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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 ]