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Here's a great little video on the two World's Largest Original Cuckoo Clock... http://dw.de/p/19XrR

Here's a very interesting mechanism - especially the singing bird device. You can see a better video below and can hear the birds chirping. The clock was recently built by a retired hydrogeologist Richard Pim , who spent his long career bringing water to arid farmlands in Saudi Arabia and Nepal. [via Daily Mail ]

Here's a great video. Beautiful clock! A description of an E. Howard and Co. Clock Tower Clock (anchor escapement) and how it functions by breaking down the mechanism into 4 categories and explaining each section. The clock is at the First Congregational Church in Williamstown, MA.

We've been watching the restoration and re-installation of our founder Karl Schleutermann's giant cuckoo clock in Sugarcreek, Ohio. Sugarcreek Mayor Clayton Wellery, left, and Freeman Mullet line up the clock house of the large cuckoo clock that is being set in the intersection of Main and Broadway Streets in Sugarcreek on Wednesday, May 30, 3012. The wooden clock measures more than 23 feet tall, 24 feet wide and 13 feet deep, and is one of the world's largest cuckoo clocks. (AP Photo/The Times Reporter, Jim Cummings) Read more: http://www.kitsapsun.com/photos/2012/may/31/301088/#ixzz1ww9AWtYJ

I finally had a chance to see the movie " Hugo " which is a film adaptation of Brian Selznick's book - which we've had on our reading list here for a long time. Best Movie Of All Time? Probably not, but definitely worth the watch (pun intended) for any clock nuts (and Clockworkpunks)! I loved the shots of Hugo's dad working on the two Orrerys. Did you see our NEW Orrery by the way?

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 ...

Here's a fantastic video of the 600th anniversary of the Prague Astronomical clock. From The Long Now Blog : BB reader Kerray says, “The people who worked on it are themacula.com, duber.cz and michalkotek.com, and the projection itself was done by avmedia.cz. Four months of work, 5000×1200 resolution, 2x Christie 18K HD projectors.” . Fantastic! This is a must see. There are all kinds of symbolic visuals on the passage of time. The 600 Years from the macula on Vimeo .

I thought it might be interesting to draw up a timeline for the developments in horology and time. I've mined some of the better information from Wikipedia to put together this snapshot of horological inventions and discoveries. 12,000 - 30,000 BCE (BC) - Artifacts from the Paleolithic that suggest measurements of the moon's motion. From Wikipedia : Lunar calendars were among the first to appear, with all years having twelve lunar months (approximately 354 days). Without intercalation to add days or months to some years, seasons quickly drift in a calendar based solely on twelve lunar months. Lunisolar calendars have a thirteenth month added to some years to make up for the difference between a full year (now known to be about 365.24 days) and a year of just twelve lunar months. The numbers twelve and thirteen came to feature prominently in many cultures, at least partly due to this relationship of months to years. 2600 - 2400 BCE - Stonehenge 3 II From Wikipedia : The timbe...

From the BBC : Work is being carried out on the tower that houses Big Ben to repair damage to the clock's faces. The glass faces are set in an iron frame on St Stephen's Tower, which is part of the Houses of Parliament, in central London. Maintenance manager Mike McCann spoke to the BBC to explain how the famous monument is kept in perfect condition. There's a little movie after the link!

There are still a few master clockmakers in the USA. This fine piece with gravity escapement was made for the collector at Orchestrion Hall (mentioned in my last post ) by the Balzer Family Clockworks in Freeport, Maine. Take a look at their website... there is a dizzying display of one-of-a-kind restoration and craftsmanship.

A few days ago, my Twitter followers may be been slightly mystified by my Tweets about finding hidden treasures in Baltimore. I had the inestimable pleasure of seeing a private collection of clocks, mechanical musical instruments, old fans, lamps, and more... all very rare and very interesting. The tower clock collection was particularly impressive. The house was fitted with several tower clock dials on the outside. I've gone down that street many years and never looked up to notice them. There is even a dragon outside that strikes a bell with his tail. On the inside, there were some large tower clock movements (like the one pictured above) with slots cut in the floor below them so that the pendulum could swing in the room below. I did a reblog post a few weeks ago from a Steampunk site about old tower clock towers being converted into apartments - but those places didn't have clocks in them. There were several tower clocks, most with 3-legged gravity escapements . The wh...

There were a couple of interesting posts over at The Steampunk Home Blog about apartments built inside clock towers... From architect Michael R Davis' website : The The Clock on Old Fulton Street in Brooklyn Heights is a 1,200 square foot loft located in an Italianate storage building built in 1892 on the site of the Brooklyn Eagle Newspaper once edited by Walt Whitman. The most obviously striking feature in the apartment is the 10-foot glass and iron clock face, which serves as the living room window. Related posts: Wild World of Clockmakers What is Steampunk?