea, it needs an infarcukayir. I tink?" We blindly buy two year durable goods, and lucky if they last two years. In school, years ago, I laughed at two year durable goods, in a marketing class. "I would never buy a washing machine that only lasts two years." I said back then. My current Bosh washer rings, uses very little water, but doesn't clean the clothes. Do I plan on fixing it. I currently have a extra drum, but when I looked into tearing it apart; no way. When that washer stops ringing--it will be thrown out, and I'll buy another another one? We need to start demanding companies provide all repair information, and sell us parts if they want to do business in America. Vechicle repair information--make every state demand they turn over repair information. (Massachusetts is, I believe, the only state that has a Right to repair law.) All electronics--make all repair/service information available online. If you don't have repair information, just post the schematics. All mechanical devises(like those fancy Swiss watches)--sell parts to consumer. I honestly don't care if you think they can't repair your gizmo. And I know, at this point on history, we are all just pawns. I hope we look back in ten years, and the top post on HN is "In 2016, they we Not allowed to repair stuff they bought."
triplesec 10y ago
It's a little unfortunate that the best method we apparently have of dating these clocks is by voting by panels of experts, rather than by carbon-dating or whatever metallurgic equivalent there may be, which it appears can't be done

57 points by Vigier 10y ago

I can't believe I was there and I didn't see this. Oh well, I guess I got to see the Chronophage a bunch of times (which, BTW, was super lame.)

pcl 10y ago
What was lame about it? I hadn't heard of it before, but it sounds pretty awesome, from the Wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Clock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Clock)
- mrob 10y ago
  Gold + blue LEDs is about the tackiest combination I can think of. Blue LEDs were cool for a few years in the late 90s because they were new and high tech. I think they lost their fashion value in 2000 with the release of the PlayStation 2 (which had a blue power LED). By then it was obvious they were cheap and widely available. People still using blue LEDs in 2008 were clearly out of touch, and in 2016 the only way they can possibly be cool is if they're obviously ironic, which the Corpus Clock LEDs aren't.
  - Camillo 10y ago
    Blue LEDs are the worst. They are the most annoying of LEDs, in part because of their ridiculous brightness, in part because blue light just disturbs sleep more for biological reasons. If I have a device with blue LEDs in my bedroom, it gets masking tape.
    - dguaraglia 10y ago
      Yeah, I ordered a bunch of extensions cords from Amazon and they came with an extremely bright blue LED embedded in the on/off switch. Needless to say, I was no happy bunny the first night when I went to sleep with two of those in the room.
- dguaraglia 10y ago
  As mrob pointed out, while mechanically interesting, the device looks really tacky. I might be that I had a lot of expectations about the clock, having read a bunch about it on the internet. I used to travel to Cambridge on a regular basis at the time the Chronophage was installed, and I remember one day making a point of going all the way downtown to see it... and it was just super tacky. It looked like a prop you might find in Disney World or something. Out of context, like if I saw that in the middle of London somewhere, it might have been OK. But this is Cambridge: the clock is on King's Parade, the street where all the historical colleges are, stunning historical buildings all around. You are straight across from King's College Chapel, the most iconic building in all of Cambridge. You are a few feet away from The Eagle, a pub that has been around longer than the US has existed as a Republic. And in the middle of all that, you have this gold and blue LED monstrosity. It just feels completely out of place. So yeah, if you are ever in Cambridge, I'd be more likely to recommend trying the amazing ostrich hamburgers in the street market about a block away from the Chronophage. Those are also out of place, but SO good, heh.
- arjie 10y ago
  There's one of these at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences. http://www.hmns.org/exhibits/special-exhibitions/the-chronophage-clock/ http://www.hmns.org/exhibits/special-exhibitions/the-chronop...
- lmm 10y ago
  The use of LEDs makes all the mechanics seem pointless, and it's very shiny, which makes it look out of place. A friend described it as "like some chav's car covered in bling".
  - dguaraglia 10y ago
    Hah, pretty much!
david-given 10y ago
If you like clockwork, and you happen to be in Switzerland, try and visit Lucerne: there's a free clock museum there (in one of the towers of the old city wall) full of old church clocks --- one dating from 1535. They're all running, although some are electrically wound, and they're all huge and with enough open space inside that you can see how they all work; some of them still ring. Good views over the city, too.

