On Friday September 19th Corpus Christi College at Cambridge unveiled a wild clock by Dr. John Taylor (sponsored by Stephen Hawking). It is electrically powered, but uses a brilliant set of epicyclic mechanically phased vernier openings to cycle light around the dials to display seconds, minutes and hours. I think we should look at this idea to be used with focused sun light.
The escapement is quite literally based on Harrison’s grasshopper escapement, and actually personifies it in a giant stylized grasshopper automata on the top of the clock which “eats” the seconds as they go by. By chance I will be near Cambridge at the end of this week, and will certainly stop by to check it out. My wife is calling next week “our dorky clock tour of England”, we will be stopping by our Clock at the Science museum in London, and hopefully Big Ben, Stonehenge, and the Salisbury Cathedral Clock.
You can see more on this clock including a little internal tour with Dr. Taylor in the video below:
