Community Stories

My wife asked me how my day has gone.

wagudc
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pdxleaf pdxleaf
Those old tower clock automatics never did catch on...


(Come on, I couldn't have been the only one.)


Those only work in California, not enough seismic activity to recharge the spring elsewhere.
 
Canuck
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Or Harold Lloyd. There is a video somewhere which shows the wizardry involved in making that picture. Lloyd was perfectly safe!

2862DFDC-AC52-41FF-B70A-0A208415AD66.jpeg
 
JimInOz
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Canuck Canuck
@JimInOz . The rate at which chime or striking clocks “bong” is governed by those paddles. By turning the paddles full broadside, the striking can be made to slow down. Turn them 90° so they are not broadside to the air, and the clock would “bong” unreasonably fast. This clock uses a double three -legged Gravity escapement (as on the one in the Parliament Buildings at Westminster, erroneously called “Big Ben”) Which requires the use of a second, smaller fan as shown in the pictures you uploaded. Thanks for putting that article up. That's the very clock.

I take it that when you complete tuning the clock the blades will be at the same angle (both adjusted for rate), and not as they had been placed in the display.

Edit: Just checked your photo. At least they seemed to have got that right.
 
mydeafcat
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I look forward to my next trip back home to see it up close. This proud Calgarian thanks you, @Canuck. They did a mighty fine job with the restoration, and you delivered the final polish. Chapeau, Sir.
Edited:
 
Zapatta
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"..and was guaranteed to run within a variation of 10 seconds per month." 😲
 
Canuck
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JimInOz JimInOz
I take it that when you complete tuning the clock the blades will be at the same angle (both adjusted for rate), and not as they had been placed in the display.

Edit: Just checked your photo. At least they seemed to have got that right.

You are referring to the picture where the clock is on display in the atrium of our municipal building. That was after the City crew re-assembled it, but before it was set up in the clock tower. The blades were haphazard, and that is wrong. The clock was then dismantled again so it could be moved from the atrium, and the pieces moved to the clock tower, and re-assembled again. The clock is now in the cupola, and the blades are now positioned as they are shown in the first picture in this thread, the terrible one I took with my cell phone camera. They’ll stay that way. The challenge now is for me to find out what someone did WRONG! At present it is 12:30 A M MDT, and no report. When I get up on Saturday morning, I expect there will be a report as to whether it is still running, or do we go back at it on Monday! Right now, my dilemma is that I have members of the City crew in the cupola, with me. I have to contend with, “I wonder if we try this”, or “I wonder if we try that”. Or “Do you suppose it is this”.

They were lubricating the clock with 40-weight oil, in a clock room that is -10 degrees Celsius! First mistake! The cables on the time side are double compounded, and they were tangled! Second mistake! The pivots on the gravity arms were binding. Third mistake. The clutch on the escape wheel governor fan was far too tight, Fourth mistake! The fellow in the U S who did the work on the clock was supposed to come here and re-assemble it. With COVID, you know where that went. He can’t come! So stay tuned for the next chapter.
 
yande
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Canuck Canuck
Well, it’s a long story. ..... I looked after this clock from 1992 until 2010. I wasn’t about to call and offer my services because I have NO use for City bureaucracy! My plan was to wait until they called ME! They called me out of desperation, on Tuesday of this week....

Sounds like there is a bit more to this story. I wish you the very best, which sounds like what City Hall needed at the beginning. The "Very Best"
 
Canuck
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Zapatta Zapatta
"..and was guaranteed to run within a variation of 10 seconds per month." 😲

In 1910, there was no such thing as synchronous electric wall clocks. In 1910, there were no battery clocks. It would not be practical to have the (then) 22 mechanical clocks in the City Hall building, all telling their own time. So the clocks in the City Hall building were slave clocks which took an impulse from the tower clock which used a mercury switch to trip every minute, to send an impulse to the slave clocks. So all the clocks kept the same time. The mercury switch mechanism is still there, but it is no longer used.
 
Canuck
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chunkythebulldog chunkythebulldog
A squirt of WD40 should fix it

I’ll shoot the b _ _ _ _ r that gets anywhere near that clock with W D 40. One of the crew who worked on it before I was called, suggested we just add more weight to the time side, to force the clock to run!
 
Canuck
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Saturday morning. Having heard no word re: the tower clock, I drove downtown to check it out. It was set on Friday at 1:00 pm. At 11:35 this morning, running and on time. Might be a bit premature to crow about it, but I am encouraged!
 
Marsimaxam
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Thank you for sharing... a beautiful clock and a beautiful building. The city owes you a debt of gratitude.
 
RonJ
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I'm surprised the local politicians didn't ask you the question: "While you're in there making some minor clock adjustments, can you add a co-axial upgrade to its movement?".

.
 
Canuck
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Marsimaxam Marsimaxam
Thank you for sharing... a beautiful clock and a beautiful building. The city owes you a debt of gratitude.

Skip the gratitude! I’ll take the money. The fellow who contacted me asking for help to make the clock run, has spent two months trying to make it run! I’ve managed to make it run in just three days! I’d love to have the salary he has earned in the past two months!
 
Walrus
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Damn that is pretty cool. I understand you are benefiting from this financially which well you should but the fact you are involved in something that had such history and meaning to the town is pretty damn cool. For a number of years I was involved in mechanical work for a mayor US company. There was something satisfying about finishing a project and immediately seeing the results that everything was running fine. I think that is a cool what you are doing. When I read your post I was wondering why something repaired would be sent back disassembled but the I saw your pictures and realized it’s not like you can just hang it up and be done with it. By the time that clock is running right the town residents will probably be paying higher property taxes but at least they will know what time it is. They should have saved some money and bought everyone in the town an invicta
 
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