Salisbury Cathedral Clock

 

Along with several others, the Salisbury Cathedral clock is claimed to be “the oldest working clock in the world”. The clock is dated from 1386 and was originally housed in a bell tower next to the cathedral itself. The bell tower was demolished in 1790 and the clock moved to the cathedral tower where it continued to operate until 1884. A new clock was contributed to the cathedral by the Wiltshire Army Regiment in 1884 and the old lock was left to gather dust until 1928 when it was “rediscovered” by horologist T. R. Robinson. In 1956 the clock was restored to its original condition and operation with a new verge and foliot (oscillating bar) escapement.

#Salisbury_Cathedral # oldest #clock #turret #Blender #Cycles

The Salisbury Cathedral Clock

 

Along with several others, the Salisbury Cathedral clock is claimed to be “the oldest working clock in the world”. The clock is dated from 1386 and was originally housed in a bell tower next to the cathedral itself. The bell tower was demolished in 1790 and the clock moved to the cathedral tower where it continued to operate until 1884. A new clock was contributed to the cathedral by the Wiltshire Army Regiment in 1884 and the old lock was left to gather dust until 1928 when it was “rediscovered” by horologist T. R. Robinson. In 1956 the clock was restored to its original condition and operation with a new verge and foliot (oscillating bar) escapement.

The clock mechanism is housed in a wrought iron frame 1.24 m high by 1.29 m wide. Viewed from the front, to going train (timekeeping) is on the right and the striking train is on the left. Each side is powered by a rotating drum attached through ropes and pulleys to stone weights. The speed of the going train rotation is governed by the verge and foliot escapement while the striking train rotation is controlled by the flywheel or air brake. As the clock only strikes on the hour, the striking train is locked for most of each hour. At the top of each hour a pin on the great wheel of the going train rotates the bar on the back of the clock that unlocks the great wheel of the striking train and allows the count wheel to control the number of strikes for that hour. Each strike is governed by the eight pins on the great wheel of the striking train, e.g. at four o’clock, the great wheel rotates through 180 degrees so that the striking lever is pulled up and released four times resulting in four chimes of the bell in the tower above. When the hour strike  is complete, the striking train is once again locked.

 #Salisbury_Cathedral # oldest #clock #turret #Blender #Cycles

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