Thanks to frequent visitor Melanie for this item of the weird. Apparently, I've been obsessing about time long enough that people instantly think of me with all things relating to time and clocks. That's branding, baby!This is the "Corpus Clock." Its inventor conceived it to pay homage to an Englishman named John Harrison, who in 1725 invented the grasshopper escapement, a mechanical device in all clocks that helps regulate movement.
The clock features no hands and is designed to speed up and slow down at erratic intervals. The grasshopper's teeth and barbed tail are integrated into the clock's function and stand as a metaphor for "eating time." Thirty seconds into each minute the beast's jaws open, only to snap shut at :59 seconds. When the hour tolls, a chain clanks into a coffin, which then slams shut.
The corpus clock's inventor, John Taylor, dipped into his own pocket (at a cost of 1 million pounds-$1.8 million) and states, "My object was simply to turn a clock inside out so that the grasshopper became a reality."
It's erratic motion speaks to time's relativity. Taylor recalls Albert Einstein's observation: "When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity." more on the Corpus Clock
Obviously, the man standing in this photo is not Stephen Hawking, the famous cosmologist who unveiled the clock at the Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, England recently, but he does seem sucked in by it.
Today's fun: write the caption for what he must be thinking.
Have a super weekend, everyone!
8 comments:
Glad you could use the clock story! Love it!
Love the website--gorgous colors!
And I can't wait for your group blog. Is that instead of or in addition to this one?
I enjoyed Life on Mars enough to look again next week. Did you watch it?
Lovely job with the updated designs--very cool new clock!
He's thinking,"Yeah, but can it tell time."
I like that idea. I'd like to have a clock like this.
Caption:
"Time Stands Still as Man Admires Clock"
Just a guess! Love the new look and the website upgrade!! It does sound like it's all good!
Melanie, thanks again for thinking of me :)
Pam, thank you :) The group blog will be in addition to this one and I'll have to behave myself a bit over there, but it should be fun being a Bond Girl. And, no, I haven't watched Life on Mars yet. It's waiting for me in my DVR.
Marilyn, thanks for taking a look-see. I just had a very strange moment of deja-vu typing this to you and I have no idea why. What IS that anyway?
Rick and Charles, this is the centerpiece of the newly dedicated center. I'm thinking he's saying, "A million friggin' bucks and I still don't know what time it is!"
Darlene, good to see you! It does look like it's standings still. It makes me wonder how noticable the clock's movements are.
Post a Comment