Posted on 09/20/2008 11:35:10 PM PDT by Justice Department
The bizarre Corpus Clock visually explains that it relies on grasshopper escapement to function, and to let you know that time can never be regained once lost, that beast on top actually gobbles down time every 60th second. Oh, and every hour, on the hour, the sound of a "chain dropping into a wooden coffin" is played to really pound home the "time is a destroyer" concept. Thanks for the reminder, Dr. Grim.
(Excerpt) Read more at engadget.com ...
Sheesh and here I was thinin’ that time was an evolver.
The Corpus Clock has been invented and designed by Dr John Taylor for Corpus Christi College Cambridge for the exterior of the college's new library building.
It will be unveiled on 19 September by Prof Stephen Hawking, cosmologist and author of the global bestseller, A Brief History of Time.
The £1 million timepiece, known as The Corpus Clock, has been commissioned and designed to honour the John Harrison, who was famously the pioneer of Longitude and inventor of the esoteric clock mechanism known as a grasshopper escapement.
The clock has been designed by the inventor and horologist Dr John Taylor and makes ingenious use of the grasshopper escapement, moving it from the inside of the clock to the outside and refashioning it as a Chronophage, or time-eater, which literally devours time.
MAKE IT STOP!
It’s not moving - unfocus your eyes to see - the picture is stationary.
I am not sure if I am supposed to be horrified at the sick mind who created it or in awe of the incredible likeness.
I like it. Kind of Goth...
I should have put the /s after my post
:-)
Amazing, I didn’t know you could jump a shark in a chair like that! Modern science wow!
Wow! It’s sort of a perpetual motion machine gone high-tech. I certainly wouldn’t want it any place where I had to watch it and be reminded of its message all the time, but it’s quite striking.
It’s not really much different from the medieval sun-dials and clocks that bore warnings to make good use of the time because it was running out on you with every moment of your existence. In fact, I live in a town where the clock on the Cathedral bears a reminder, in Latin, that the hours are fleeting and we will all have to account for how we have used them.
Thanks for the links, it’s really interesting to see it in action.
Thank you- funniest picture I’ve seen in awhile. And I’m in a wheelchair, by the way.
Speaking of sundails, from this morning's wired:
Burlington, Vermont - September 19, 2008
You'd be hard pressed to complain about this classroom, but that's exactly the role this site served Friday. More than a dozen students gathered to learn about the seasons and the sun. These granite stones form the Burlington Earth Clock-- a display marking the cycle of the seasons. It was erected on Burlington's waterfront two years ago by a group called Circles For Peace.
"The reason that we've put the Burlington Earth Clock here is to benefit the community and enrich children's lives by having field trips down here. We really want to design a curriculum that's based in art, math, science and history," explained Heather Robinson, of Circles for Peace.
And part of that will include an 8-inch thick, 6-foot wide granite sundial in the center. It's due to arrive late next month, so a make-shift plywood model fills the bill on this day. Visitors can stand in the center and let their shadows tell time.
"I think it's cool," said Joe Handy, a St. Albans student. "I think you can learn a lot from it-- the way it's built, big chunks of rock. You know, it's cool."
It's cool, but it's costly. The project has been funded by donations only and they're still in need of more money.
"We have raised thus far $65,000 of our $80,000 budget for this piece-- the second phase of our project-- and then we intend to go on and raise more funds and do the educational piece," Robinson said.
Robinson says they'll develop a curriculum for grades kindergarten through 12th grade. They already have teachers interested in the program. But for now, they'll focus on fundraising and getting that giant granite centerpiece in the ground before winter.
Tempus fugit, non autem memoria.
Visitors can stand in the center and let their shadows tell time
Why thats just so COOL! Who ever thought that up must be a real genius and its such a green idea too!
/s
Sorry. The “geewhiz” crap gets to me sometimes. Its like these people invented sundials for pete’s sakes....for the cheelrens, of course. Part of that multicultural cumbayah nonsense that exhalts the mundane to heroic so that Mohandjob doesn’t feel bad for wiping his behind with rocks....
nvm
Westlander, you ought to be ashamed of yourself...LMAO!!!
Can you put the head of Einstein on the grasshopper?
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