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Here's a great video from the VdS (Black Forest Clock Association) These are advance techniques for adjusting and fine-tuning your music box mechanism. Please be sure to pay careful attention to the video when making any adjustments, and remember that ALL of these adjustments should be VERY VERY small. All wire-bending and tweaking should be done a hair's width at a time. Be careful not to force anything or to bend anything too far.

From playdrmom : "Honor has been quite interested in cuckoo clocks. Also, one of her favorite songs is “Tick tock tick tock. I’m a little cuckoo clock. Tick tock tick tock. Now I’m striking one o’clock.” So, when asked what she wanted to be for Halloween … she said “a cuckoo clock”." Click through to the website for instructions! I know what my son will dress up as next year!

As always, we're scouring the internets to find you the most interesting postings of fascinating automata! [via Kugelbahn ] [via io9 ]

The book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick has been on our reading list for quite some time (Take a look at the other titles while you're at it... just on the side bar of the blog ) So, it's great to see that Martin Scorsese has made a movie! This is Steampunk and Clockworkpunk gone mainstream!

From New Scientist : "Clocks that gain or lose no more than a fraction of a second over the lifetime of the universe could be on the way, thanks to a technique for cutting through the "heat haze" that compromises the accuracy of today's instruments. The most accurate atomic clock we have now is regulated by the electrons of a single aluminium ion as they move between two different orbits with sharply defined energy levels. When an electron goes from the higher energy level to the lower it emits radiation of a precise frequency. That frequency is used to mark out time to an accuracy of better than 1 part in 1017, or 1 second in 3 billion years. That's pretty good, but it could be better. Infrared photons emanating from the background cause the two energy levels to shift by slightly different amounts..." [via io9 ]

We've been silent for a while, so here's a bunch of news from the world of clocks to catch up a bit... [from AdaFruit ] [from Automata Blog ] [from Makezine ] [from Automata Blog ]

From the Blackbird journal : Driven by a key-wound spring, the monk walks in a square, striking his chest with his right arm, raising and lowering a small wooden cross and rosary in his left hand, turning and nodding his head, rolling his eyes, and mouthing silent obsequies. From time to time, he brings the cross to his lips and kisses it. After over 400 years, he remains in good working order. Tradition attributes his manufacture to one Juanelo Turriano, mechanician to Emperor Charles V. The story is told that the emperor's son King Philip II, praying at the bedside of a dying son of his own, promised a miracle for a miracle, if his child be spared. And when the child did indeed recover, Philip kept his bargain by having Turriano construct a miniature penitent homunculus. [via Boing Boing ]

“This machine is so much of an ORRERY, as is sufficient to shew [sic] the different lengths of days and nights, the vicissitudes of the seasons, the retrograde motion of the nodes of the Moon’s orbit, the direct motion of the apogeal point of her orbit, and the months in which the Sun and Moon must be eclipsed.” - James Ferguson, 1764 This is an interpretation of an orrery built by the Scottish Astronomer James Ferguson in 1750. The original does not survive, but there is much information about it in Ferguson's writings. We've posted about Ferguson and his Orrery before , and you can read more information about it at our /museum page. Watch this space! And you'll see a lot more about these fascinating little devices.

From Watching Horology : The Hour Glass Atelier at ION is showcasing from the 13th to the 19th of July a complete set of four white gold Pour Le Merites. The PLMs are the jewel in Lange's crown but the fourth iteration is larger and seemingly different in its DNA from its previous three - shown here.

Mike Simpson shows off his Civil War-era cuckoo clock at the National Archives at Atlanta in Morrow. He plans to bring the clock to "Civil War Treasures in Your Nation's Attic, " an "Antiques Roadshow"-like event that will be filmed April 16 at the National Archives at Atlanta. From Access Atlanta : Michael Simpson has a clock. It was made by the American Cuckoo Clock Co. of Philadelphia. With its fluted columns, the rosewood clock is reminiscent of a Greek temple. At its peak is a small door, no larger than a playing card, that pops open to reveal a tiny wooden bird, light blue with a dappled white breast. The clock has been in his family for more than a century. It was a gift to Aaron Simpson, who was barely more than a child when he joined a New Hampshire regiment as its drummer boy. He went off to war, came back and was presented with a handsome clock from his father, no doubt relieved that the youngster made it through the conflict intact.   Unlike ...

A show about a clock factory! ...also, check out the water clock!

[via Make ]

Here's an interesting piece from io9 : Cuckoos don't bother building their own nests - they just lay eggs that perfectly mimic those of other birds and take over their nests. But other birds are wising up, evolving some seriously impressive tricks to spot the cuckoo eggs.  Cuckoos are what's known as brood parasites, meaning they hide their eggs in the nests of other species. To avoid detection, the cuckoos have evolved so that their eggs replicate those of their preferred targets. If the host bird doesn't notice the strange egg in its nest, the newly hatched cuckoo will actually take all the nest for itself, taking the other eggs on its back and dropping them out of the nest.   To avoid this nasty fate for their offspring, the other birds have evolved a few nifty ways to spot the fakes, which we're only now beginning to fully understand. One of the most intriguing finds is that birds have an extra color-sensitive cell in their retinas, which makes them far more s...

