5 ms·

Literally, what makes it tick? Is there some crazy large pendulum powered by tidal forces that triggers the once per year tick? edit: Details found here: http

by biot 15y ago

Literally, what makes it tick? Is there some crazy large pendulum powered by tidal forces that triggers the once per year tick? edit: Details found here: http://longnow.org/clock/principles/ http://longnow.org/clock/principles/ ... though I'm a bit disappointed it seems it will require human intervention.

Robin_Message 15y ago
Human intervention to activate the dials and wind the chimes, but the timekeeping is good for 10000 years (they went for daily temperature changes as well as the pendulum.) From http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2011/06/the_clock_in_th.php http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2011/06/the_clock_in_...: So how does the Clock keep going if no one visits it for months, or years, or perhaps decades? If it is let to run down between visits, who would keep resetting it? The Clock is designed to run for 10,000 years even if no one ever visits (although it would not display the correct time till someone visited). If there is no attention for long periods of time the Clock uses the energy captured by changes in the temperature between day and night on the mountain top above to power its time-keeping apparatus. In a place like a top of a mountain, this diurnal difference of tens of degrees in temperature is significant and thus powerful. Thermal power has been used for small mantel clocks before, but it has not been done before at this scale. The differential power is transmitted to the interior of the Clock by long metal rods. As long as the sun shines and night comes, the Clock can keep time itself, without human help. But it can’t ring its chimes for long by itself, or show the time it knows, so it needs human visitors.
dexen 15y ago
> ..it seems it will require human intervention. The article [1] linked to by nl describes it quite well. There are three separate energy reserves in the clock. The hands (dials) mechanism requires human winding -- but only to indicate time, which is kept independently. The chime mechanism is to be primarily ran on human winding. The main (timekeeping) mechanism extracts energy from thermal differences between day and night, and may also be wound by humans. Moreover, if the main mechanism's reserve accumulates enough energy, it is engineered to overflow and wind up the chime mechanism -- thus the chime will ring once in a while even without humans to wind it. Quite cute, if you ask me. Another cunning contraption uses Sun's thermal energy for adjusting the clock to solar time (apparent time). ---- [1] http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2011/06/the_clock_in_th.php http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2011/06/the_clock_in_...

by biot 15y ago

Robin_Message 15y ago

Human intervention to activate the dials and wind the chimes, but the timekeeping is good for 10000 years (they went for daily temperature changes as well as the pendulum.) From http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2011/06/the_clock_in_th.php http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2011/06/the_clock_in_...: So how does the Clock keep going if no one visits it for months, or years, or perhaps decades? If it is let to run down between visits, who would keep resetting it? The Clock is designed to run for 10,000 years even if no one ever visits (although it would not display the correct time till someone visited). If there is no attention for long periods of time the Clock uses the energy captured by changes in the temperature between day and night on the mountain top above to power its time-keeping apparatus. In a place like a top of a mountain, this diurnal difference of tens of degrees in temperature is significant and thus powerful. Thermal power has been used for small mantel clocks before, but it has not been done before at this scale. The differential power is transmitted to the interior of the Clock by long metal rods. As long as the sun shines and night comes, the Clock can keep time itself, without human help. But it can’t ring its chimes for long by itself, or show the time it knows, so it needs human visitors.

dexen 15y ago

> ..it seems it will require human intervention. The article [1] linked to by nl describes it quite well. There are three separate energy reserves in the clock. The hands (dials) mechanism requires human winding -- but only to indicate time, which is kept independently. The chime mechanism is to be primarily ran on human winding. The main (timekeeping) mechanism extracts energy from thermal differences between day and night, and may also be wound by humans. Moreover, if the main mechanism's reserve accumulates enough energy, it is engineered to overflow and wind up the chime mechanism -- thus the chime will ring once in a while even without humans to wind it. Quite cute, if you ask me. Another cunning contraption uses Sun's thermal energy for adjusting the clock to solar time (apparent time). ---- [1] http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2011/06/the_clock_in_th.php http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2011/06/the_clock_in_...