Let us introduce you to the Corpus Clock, designed for the college of a similar name down Cambridge way to go outside their spanking new library building. The creation is a homage to one John Harrison, pioneer of Longitude, by a big fan of his, who’s ploughed £1m of his own money into it over the past 5 years!
The beast standing at the top of the 1.5 metre wheel is a Grasshopper, one from a fantasy sci-fi series it would appear but this represents a method called “Grasshopper escapement”, explained the creator of the clock Dr Taylor, and refers to the device used by Harrison to turn rotational motion into a pendulum motion for timekeeping.
As the grasshopper moves across the top of the circular timepiece it performs one of a number of animations to keep clock watchers completely transfixed.
Inside the casing are a number of LED’s which light up the appropriate “slit” in the hours, minute and second wheels and one the hour every hour a chain drops down onto a wooden coffin hidden behind the clock, according to Dr Taylor to remind us of our mortality…..
The clock is to be unveiled tomorrow by Prof Stephen Hawking.
