Date Posted:10:50:48 06/15/09 Mon Author: Glenn Holle Subject: Re: Tech Trivia Question No. 18 In reply to:
Randall K. Wilson (1970)
's message, "Tech Trivia Question No. 18" on 18:59:11 06/07/09 Sun
The rest of the story...
It is my engineering guess that the clock was wound by an electric motor by 1939 which allowed it to be accomplished so quickly. I doubt winding could have been done that fast manually... unless 10,000 gerbils in a cylinder were used.
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Re: Tech Trivia Question No. 18 -- Mike Mullis 1968, 14:34:06 06/20/09 Sat
Decided to do a G search. Found the following clock info:
"The clock works, enclosed in a glass case on the sixth floor of the tower, are wound by hand, taking four to five minutes to wind. The heavy weights extend down two stories through a shaft. The clock was installed July 6, 1867. A huge bell is mounted on the tower. The clock faces are six feet in diameter. The hands have been replaced twice: the first two sets were of wood; the last of metal.
This Arsenal clock was the clock-setter for residents of Woodruff Place. Once, when the clock stopped, workmen found that a Yellow Hammer had become entangled in one of the wheels. When the bell began ringing again, neighbors were heard to remark, "It was like getting a letter from home."
In 1979, while working with the campus electrician, Don Yarnell, it was my weekly responsibility to climb those creeky ole stairs to wind the clock.
Those scary, leaning, stairs led me back in time. But even back then, we used a very large electric drill motor to do the winding. I think a handle hung on the wall inside the glass enclosure.
I recall the stair climb more than the number of turns.
