John Taylor’s Corpus Clock, aka the Chronophage, or ‘time eater’, is an impressive looking beast of a clock that was made as a tribute to eighteenth-century clockmaker John Harrison’s grasshopper escapement, a low-friction mechanism for converting pendulum motion into rotational motion.
Despite it’s massive size (over 1.5 meters in diameter) the Corpus Clock’s inner workings are all mechanically controlled, including the world’s largest grasshopper escapement that adorns the top. Electricity does power an electric motor, which winds the clock, and blue LEDs which light up the hours, minutes, and seconds, but the blinking eye, moving mouth, swinging hands and everything else you see is all old-school mechanical.
Another interesting element of the clock is that it’s only accurate once every five minutes. The rest of the time, the pendulum can stop, the lights can lag, and then everything can race to catch up, symbolizing life’s “irregularity”. Despite this irregularity though, the clock is expected to stay accurate for the next 200 years or more.
At a cost of over one million pounds, this solid 24-karat gold clock definitely wasn’t cheap, and it took over five years for the two hundred people involved in the making of the clock to get everything put together, but if you’re going to design the world’s strangest clock, no one ever said it was going to be easy.
Then you’re probably the type of person that would like the SomethingStore, a website that sends you “something, an item selected randomly among many things from our inventory, for $10 (free shipping) and you will find out what your something is when you receive it”.
What could this something be?
It may be something you need, something you want or something you desire. (Though it also may be total crap.)
Yours may be a cool gadget, rare book, table game, handmade necklace, reverse clock, box of gourmet chocolates, set of shiny shower curtains, popular video game, big-box retailer gift card, the latest version of a software, a set of kitchen knives, a pair of designer jeans, garden tool, kitchen appliance, unique home decor item, electronic equipment, magazine subscription, office supply item, or…
Your something will most likely be brand new, though it may also be refurbished or antique.
So SomethingStore can send you anything?
Well, besides “items or services that are illegal to trade in United States”, yes!
If you want your watch to do a bit of everything, then check out the HT2 from Timberland.
The watch features analog and digital clocks, an altimeter, a thermometer, a barometer, an analog and a digital compass, a chronograph, and a tachymeter.
Plus, according to Timberland, “it is reasonably lightweight and feels great on the wrist”.
Furni, the clock (and furniture) design company, wants you to show them your skills, and is giving you clock guts to do it with.
To take part in the design competition, just order one of their clock parts kits, build a box to house them in, and then show off your stuff. The winner might even see their design in the next Furni collection.
Regardless of the result, you’ll at least end up with a clock that no one else has (though there’s probably a reason you’re not a professional clock designer), and the pride of knowing that you made something with your bare hands. It’s clock time.
If you have a day off this Memorial Day weekend, or if you are just looking for something to do, why not take on a project? To inspire you, I’ve put together five ideas that are (relatively) simple, (relatively) easy, and (relatively) cheap, and should be doable during the next few days (hopefully).
1) The Twilight [...]
Last week’s Stockpile Saturday was a success, so this week, I’m bringing you 20 more links that I’ve been saving for some time now. Enjoy.
The Amateur Gourmet is a great food blog that does the occasional review in comic book style. It’s a refreshing look at alternative ways of displaying content.
[The Amateur Gourmet: Chutzpah, Truffles [...]
John Taylor’s Corpus Clock, aka the Chronophage, or ‘time eater’, is an impressive looking beast of a clock that was made as a tribute to eighteenth-century clockmaker John Harrison’s grasshopper escapement, a low-friction mechanism for converting pendulum motion into rotational motion.
Furni, the clock (and furniture) design company, wants you to show them your skills, and is giving you clock guts to do it with.