VSpike 10y ago

I live near Salisbury and it's amazing how many locals don't know about this clock. The Cathedral is well worth a visit for many reasons, but this alone is a pretty good one.

PuffinBlue 10y ago
Well count me as one of those locals, and one who has visited the Cathedral several times! I got a bit distracted by the copy of the Magna Carta the last time I was there so was a bit blinkered to everything else. Next time I'm in town I'll pop in!
TheOtherHobbes 10y ago
The Cathedral is definitely worth a visit. So is the town. But that whole area is fascinating. Stonehenge is a short drive North. A slightly longer drive North gets you to Avebury. Much closer is Amesbury, which has Blick Mead on the outskirts, with evidence of occupation from nearly 9000 years ago. http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Blick-Mead.pdf http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Blick...
- dharma1 10y ago
  Nice part of the world. New Forest is only a short drive away, too, and definitely worth a visit.

guessmyname 10y ago

It saddens me that machines like this are still functional after so many years while modern technology is just a piece of garbage that cannot be expected to work after five years or less. It saddens me because with my current skills I am completely sure that whatever I try to build right now will disappear in a couple of years and people will forget about me, I cannot even imagine Google being alive in a century, or who knows, maybe when the AI evolves to the point where we will have a walking/talking machine in every house named GoogleBot :D

JoeAltmaier 10y ago
It took the treasury of a cathedral to create that one clock. Silicon foundaries today make 100's of millions of timepieces each year. I like the modern approach.
lisper 10y ago
That's more a function of the market than of our technology. I have a ~40 year old calculator that still works just fine. Partly because of that, I haven't bought a new calculator since then. Planned obsolescence produces more revenue.
13of40 10y ago
If you think about it, most folks from that time weren't making clocks either. They were making lots of junk that has since been burned, buried, broken, or tossed down the out house hole. If you want to leave a legacy, you should stop being Yorman the Web Site Developer and try being Yorman the Artist or Yorman the Architect.
- inimino 10y ago
  Most art and achitecture hasn't survived either.
icantdrive55 10y ago
We are letting them take take our money, and ruin this planet. We bought into the "It's cheaper to buy a new one!", and it was a huge gift to corporations, and certain individuals. It started with Laptops; then just seemed to spread like a disease. Apple products are not impossible to repair, but Apple has hidden that repair information--to even Apple Service Techs. A tech sees a bad cap on a mother board, or gets a specific error code. (A code that would map out the resistor, cap, etc. on the mother board.). The Apple tech looks up the code, and knows the repair is under a dollar in parts. But Apple says to replace the entire board, at a usually around $750. A new computer is a few hundred dollars more. We buy the new computer, and Apple has more money to hide in Ireland? Beyond crazy? (And yes, I'm using an Apple product to write this, but the minute Apple gets cute, and plans for obsolescence; I'm gone forever. I think they are doing it right now, but can't prove it.) We buy these rediculiously complicated vechicles, like they will last forever. We never buy on the basis of repairability. I know a dealership mechanic. He said he learns to repair on customer time. He is one of the better mechanics I went to automotive school with. It's a running joke at the dealership. Don't get me started on Independant shops. "Sure--we can fix!" And then the call, "Oh yea, it needs an infarcukayir. I tink?" We blindly buy two year durable goods, and lucky if they last two years. In school, years ago, I laughed at two year durable goods, in a marketing class. "I would never buy a washing machine that only lasts two years." I said back then. My current Bosh washer rings, uses very little water, but doesn't clean the clothes. Do I plan on fixing it. I currently have a extra drum, but when I looked into tearing it apart; no way. When that washer stops ringing--it will be thrown out, and I'll buy another another one? We need to start demanding companies provide all repair information, and sell us parts if they want to do business in America. Vechicle repair information--make every state demand they turn over repair information. (Massachusetts is, I believe, the only state that has a Right to repair law.) All electronics--make all repair/service information available online. If you don't have repair information, just post the schematics. All mechanical devises(like those fancy Swiss watches)--sell parts to consumer. I honestly don't care if you think they can't repair your gizmo. And I know, at this point on history, we are all just pawns. I hope we look back in ten years, and the top post on HN is "In 2016, they we Not allowed to repair stuff they bought."

triplesec 10y ago

It's a little unfortunate that the best method we apparently have of dating these clocks is by voting by panels of experts, rather than by carbon-dating or whatever metallurgic equivalent there may be, which it appears can't be done