Amazing Automata from the 18th Century

Here's something to knock the socks off of any of you fans of automata.



The newscast is in German, but anyone can get the drift. These are three mechanically animated figures. One plays the organ, one writes, and the other draws. To be clear: the organ isn't a player organ (that plays itself) while the figure sits in front and pretends to play... the figure ACTUALLY PLAYS the organ. The information for the tune is in her mechanics, so that her fingers and arms move to play the fairly complex little tune!

These are housed in the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Neuchâtel, and were built by theologian, mathematician and watchmaker Pierre Jaquet-Droz, his son Henri-Louis and their colleague Jean-Frédéric Leschot in the early 1770s. They were first exhibited to the public in nearby La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1774!



This is truly amazing stuff.. Unlike the two mechanical boys, the woman-organist's body and head move independently of her task, and she can sit and breathe and fidget (her head and neck making almost imperceptible movements) independently for an hour. Also unlike the boys she is operated by four separate pieces of machinery—one to pump the organ, one to operate her hands and fingers, one to operate her head and body, and one to power the bow she performs at the end of each song. She plays five tunes.





via Steampunk Magazine

Restoration Finished! A Rare Emilian Wehrle Musical Shelf Flute Clock

We just finished the muscial restoration on this rare Black Forest Clock. This piece was made by Emilian Wehrle in Furtwangen C. 1880. To find a musical shelf clock by Emilian Wehrle of this size and quality is nearly impossible.
This example is an 8-day, three-train (Time, Strike, and Music) timepiece. This is the largest movement that Emilian Wehrle made. The music train is a two-tune, 9-pipe example.... on the hour the clock stikes the hour on a large gong... followed by a tune on the wood pipes.


The case is fantastic, and one of Wehrle's best... lots of live, full-relief animals... the two deer flank the trumpeter doors. When the music is playing, the large doors open and two 4" flute players step forward.



To see more rare Antique Black Forest Clocks you can check out our online museum at http://www.blackforestclocks.org/




Contact me if you have one like it!

Justin J. Miller

A Rare Black Forest Clock Collection Located!

Over the past weekend I acquired a collection of 24 rare and antique Black Forest Clocks. The clocks have been in storage for over a decade. I was thrilled to be able to locate so many choice pieces and add them to our collection in a single transaction.


This collection includes many high-quality 8-day shelf cuckoos, several by Johann Baptist Beha.

A 5" C.1880 Hunter cuckoo with huge 8" 5 tune music box. Early cast brass pinned plate movement.

A Black Forest Trumpeter

A unique Black Forest Muscial piece

A GHS Apostle Clock

A GHS Monk Automaton

Many of these clocks are documented in the book Black Forest Clocks by Rick Ortenburger. (see sidebar for a link)

Please stay tuned for detailed posts of these Antique Black Forest Pieces! And check our private museum.

Best,

Justin J. Miller

www.blackforestclocks.org

Handmade Orrery

I found some great pictures of a handmade Ferguson's Orrery from Makezine



Designed circa 1750, the core of the mechanism depends on gears of differing ratios to illustrate the movement of the moon's nodes and apogee as the earth revolves around the sun. It can be used to illustrate many things, including eclipses." Jim further states he was inspired by Ian Coote, see Ian's page about the orrery here.



[via Makezine, via Tina Buescher]

We have offered a few different Orrery clocks in our collection in the past. Each of them are works of art with limited availability. Be sure to watch this space so you know when we have another one available!

A Great Old Video of the Black Forest Clock Industry

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Alas, there are no more producers of European mechanical Anniversary Clocks. So many of these fine arts no longer exist. BUT, you can see a woman making a mechanical alarm clock that looks very similar to our very popular Sternreiter Alarm Clock! Quality mechanical items like these are very rare these days. We are very pleased to still be able to offer them. Contact your local clock dealer and ask about our Sternreiter mechanical alarm clocks.

Orchestrion Hall, Baltimore

A few days ago, my Twitter followers may be been slightly mystified by my Tweets about finding hidden treasures in Baltimore.



