This article was taken from the November issue of Wired UK magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content bysubscribing online
By the time you read this, the time-eating grasshopper on top of John Taylor’s Corpus Clock in Cambridge will have notched up 31,536,000 shuffles of its Grade 316 stainless-steel feet.
Now celebrating its first birthday, the clock, overlooking King’s Parade, uses three concentric circles of blue LE Ds to show the time. But, rather than switching on and off, the 2,736 LE Ds are hidden and revealed by a series of mechanically operated vernier slits.
The clock has been stopped only twice for maintenance, once because of an unexpected accumulation of builders’ dust. Nor does Taylor have any intention of standing still. "I am 72 and time moves fast when you are my age," he says. He is building two more clocks and has sketched plans for a fuelless sun-cooker for use in Africa. "The prototype," he says, "should be ready by the end of the year."
A Brief History:
The 1.5-metre clock is plated in 24-carat gold. On top is the "chronophage", a highly ornamented - and animated - grasshopper escapement, which boosts the pendulum. Here it is in action:
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
