#corpusclock

[msamba]

Anna B. (@bornforart.bsky.social) | Gothic Eye: The Judgment of Time

Gothic Eye: The Judgment of Time#Art #ConceptualArt #CorpusClock #CambridgeUniversity #CambridgeCorpusClock #Chronophage #PublicArt #InstallationArt #KineticArt #Steampunk #Surrealism #GothicStyle #DarkAesthetics #PhilosophicalThoughts #AnnaBArt — Anna B. (@bornforart.bsky.social) 2026-06-05T08:40:31.540Z

[kevlo75]

The Corpus Clock has no hands or digital numbers and thus at first it appears difficult to tell the time. However, look carefully and there are 3 rings of LEDs, which reading from the innermost ring show hours, minutes and seconds. When an hour is struck there is no chiming of bells, but rather the shaking of chains and a hammer hitting a wooden coffin. Time passes and we all die, a fact further represented by the Latin inscription underneath the clock, mundus transit et concupiscentia eius, meaning 'the world and its desires pass away'. A further Latin inscription adorns the pendulum: Joh. Sartor Monan Inv. MMVIII, which translates as follows: Joh. is Johannes, Sartor is the mediaeval Latin for tailor, Monanensis is the Isle of Man, Inv. is invenit, a verb with multiple meanings, e.g. discovered/made/brought to fruition, and lastly MMVIII is the year 2008. Thus, John Taylor, of the Isle of Man, made it, in 2008. The clock has a Custodian, Dr Ewan St. John Smith, who shares some more little-known facts about the famous Chronophage. #corpusclock #cambridge (à Corpus Clock) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpKQsSbLQja/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[crazy-facts]

The Corpus Clock is a large sculptural clock at street level on the outside of the Taylor Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University, in Uk. It was officially unveiled to the public in  September 2008 by Stephen Hawking. The clock's face is a rippling 24-carat gold-plated stainless steel disc, about 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) in diameter. It has no hands or numerals, but displays the time by opening individual slits in the clock face backlit with blue LEDs; these slits are arranged in three concentric ringsdisplaying hours, minutes, and seconds.

The Corpus Clock is a product of traditional mechanical clockmaking. It features the world's largest grasshopper escapement, a low-friction mechanism for converting pendulum motion into rotational motion while at the same time giving back to the pendulum the energy needed to maintain its swing. The grasshopper escapement was an invention of the renowned eighteenth-century clockmaker. The Corpus Clock's clockwork is entirely mechanically controlled, without any computer programming, and electricity is used only to power a motor, which winds up the mechanism, and to power the blue LEDs that shine behind the slits in the clock's face.

 The clock has many unexpected and innovative features; for example, the pendulum briefly stops at apparently irregular intervals, and the Chronophage moves its mouth and blinks its eyes. The Corpus Clock is expected to be able to run accurately for at least two hundred years.

[danielg831]

The Corpus Clock #CorpusClock #Cambridge #UK #UnitedKingdom #England (at Corpus Christi College)

[danielg831]

The Corpus Clock #CorpusClock #Cambridge #UK #UnitedKingdom #England (at Corpus Christi College)