I had the inestimable pleasure of seeing a private collection of clocks, mechanical musical instruments, old fans, lamps, and more... all very rare and very interesting.

The tower clock collection was particularly impressive. The house was fitted with several tower clock dials on the outside. I've gone down that street many years and never looked up to notice them. There is even a dragon outside that strikes a bell with his tail. On the inside, there were some large tower clock movements (like the one pictured above) with slots cut in the floor below them so that the pendulum could swing in the room below.

I did a reblog post a few weeks ago from a Steampunk site about old tower clock towers being converted into apartments - but those places didn't have clocks in them.





There were several tower clocks, most with 3-legged gravity escapements. The whole house seemed to tick away, as if the collector were living inside a giant engine room.




...That's just the tower clocks, in addition there are Winterhalter u. Hoffmeier tubular chimes, regulator master clocks, and Egyptian Revival clocks aplenty...

The place isn't called Orchestrion Hall for nothing. The collector is a worldwide authority on mechanical organ restoration, particularly the very rare and very excellent Welte orchestrions.




He has more mechanical musical instruments too, including a very loud band organ.



His shop is in the basement below, and he uses all turn-of-the-century, belt-driven machines. When I jokingly asked where the steam engine was he pointed to an original early electric motor, and around the corner (in the basement) there was a HUGE single-cylinder Diesel engine.

The collection also includes fans...




This one has a light bulb that's used only for impedance, to slow down the fan.

I wish I had more pictures. This place was a treasure trove of fascinating stuff!

Thanks to Arcadian Clock for some of the pictures above.

Mechanical Cell Phone

Any connoisseur of mechanical wonders should follow the blog over at The Long Now Foundation. Here is an excerpted post from their blog:



Early on in the Clock project we saw that of all the modern timepiece companies few were doing truly new things. One of the rare exceptions was Ulysse Nardin. Once we completed the first Clock prototype in fact we hosted Ludwig Oechslin their chief design innovator for several months here in San Francisco to evaluate our Clock which was very instructive.

Long Now member and alumni Camille Davila sent me a note about a recent development at Ulysse Nardin, a cell phone that is charged by an offset weight swinging around from the ambient motion of the owner. This is an adaptation from mechanical self winding watch technology of course, but it is very cool to see it crossing over into other personal electronics. You can see more on this on their website here.

The Highest Craftsmanship

There really isn't enough attention drawn to the beauty of craftsmanship in an Original Black Forest Cuckoo Clock. One must marvel at the complexity and quality of the mechanical clock works, particularly when these are made today in the midst of a throwaway market.

In an age when you are paid to destroy and throw away aging machines, these Black Forest clockmakers are brave craftsman. They boldly construct these pieces according to the traditions of a forgotten era. Each precision-cut tooth of every wheel is painstakingly adjusted. The actions that these gears perform is something that is easily synthesized with some plastic, solder, and silicon, but the brass and steel make the experience more real somehow. The action ITSELF is more of an artistic piece.

Sometimes it is not enough to ask "WHAT" but to ask "HOW." A mechanical clock performs the action of telling time in a far more interesting and fulfilling way. As each second ticks by on your mechanical clock take a moment to reflect on the fact that you aren't wasting batteries... you aren't polluting the atmosphere... take a moment to marvel on the inventive way your clock or watch works.

related sites:
Artistic re-interpretations of the cuckoo clock

Biedermeier Vienna Regulator

This is a early Biedermeier Vienna Regulator C. 1835 is a recent addition to the collection.

6 light fruit wood case. One piece white glass dial with case engine turned bezel. 8 day 1 weight movement. 38" H 11" W.

The previous owner purchased the clock in Austria in the late 1940's and brought it to the western United States.

The clock is in mint untouched condition, from the bone handled winding crank to the delicate hand cut pulley.

Homemade Mechanical Music

... or mechanical noises anyway. This is a fascinating table of homebrew fun!

Dirigenten & Den mekaniska orkestern from Erik Nilsson on Vimeo.

[via Deviant Synth]

The Future of Mechanical Clocks?

The 10,000 year clock....