Adjust your Cuckoo Clock Gong

If your cuckoo clock doesn't sound quite the same as those heard on our YouTube movies, the first thing you'll want to do is to check the position of your gong.

Before every cuckoo call, there is traditionally a gong that is struck by a mechanical hammer. This adds depth of sound to the cuckoo clock call. If your hammer is missing the gong, or if the hammer is too close to the gong, you might get a "sick" sounding cuckoo. This gong can be easily adjusted!



In the picture above, you can see the back of a cuckoo clock. There is a hole at the center of the back side through which you can see some black wires. This is the gong and the hammer. Seen from the inside, you can see the gong...



First, be sure that the packaging paper is removed from this spiral gong. Then, replace the back piece into it's slot. Check out our setup videos for more information on removing packaging and replacing the back piece.

After the back piece is set in place, you should be able to see both the hammer and the gong. The hammer should be positioned a few millimeters above the gong when at rest. If the hammer is too close, below, or caught behind the gong you won't have a healthy or resonant sound to your gong. You can carefully adjust this by moving the gong wire up or down so that the hammer is able to strike the gong properly. Be sure to move the gong VERY SLIGHTLY, up or down for maximum effect.



Be sure to check out our NEW index for tips and instructions for proper care of your clock!

Welcome to the Blogosphere Bill!

Our friend Bill Maier has recently started his own blog to document his impressive collection of rare, antique "Vienna" Regulator Timepieces. Here's a particularly stellar example from his collection:

Gilded bronze skeletonized laterndluhr by Fertbauer, C. 1810. Overall height 67". Seconds beating, knife edge suspension riding on a gimbal. The gimbal is held by two L shaped brackets through the front plate of the movement, typical Fertbauer design, sweep seconds with sub dials of minutes, hours, and date.

Stay tuned for more input from this great collection!

[via ViennaRegulators.org]

Why worry? Each one of us is carrying an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on his - Wrist?

From ScienceDaily:

The world's most precise clock - on which all time-keeping and navigation systems are based - might be made as small as a wristwatch with a new design proposed by an international team of physicists.

A new class of atomic clocks of at least equivalent accuracy could be made much smaller and simpler by trapping aluminium, gallium, cesium or rubidium atoms in a lattice of laser light operated at a specific "magic" wavelength, according to a new theory put forward by physicists at the University of Nevada, in the US, and the University of New South Wales.

Ytterbium for Next-Generation Atomic Clocks

Cesium has been the element of choice, thus far, for the most accurate clocks. It is in use in our civilian time standard.

But make way, Cesium:

An experimental atomic clock based on ytterbium atoms is about four times more accurate than it was several years ago, giving it a precision comparable to that of the NIST-F1 cesium fountain clock, the nation's civilian time standard, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) report in Physical Review Letters.

This photo shows about 1 million ytterbium atoms illuminated by a blue laser in an experimental atomic clock that holds the atoms in a lattice made of intersecting laser beams. The photo was taken with a digital camera through the window of a vacuum chamber. NIST is studying the possible use of ytterbium atoms in next-generation atomic clocks based on optical frequencies, which could be more stable and accurate than today's best time standards, which are based on microwave frequencies. (Credit: Barber, NIST)

[via: ScienceDaily]

Binary Clock Fun

A Binary Clock is a way of displaying the digital time in binary code. For example...



Reading a BCD clock: Add the values of each column of LEDs to get six decimal digits. There are two columns each for hours, minutes and seconds.

Here's a fun interpretation of the idea from Instructibles:

The Flock Clock uses male and female drinking birds to display time. Binary addition of the female birds (left to right) yields the hour. Binary addition of the male birds (multiplied by five) yields the minute--within five minutes. An Arduino processor provides the signals needed to drive Peltier cells which heat the fluid in the birds and causes the bobbing motion.

Here are some other Binary Clock projects by intrepid electronic experimenters, including an analog one.



[via Makezine]

The Weather Clock

We, at North Coast Imports, love the idea of new and artistic displays of important information. After all, this is the essence of a mechanical clock!



Here's a great example from Sean Carney:

I took an old clock, removed the mechanism and replaced it with an Arduino (micro-controller) that checks the weather on the Environment Canada website every fifteen minutes and update the hands accordingly. It also has a web server so I can check the weather and update the settings from a web browser.

Via: Makezine

The Rack Must Fall!

How does a cuckoo know how many times to call? Why is my clock only calling once when the hands say 3:00?

These are great questions, and the ingenious works of a mechanical clock can do it, but a few things have to be in proper adjustment. Here are some things to watch out for to keep your clock working, and keep your cuckoo calling the right number.

First, check the hands.

We already have an article about the proper alignment of a cuckoo clocks hands.



Second, check the rack.



Here you can see a picture of one of our cuckoo clocks with the dial removed. Circled you see a black, sickle-shaped part that we call the "rack." This part has a certain number of teeth on it that are counted by the brass pin to the right of the part.

Sometimes, through excessive handing upside down, this rack can get stuck in a position that is too high for the pin to count its teeth. In the picture below, you are looking at the clock mechanism from the back. You can see the top part of the rack as a black hump, sticking out of the top of the mechanism.



