[HN Gopher] Corpus Clock ___________________________________________________________________ Corpus Clock Author : Hooke Score : 91 points Date : 2021-06-02 15:45 UTC (7 hours ago) (HTM) web link (en.wikipedia.org) (TXT) w3m dump (en.wikipedia.org) | jkire wrote: | Directly behind it is the student library, with an echoey three | story tall open space [1] (why would you design a library like | that?!). When you're there at 2am you can hear the chains | dropping and hitting the coffin on the hour, which is not at all | terrifying... | | [1] A terrible picture of the space, where the back of the clock | would be on the left: | https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e1/9b/1c/e19b1c997dc06c45e8b9... | Silhouette wrote: | Questionable library design is something of a speciality in | Cambridge. Ask the lawyers... | blibble wrote: | videos of it don't really do it justice | | definitely worth seeing if you're in the area (though it's right | on King's Parade so you would anyway!) | shirleyquirk wrote: | I worked with the artist who designed and built the sculptural | parts of this clock: Matt Sanderson. His page on the clock is | here: http://www.sanderson-sculpture.com/projects/millenium- | clock/ | johtso wrote: | My immediate thought was a morbid clock that used a live insect | to measure they time. Once the creature dies you know that a | certain amount of time has passed. | fanf2 wrote: | Here's a bit of clock-related JS animation I did many years ago, | which helps to explain how the LED hands work on the Corpus | chronophage clock: | | https://dotat.at/random/clock.html | | more words on my blog: | | https://fanf.dreamwidth.org/93037.html | | I also wrote some notes on a talk given by John Taylor on how he | made the Corpus clock | | https://fanf.dreamwidth.org/96948.html | | The Wikipedia page asserts that the clock is purely mechanical, | without any computer programming, but I believe (based on what | Taylor said in his talk) that the clock has a computerized | regulator which makes it tick erratically, and keeps it synced to | the MSF radio time signal. But Taylor is _very_ cagy about it, | saying he prefers the clock's weirdness to be mysterious. | | (if you have an electric kettle, it's very likely the element / | switch / thermostat were made by Strix, John Taylor's company) | | of course the video link in my blog post 12.5 years ago is now | broken but it might well have been the same as this video blurb | from John Taylor on YouTube | | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHO1JTNPPOU | abecedarius wrote: | It's a bit surprising that this was invented so recently, when | the basic idea of the dial ought to work mechanically. (When I | had that idea I searched for "vernier clock" and that was how I | first heard of this one.) | hangonhn wrote: | In case anyone is interested in the history of watchmaking, etc. | there's a great book titled Longitude: | https://www.amazon.com/Longitude-Genius-Greatest-Scientific-... | | An accurate marine chronometer was necessary for reliable | navigation in order to calculate one's longitude. It turned out | to be an incredibly difficult problem that was ultimately solved | by John Harrison, who invented the Grasshopper escapement, which | the Grasshopper Clock uses. | | I think some of us will find Harrison to be very relatable -- | more hacker than scientist and never satisfied with his work. He | kept coming out with new and improved versions even after he won | the Royal Society's prize, IIRC. | xenocratus wrote: | In Our Time podcast had a great episode on this really | recently: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000vyn6 Great | stuff! | berlinquin wrote: | Beat me to it... | | I just finished Longitude and it was a great read! Harrison is | an interesting character since he really spent his whole life | working on the same problem of keeping time at sea. A whole lot | of perseverance. | bluenose69 wrote: | I agree with your recommendation of Dava Sobel's book. I | recommend it to many of my (science) students, as either (a) a | present for a family member who has an interest in science, | navigation, history, etc. or (b) a hint that students can give | to family members who want to give them a gift. | | Many of these students have told me how much they enjoyed the | book, and none have told me the reverse. | | Undergrads can be a tough audience, so this reception is a very | good recommendation for this book. And this is not the only | engaging book Sobel has written ... I would recommend any of | them. | jonny_eh wrote: | There was a great PBS series made based on that book: | https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/longitude/ | | (That site is 23 years old!) | axiomdata316 wrote: | Lol! Purchasing this book was the very first online purchase I | ever made from a very cool new upstart online bookstore called | Amazon. <- Funny name I think. Not sure if it will stick | around... | wjdp wrote: | Huh always thought because of the blue LEDs it was electronic and | dismissed it as "nice but would have been better if mechanical", | turns out it it's actually a feat of mechanical clockmaking. | gmiller123456 wrote: | Here's a video showing a grasshopper escapement in motion: | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TBWJC0HYRE | quickthrowman wrote: | This looks a lot cooler in motion than a lever escapement, | thanks for the link! | jagrsw wrote: | From https://youtu.be/cCqGtvTA36k?t=58 | | "the clock ... depicts time as a wave coming out from the center | of the universe". | | I see some liberal handling of scientific lingo here :). | tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: | The article does a terrible job explaining it. | | The LEDs are apparently permanently lit, with overlapping slits | ensuring that only the correct ones are visible. | berlinquin wrote: | The grasshopper escapement was invented by John Harrison, who | built the first clocks that could keep time at sea. These were | used to calculate Longitude. There's a nice short biography | called Longitude that covers his story. | tzs wrote: | To elaborate a bit, the significance of that was that without | accurate clocks navigators could only reliably figure out their | latitude at sea. | | Imagine if you are trying to navigate to some far away island | that is southwest of your starting position. If you tried to | sail the direct route, when you reached the correct latitude | you would have no idea if you are east of the island or west of | the island. | | Instead, you'd have to sail south or mostly south until you got | to the right latitude, then sail west until you reached the | island. This could be a much longer journey. | | Even if you are going for something much bigger than an island, | like a particular port on a continent, not knowing longitude | made it difficult. Say you are going from Spain to someplace in | South America. Unlike the island example above, you might think | you can just try for the shortest route because if you end up | too far west when you reach the right latitude, you'll at least | be able to find the coast of the continent and come down that. | | But that coastal territory might belong to Spain's enemies who | might not take kindly to a Spanish ship in their waters without | permission. To avoid that risk, you have to do just like you | would do in the island case--go south until you are at the | right latitude and then go west. | | A practical and reliable way to find longitude at sea was seen | as something that would confer major economic and military | advantages to any country that had it over those that did not, | and so governments provided funding and prizes and other | incentives to encourage development of a solution. | mhb wrote: | Video of clock with narration by inventor: | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCqGtvTA36k ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-06-02 23:01 UTC)