The Time Eater

Posted by Miss Cellania in Gadget on September 19, 2008 at 7:14 am



(YouTube link)

Stephen Hawking will return from the CERN collider today to unveil the new clock at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, England. The unusual clock was designed by inventor John Taylor.

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.

Link -Thanks, Jayne Howley!


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COMMENT

14 comments to "The Time Eater"

  1. Larfin Jackarse
    September 19th, 2008 at 7:45 am

    First

  2. sirwebster
    September 19th, 2008 at 8:38 am

    Well done, now go play with the other children.

    Back on topic, initially wasn’t impressed, until i realised how it worked and that all the led’s were always on, and slits in the discs allow them to shine through. amazing.

    Still ugly though.

  3. Badjuk
    September 19th, 2008 at 8:41 am

    Simply the best.

  4. jennifergeek
    September 19th, 2008 at 8:44 am

    Absolutely mesmerizing!

  5. Algonkin
    September 19th, 2008 at 8:52 am

    Clever but it’s still just clock.

  6. SoLo
    September 19th, 2008 at 9:30 am

    I suspect Harrison would reel in horror at this ugly beast. It lacks the sublime harmony of motion seen in his fine clockwork, makes discordant noises (the H-1 fairly whispers as the pallets caress the escapement), and the chronophage looks like it dropped out of a bad sci-fi movie. Time does not jerk about, it flows like water, and is ephemeral like dreams.

    Sure would love to have the maintenance contract on it though!

  7. mrwinkler
    September 19th, 2008 at 10:26 am

    Wonder if this guy got any ideas from Tokyoflash.com

  8. LV
    September 19th, 2008 at 10:27 am

    I want one. I like the slowing down and speeding up. Time is irrelevant. Its not so much about the time, but the sculpture for me.

  9. Gail Pink
    September 19th, 2008 at 11:43 am

    I always wonder why certain posters feel there are some kind of “bragging rights” to be had in being the “First” to makea comment, when they have no other comment to post about the topic, other than to make their “claim” that is essentially juvenille if not altogether meaningless.

    That said: Nice clock!

  10. Sheldon
    September 19th, 2008 at 2:45 pm

    Was anyone else genuinely creeped out by that grasshopper?

  11. MaryW
    September 19th, 2008 at 3:08 pm

    How can we gaze upon the Corpus Clock without giving a respectful nod to esteemed novelist Tom Robbins, (currently 72 years young)?

    “Take now the clockworks… The clockworks, being genuine and not much to look at, don’t generate the drama of an Earth-tilt or a flying saucer, nor do they seem to offer any immediate panacea for humanity’s fifty-seven varieties of heartburn. But suppose that you’re one of those persons who feels trapped, to some degree, trapped matrimonially, occupationally, educationally or geographically, or trapped in something larger than all those; trapped in a system, or what you might describe as an “increasingly deadening technocracy” or a “theater of paranoia and desperation” or something like that. Now, if you are one of those persons… wouldn’t the very knowledge that there are clockworks ticking away behind the wallpaper of civilization, unbeknownst to leaders, organizers and managers (the President included), wouldn’t that knowledge, suggesting as it does the possibility of unimaginable alternatives, wouldn’t that knowledge be a bubble bath for your heart?”

    ~Tom Robbins, “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” (1976)

  12. mR pSYcHo
    September 19th, 2008 at 3:59 pm

    Oh, I find it really beautiful. Maybe that’s because I’m a huge steampunk fan.

  13. ted
    September 19th, 2008 at 4:09 pm

    It’s no poop machine.

  14. Xinavera
    September 19th, 2008 at 5:17 pm

    Nifty! It’s always nice to see things done the “hard” way without the aid of chips and circuit boards. The vernier slit mechanism is particularly neat.


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