In the picture above, the rack is in a position too high for its teeth to be counted. With the rack in this position, the clock will only cuckoo once every hour, no matter the time.

This can happen due to excessive handing upside down, or sometimes during shipping.

You can see in this picture where the rack is lower and in the correct position, as viewed from the back:



The good news is that the clock can be fixed with a simple adjustment so that the clock will cuckoo the correct amount of times every hour. Simply take a long object, like a pencil, and push down on the hump of the top of the rack so that it falls below the top of the brass mechanism. This will allow the rack to fall so that its teeth can be counted.



Push down in the direction of the arrow.

After you have completed this procedure, your clock should begin counting more than once call every hour. You may have to readjust your hands to match up with the mechanism after performing this adjustment. Refer to this article again to make sure that the hands are set correctly.

The Best Way to Set a Mechanical Calendar Clock

On the back side of the dial there are levers. Two levers behind the 3:00 and one behind the 9:00.

The one behind the 9:00 is the chime shutoff. The one further behind the 3:00 is the auto night shutoff. The lever at the front (behind the 3:00) is the date advance lever.

Please have your customer follow this procedure in shutting the clock.

1. Move the minute hand COUNTER-clockwise until both hands show 6:30 - that is, both hands should point downward.

2. Click the date advance lever until the date shows one day BEFORE the current date. That is, if today is the 12th, advance the date to the 11th.

3. Carefully move the minute hand CLOCKWISE until the next quarter-hour mark. Wait for the clock to finish chiming and then turn the chime OFF temporarily by engaging the lever behind the 9:00.

4. Now that the chime is shut off, you can freely advance the minute hand without having to wait for the clock to chime. Keep advancing the minute hand CLOCKWISE until the date turns over to the current date. It should occur sometime between the 12:00 and 3:00 AM setting.

5. Once the date has changed, you know you are in the AM setting of the timepiece. Now you can advance the minute hand to the correct time. For example, if it is 9AM simply advance the hands directly to the 9:00. If it is currently 9PM you will need to go past 12:00 noon, and to the 9:00.

6. Once you have the time set, you may re-engage the chime.

Be sure to keep all three winding arbors fully wound. Don't worry about "overwinding" there are sure catches on the springs to prevent this from being a problem.

Bahnhäusle

The Bahnhäusle (sometimes "Bahnwächterhäusle") design has been an incredibly popular design since 1850. Friedrich Eisenlohr of Furtwangen, Germany first submitted the design as part of a contest for the Grand Duchy of Baden. His inspiration was a railroad guard's house overrun by vines and leaves.

Black Forest Apostolic Clock

Beer Drinker

There is a long tradition of Beer Drinking automata in the Black Forest clock world. Certainly, there is some cultural significance to beer in Southern Germany. It may come as no surprise that beer is featured heavily in art and crafts from that region.

I recently found this great automaton on YouTube.

This one is interesting because it actually features a tube and pump of liquid being poured and swallowed by the mechanical figure.



There are also several new clocks, available today that feature a drinking figure, both in cuckoo clocks, and large mechanical figurines.





Stay tuned for a forthcoming post from Justin and his new prize: an Antique Black Forest King Beer Drinking Automaton.

Related Posts: Automata, Beer Drinkers and Dumpling Eaters

Cuckoo Clock Design Contest

Images via Designboom

We found these great new concepts for cuckoo clocks online which were created as part of a contest for forest conservation.



Designer Naoto Fukawasa created a beautiful cuckoo clock using timber removed
from over-planted forests. The project was done in conjunction with Isetan, a Japanese department store, and More Trees, an organization that works with forest conservation in Japan and overseas. But the fun didn't stop with just one cuckoo clock. The display consisted of 50 customized interpretations of the clock by 50 different artists and designers from all over Japan. The whimsical and amazing clocks are enough to stop anyone in their tracks.



[via Treehugger and Designboom]



Don't forget about our popular design cuckoo clocks here.



The ClassicSpace will soon be featured in ReadyMade magazine in early 2010. Stay Tuned...

A Special Musical Clock by Emilian Wehrle

Fall is here, and as the weather cools we start to spend more time indoors. During the cold months we really pick up steam focusing on our collection of Black Forest clocks.Today as I was doing some "house keeping" dusting the collection... I thought of sharing this wonderful clock we have with you.

This fantastic clock has been in our care for many years.

Made C. 1874 this Singing Bird Clock (Singvogeluhr) by Emilian Wehrle of Furtwangen... is as impressive today as the day it was made.

The fully feathered bird is 6.5 inches from beak to tail. It is fully automated with movements in his beak, head, and tail.

Perched on the top of the clock on a carved vase of fruit and leaves, it is clearly visible and looks alive.

The carvings on this clock are all done in walnut, and the style of the case is very unique.

This clock utilizes a robust brass plate movement, with large double pumping bellow system mounted above the clock works (very similar to Wehrle's Trumpeter and Flute Clocks.)

The clock movement generates it own air pressure and by opening and closing a valve, air is moved through a large flute with a plunger. A cam wheel on the back operates the valve and the plunger to reproduce the sound of the song bird while controlling the bird and the Automation.