The clock tower seems to be modeled after the Prague Clock. [via Automaton Blog ]

We've had The Invention of Hugo Cabret on our reading list for a while now. Good news is that Martin Scorcese is working on a movie adaptation! It's a story about a mechanical automaton, and a loose narrative on the life of Georges Méliès. [via io9 ]

From Space.com : The massive earthquake that struck northeast Japan Friday (March 11) has shortened the length Earth's day by a fraction and shifted how the planet's mass is distributed. A new analysis of the 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan has found that the intense temblor has accelerated Earth's spin, shortening the length of the 24-hour day by 1.8 microseconds, according to geophysicist Richard Gross at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Gross refined his estimates of the Japan quake's impact – which previously suggested a 1.6-microsecond shortening of the day – based on new data on how much the fault that triggered the earthquake slipped to redistribute the planet's mass. A microsecond is a millionth of a second. "By changing the distribution of the Earth's mass, the Japanese earthquake should have caused the Earth to rotate a bit faster, shortening the length of the day by about 1.8 microseconds," Gross told SPACE.com in a...

[via Adafruit ]

The Badisches Landmuseum at Karlsruhe has an excellent website where you can listen to some exceptionally rare and fascinating mechanical musical instruments and musical clocks. Here you can listen to a Musical cabinet by the Veith-Langenbucher company, Augsburg, circa 1620... or an Elephant Clock, c. 1760, Clock case: Antoine Foullet, Mechanism: Tibeauville-Lamy... or an Apollo Clock, c. 1780... or a Chest with Flute Mechanism, c. 1804, Davrainville workshop, Paris. The website has this to say about the Musical Chest: After Napoleon was crowned Emperor he is said to have commissioned this model and given it to the Duchess of Bordeaux. The metal pin roller, also known asa cob, has eight melodies by Joseph Haydn which he specifically composed for this mechanical instrument. I wish there were better pictures available to post, but the sound files are definitely worth checking out!

This is a beautiful piece that deserves to be blogged about: From The British Museum : Description Automaton in the form of a 'nef' or ship table ornament. Gilded brass hull with embossed decoration of the sea with waves and monsters. Three masts with yard arms carrying furled cloth sails. At the top of each mast a metal pennant. Wire rigging ropes and waxed thread ratlines. On the main deck eight figures each with a sword. A small clock is mounted at the base of the main mast, showing hours and minutes on a silver dial with coloured enamel floral motifs In the crows' nests of the main mast sailors strike the hours and quarters on inverted bells. Beneath the main mast heralds and Electors automatically process before an Emperor seated beneath a canopy with a double-headed eagle of the Holy Roma Empire. On the rear deck, two painted figures with swords. The bowsprit contains a wheel-lock canon which fired automatically. A further ten cannons are arranged around the hull. Wit...

Here's a beautiful image, by Todd Mclellan , of a vintage alarm clock - all apart. From GraphicHug : Todd Mclellan has been creating compelling images ever since his days in kindergarten fingerpainting class. Check out more on his site, plus a video !

James Ferguson (1710-1776) is known for designing orreries , or mechanical models of the Solar System. He was greatly admired by our national hero, and contemporary Thomas Jefferson and the staff at Monticello recently completed a beautiful reproduction of one of Ferguson's models. Check out our /museum pages for more information on the history of timekeeping, and similar mechanics. Check out more information on the great Monticello Blog! [Thanks to Charles Morrill.]

I was interested to know more about the big cuckoo clock that Kellogg's is entering for a Guinness World Records® holder. The cuckoo clock will kick off Kellogg's It's Morning Somewhere campaign. I found this news report that shows some pics of the clock, although it's still a little hard to see details of what the clock is. Is it wood? Does it tell time? Does it have a cuckoo bird that comes out and moves? You can learn more from the Facebook videos here . It looks like the clock does tell time, there is a sound of a cuckoo bird, but I haven't seen one come out yet - instead, they have celebrities coming out of the door at the top. It definitely doesn't look like it's weight-driven or mechanical. I don't see any bellows. Still, a cute idea - and we love to see more cuckoo clocks around!

We just got an update from our news correspondent covering the beat in Battle Creek, Michigan. Kellogg's is starting a new advertising campaign called, "It's Morning Somewhere!" Part of their new promotion involves the construction of the next World's Largest Cuckoo Clock. They're planning a cuckoo clock that will be 66-feet tall and 28-feet wide and is being considered for a Guinness World Records® Record. From the Kellogg's website : The Kellogg's® Crunchy Nut™ cuckoo clock will feature a rich, dark-wood facade and many of the traditional elements of a cuckoo clock, including an outer face with Roman numerals, a shingled roof with eaves and doors from which the Kellogg's® Crunchy Nut™ cuckoo clock character will emerge. Additional elements include decorative accoutrements, such as tree leaves and wood branches, pine-cone-shaped weights and a pendulum in the shape of a spoon. "To bring this iconic brand to the U.S., we wanted a symbol that ...

