St Andrews Church Clock

 

The clock is housed in the nave of the St Andrews church in the pretty Cotswold village of Castle Combe, Wiltshire, England.

 History of the clock

 There are no known documents that show an exact date when the clock was manufactured, but it is of similar construction to the Exeter Cathedral clock, the Marston Magna clock in Somerset and the Cotehele clock in Cornwall. A comparison with those clocks makes it likely that it was constructed in the late 15th century.

 Sometime after 1670, the clock was converted from verge escapement and foliot to a pendulum. For the conversion, the clock was turned upside-down and the release mechanism for the hour strike was adapted to the new positioning of the clock.

 In 1984, the clock was taken down from the bell tower to the nave of the church, and put on a concrete plinth in a wooden cabinet with glass panes. The moving parts were painted a lurid bright orange, and a minute hand with a 180 degree dial was added. The manual winding spokes were removed and electric winders were installed for both the going and striking train. (Wikipedia)

 I’ve been working on this model off and on since the middle of December, 2022. It’s been made difficult by a lack of detailed images available on the web, my usual source for learning about the subjects of my models. So on our way to a Cornwall visit with my daughter, Thea, and her husband, Kevin, Susan and I stopped in Castle Combe where I had a chance to take my own photos. Hopefully with some help from people who are familiar with the mechanism, I’ be able to animate the model.

 #St_Andrews #church #clock #turret #Castle_Combe #Blender #Cycles

 

Gear Demo 1

 

I often use gears in my Blender models. This demo animation shows the relationship of three gears: one with 18 teeth, a second with 12 teeth and a third bird-cage gear with six bars. This arrangement produces a gear train with a ratio of rotation of three to one.

The animation has 360 frames and runs for 15 seconds at a rate 24 f/s. The rendering of these frames into images in Cycles render engine took about one and ½ hours. Modelling, animating, editing and rendering were all done using Blender 3.4.1

#gears #Blender #Cycles

The Russborough Turret Clock

On display at the Malahide Castle, County Dublin, Ireland, are the frame and movement of the mid-eighteenth century turret clock that originally ran the clock and sounded the bell in the bell tower of the Archway to the Russborough House, County Wicklow. In this century, Julian Cosby, a clock restorer, reassembled the jumbled parts from a cardboard box and it was cleaned and polished by the Russborough blacksmith, Michael Canlan. The clock works are known as a “side-by-side bird cage” clock due the wrought iron frame and two parallel gear trains, one for operating the hands of the clock and the other for ringing the bell.

The chiming train governs the ringing of the bell on the hour with a number chimes corresponding to the hour. Much of this mechanism is missing from reassembled clock. To build this model many photos and videos of other clocks of similar design and age were consulted. Accordingly, some of the details of parts and their arrangement may not exactly resemble the original, but their function is faithful to the original Russborough clock.

My thanks to Bill Anderson for sending me his photos of the clock. If you’d like more detailed information about the design and operation of clocks of this type, let me know and I’ll provide some links to sources that that helped me to understand them.

#Turret #tower #clock #Russborough #Blender #Cycles

Zeus UGV

Described by NIC Instruments Limited, its manufacturer, as a Modular Unmanned Ground Vehicle, light weight, portable and flexible. In its basic configuration it weighs around 40 Kg, it is 770 mm long with the arm folded and 465 mm wide. The three part arm is completely articulated and ends with gripping claw with its own camera. The arm can extend up to 1460 mm from the vehicle.  The Zeus has a top speed of three Kph, an 800 m operating range and a two-to-four hour mission length.

David White LT 8300 Theodolite

The theodolite was developed in the 18^th century to provide very accurate location of points in space, an essential tool for surveying and mapping. Wikipedia has a comprehensive article on theodolites history and use. This model is based on the David Whites Instrument Company’s LT 8300 model, probably made in the late 1930s by the company in Milwaukee, WI, USA.

#teodolite #level_transit #surveying #Blender Cycles

 

Pendulum Wall clock

This model is based on Brian Law’s Clock 9 plans: https://www.woodenclocks.co.uk/. I’ve made it before, but I wanted to try the project again with more experience and more advanced Blender software. While I’ve followed the plans fairly closely, I have used some artistic license and made some mechanical changes. In this animation, the model clock is running much faster than a real one would. At real clock speeds the movement of the minute hand wouldn’t be visible.

 # Clock #Brian_Law #Blender #Cycles

Mechanical Clock

 

This model is based on Brian Law’s Clock 9 plans: https://www.woodenclocks.co.uk/. I’ve made it before, but I wanted to try the project again with more experience and more advanced Blender software. While I’ve followed the plans fairly closely, I have used some artistic license and made some mechanical changes. The next step will be animating the clock.

 # Clock #Brian_Law #Blender #Cycles