The beak runs in perfect sequence with the large song and boy does this bird look and sound alive!

This clock is featured in Emilian Wehrle's 1874 Catalog as No. 1 (see illustration). Originally, it cost of 180 Gold Marks in 1874. Just to put this into perspective, a very nice Beha cuckoo could be had for 25 marks.

Very few of these Singing Bird Clocks were made, even fewer survived. Making them almost impossible to locate today.

I am not aware of a museum worldwide that has a example of a Em. Wehrle Singing Bird Clock, although there are a few in private collections.

This unique clock was also published in the 2008 edition of Schwarzwalduhren, by Berthold Schaaf (The authoritative text on Black Forest Clocks, see sidebar for a list of other recommended reading and resources.)


Best,

Justin J. Miller

blackforestclocks.org

For more information on Singing Bird or Whistling Automata:

Article, Whistling Clock Peddler, Singing Birds in a Cage

...and here's a video of a modern "slide whistle" mechanism Justin describes above:

Observational Time with John Goodman

Here's an interesting article from the Long Now Blog.

John Goodman is an engineer that admires intuition, a reluctant artist who enjoys elegant approximations. His best known creation,
The Annosphere, was recently showcased at the Cambridge Science Festival in Massachusetts, where he lives and works.



The Annosphere is emblematic of what Mr. Goodman calls an intuitive grasp of time – time that is told by instinct, season and cultural benchmark, rather than being parceled out in minutes and seconds. He tells an illustrative story: Once, in a hotel in Europe, he noticed that the shower knob was demarcated in degree readings. He got to musing on the fact that he had no idea, in degrees, how hot he liked his shower. “The shower had degree readings on the knob, but who knows the exact temperature they like their shower? The right way to set a shower is where it’s comfortable, the right way to measure time is the same.”



From the Annosphere website:
Time goes both too slowly and too quickly. From one minute to the next, nothing seems any different and yet before you know it, the day is over, the summer’s gone to fall, adolescence turns to middle age, and you’re in the nursing home.

The annosphere tells time, but more usefully, it presents time. It shows you sunrise and sunset, the start of spring and the winter solstice. It lets you see on your desk what you can’t see in the world: the steady pace of time, the subtle day to day changes in sunlight and shadow, the cycles that run through each year.

Carved Vienna Regulator

Here's an interesting piece. It's another Vienna Regulator with a very lovely carved case. The case is carved is a rare hardwood, possibly mahogany.















The weight doesn't match. It's got a Jugendstil-style weight and the pattern doesn't quite match the bob and case. I've been reading about diy chemical etching and will one day try to make a weight shell that matches.

If you like this clock, be sure to check out our Amerling regulator with it's fine "Bird's-Eye" Maple case.

"Vienna" Regulators have often been the standard for fine mechanical wall clocks. Their elegant proportions, and high-quality mechanisms create what is for many the epitome of accurate and stylish mechanical wall clocks.

An Interesting English Longcase

One of the things that really interests us (besides beautiful new clock designs) are really old clocks.

This is a piece that was saved from an old estate in the suburbs of Washington D.C. We found parts of the clock laying around the house and in the front yard, and we are going to take some time to clean it and restore it to working order.

Here are some hasty snapshots:

As you can see, it has a very elegant shallow case with a long door in the front. This style is typical of Tall Case or Long Case clocks of England and America in the 18th and early 19th Centuries. This particular example has an excellent oak case, finished in the traditional "Dark Oak" of English fashion.

You can't see it in these pictures, but with careful inspection we found the name of the maker on the dial "Samuel Buxton, Colchester" which we traced back to the earliest possible date of 1773 in England. The dial painter was Wilkes and Company. Because of the style of the dial and case, this clock was most likely made around 1780.

This fine clock even has some animation in the dial. You can see the interesting hand painting of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, with all the animals surrounding them - including the Serpent. Eve even moves her arm with the Fruit of Knowledge, as if to tempt poor Adam!

While we were researching this clock, we came across some other beautiful examples of the same era. Do you have one? Tell us about it! Let's hear from you in the comments.

BTW, if you like this wood finish, be sure to check out our "Handel" wall clock by Sternreiter. This finish is sometimes called "dark oak," or "antique oak," or "English oak" wood finish. It has a nice strong look that is somewhat more formal than our American oak finishes.

Fremion - Update

A few months ago, I did a post on an antique French gallery clock.



We have turned up some new research on the clock. Our contact in France (that goes by the handle laprade) was able to contact the president of the association The Friends of Old Issoudun. Apparently, the president has a Comptoise clock with the Fremion name as well. They found old postcards at least as old as 1910 where you can see the market square, including a watchmaker "Fremion." It could still be seen there as late as 1930.

In 1927 there were 7 watchmakers and jewelers in Issoudun. By 1936, Fremion was gone, but there was still a jeweler/clock shop there under a different name until 1960, when the whole block was destroyed.





I couldn't find the actual postcards online that they talk about. These above are some random old postcards from Issoudun that I found here. If there are any postcard collectors out there, I'd love to hear if you can find these cards!