We were glad to see a great post on CLOCKS on Martha Stewart's website , by designer Kevin Sharkey. His blog post includes a great idea of stenciling a clock directly on his wall: He also has some pictures of a few cuckoo clocks, some are almost as interesting as our /design series...

Embroidery and knitting are experiencing a resurgence in popularity - especially among young people. We were glad to see that the cuckoo clock theme is included in this fun! It would be great to see something with a real cuckoo clock movement. If you're out there crafters, let us know if you'll accept the challenge! Make a knitted or embroidered, or otherwise stitched cuckoo with a bird that comes out and calls. [via Little Dear Tracks ]

"Memento Mori" is a reminder of mortality. Our " All Are Mine " clock is an excellent modern example that is the result of a long tradition of clockmaker artisans who remind us that life is short, and all things must pass. This clock tells us a story. In the upper left part of the clock, you'll see a rich man (with his bags of money and fine suit). Just above the 12:00 position, there is a carving of a king, and to his right there is a carved figure of a monk. Underneath the dial are carved representations of the young and the old; and at the bottom you can see the world. The clock bears the inscription, Alle sind mein , or "All Are Mine." Whether you are a rich person, royalty, a man of the church, young and old, all around the world, Death will eventually come to collect you. At the top, astride the foliott balance, the personification of the End of Life swings to collect his harvest. Along with my previous post , here are more very fine exam...

Here's a very interesting piece that recently sold at the Antiquorum Auctions . Perfect for all of you Steampunks and Goths, this piece is nearly 400 years old! This is a very interesting fusee with chain, verge escapement, and plain steel two-arm balance without spring. From the Watchismo Blog : During the first minute, the skull's expression seems to smile, the second minute it seems to laugh, the next appears to scream and finally, the jaws snap shut, as if the skull were trying to bite something. At the same time, one of the snakes slowly sinks back down into one of the eye sockets, while the other slowly comes out of the other eye, before retracting suddenly, as the first snake again springs out from its eye-socket. And to view the time, just open up the skull cap! It sold recently for $135,000. Designed & built in 1610 by Nicolaus Schmidt der Junger (Augsburg, Germany) as a skull set on two crossed shinbones and mounted on a gilt brass tripod, the hinged skull cap (r...

There's a charming story at the Springfield Illinois State Journal-Register . A very nice turn-of-the-Century Bahnhäusle hangs on the wall of its maker's grandson. From the State Journal-Register : Charles Neuner was a craftsman and jeweler who emigrated from Germany to Springfield permanently in 1905. His shop, Neuner’s Reliable Jewelers, (slogan: “Gifts That Last Will Always Be Remembered”) was at 124 N. Fifth St. [in Springfield] until his death in 1954. Back in Germany, Charles worked for a German clock company. He handmade a cuckoo clock that he brought with him to Springfield. The clock was on the wall of the home on North Second Street where Charles and his wife, Pauline, lived.

Nemo Gould does some beautiful and interesting work in automata. You can watch him document his creations on his blog. [Via target="_blank">Nemomatic]

Here's a nice watch going up on the block at Bonhams auction. Eternamatic: An 18ct gold automatic calendar wristwatch The signed silvered dial with applied gilt baton hour markers, gilt hands with sweep centre seconds hand and date aperture, 21-jewel Cal:1466U automatic movement, polished round case with screw on back, fitted associated leather strap, dial diameter 3.4cm. A nice, classic design, and very similar to our 1966 model, or our Yaroslavl model watches.

Here's a great post from Instructables on how to set the time and chime on an old w 1217 Hermle movement. This German-made movement was a pioneer in bringing a "real-sounding" chime to a quartz movement. If your older clock has one of these movements, and it doesn't work, it's more cost-effective to replace it with a more modern mechanism. But, if you just need to set it, here are some good step-by-step instructions on how to do so. From Instructables : Top left are the STOP and START buttons. Three knobs along the left side are also buttons. A knob in the center sets the analog hands. Upper right corner has the Make (Hermle) and Model# (1217) Lower right is the battery compartment. - The STOP button stops the analog movement and resets all digital settings. - The START button begins keeping time after you're done setting the clock. - Knob 1 sets the time in the digital portion of the clock. Turn the knob to the number you wish to set and press it until you...

Should be interesting to any gearhead:

Have you heard about Boilerplate ? A fantastic historical discovery has been made! From Boilerplate's website : Boilerplate was a mechanical man developed by Professor Archibald Campion during the 1880s and unveiled at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Built in a small Chicago laboratory, Boilerplate was a prototype soldier built for "preventing the deaths of men in the conflicts of nations". Although it was the only such prototype, Boilerplate was eventually able to exercise its proposed function in several combat actions. Boilerplate embarked on a series of expeditions to demonstrate its abilities, the most ambitious being a voyage to Antarctica. Boilerplate is one of history's great ironies, a technological milestone that remains largely unknown. Note: Although we are reasonably sure that (overall) this blog is pretty factual, we definitely make no guarantees on this particular post :)

There's a great rundown of historical automata at Dark Roasted Blend . We've pictured many of these great devices on this blog before. I was glad to see the pooping duck, which I had previously only read about in Tom Standage's delightful book . [via Spiel und Kunst mit Mechanik ]