World's Biggest Clocks
Giant "Anime" Clock in Tokyo
The headquarters of Nippon Television Network, located in the Shiodome district of Tokyo, feature a huge mechanical clock, which is considered to be one of the biggest in the world. People coming around can read the time by looking at the second floor of the NTN building, where the timepiece hangs.
The designer of the clock is Hayao Miyazaki, who is one of the most famous anime directors in Japan. It's not just an ordinary mechanical timepiece, it weighs 28 tons, and it can perform 32 mechanical tricks. In order to create it the developers used 1,228 copper plates. The clock itself is based on images from Hayao's film called "Howl's Moving Castle".
10,000-Year Clock
The designer of this giant wonder is W. Daniel Hillis of Applied Minds, Inc. In order to design the clock he worked together with the Long Now Foundation. The timepiece is anything but usual. Almost all mechanical clocks created in the last millennium are made of a series of propelled gears, however the 10,000-Year Clock uses a stack of mechanical binary computers that are able of select one moment in 3.65 million days.
It is also able to calculate the leap centuries, the orbits of the six most distant planets from our solar system and even estimate the ultraslow wobbles of the Earth's axis.
The clock will keep tracking time (seconds, minutes, days, centuries, millenniums) for 10,000 years. During this time the clock will be able to provide accurate timekeeping by automatically resetting itself. It will use the warming heat of the desert sun for reseting. The Earth itself will provide enough power for the timepiece's pendulum.
Tehran "Flower Clock"
One of th world's biggest clocks was created at Abbasabad district of Tehran. The so-called "Flower Clock" measures 15 meters in diameter and its weigh is 750 kilograms. The clock cost 600 million rials.
The "Flower Clock" has separate motors so it could set its triple hands in motion. The developers created the timepiece so it could to function with minimum errors. The time of the clock is set up automatically by a special computerized system. Because the watch was created to display time in the open air, it is able to withstand severe weather conditions.
Before the "Flower Clock", Big Ben was considered to be the biggest clock in the world, having a 47-year history. Now, however, "Flower Clock" has taken the place of the Big Ben, having a diameter twice as big as that of London's clock.
Poland's Big Spiner Mechanism Clock
This watch is the biggest in Poland and one of the biggest in Europe. Its clockwork is able to attend clocks with a diameter of up to 12 meters. The clock is made of such rub-resistant materials like bronze, poliamids and stainless. Its hands weight above 160 kg. They are illuminated from the inside.
The clock does not need oiling. It doesn't have any working electric joints. In addition it has a battery with automatic charging system. The clockwork includes an optical clock-hand control system. Computer that controls the clockwork spots and then automatically adjusts a clock-hand error. The timepiece was designed and produced in Poland.
Colgate Clock
The octagonal Colgate clock, that faces Manhattan, was created in 1924. It serves as a reminder of the time when New York's factories dominated its waterfront. The design of the timepiece was inspired by The company's Octagon Soap.
The surface of the Colgate clock is 1,963.5 square feet. The dial has 50 feet in diameter. Its minute hand is 25 feet long, and its hour hand is 20 feet long. The mechanism of the clock doesn't have any special features, it is similar to a traditional wall clock with one exception - it is powered by a 28-large-volt batteries that need to be recharged.
The Clock of the St. Peter's Church
The clock on St. Peter's Church in Zurich is one of the biggest in Europe. It is worth mentioning that St. Peter's Church is also one of the oldest parish churches of the city. The clock is situated on the church's tower, having one of the largest clock faces in Europe - about 8.7 meters in diameter.
Zurich's oldest church was built somewhere in the 7th century. In 850 it appeared for the first time in literature. Rudolf Brun, who was the first mayor of Zurich, is buried there since 1360.
The Allen-Bradley Clock Tower
The clock is owned by Allen-Bradley, Rockwell Automation's product brand. For a long period of time it has been a landmark in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Today the clock tower hangs 86 meters high. It is registered in Guinness Book of Records as the largest four-faced clock in the world. Its octagonal faces are almost twice the size London's Big Ben. The chimes were not added to the watch so to allow Big Ben remain world's biggest four-faced chiming clock.
Each of the timepiece's hour hands is 15 feet (4.8 meters) long and weighs 220 kg and each of its minute hands is 20 feet (6.1 meters) long and weighs 240 kg.
It has been called "The Polish Moon". The name refers to the historically Polish neighborhood, where the clock is based.
Big Ben
The Clock Tower represents a turret clock structure. It is located at the north-eastern end of the Houses of Parliament building. Shortly the location is: Westminster, London, United Kingdom.
The mechanism of the clock was developed in 1854, however the tower was built only four years later.
Augustus Pugin was the one to design the clock and dials. The faces of the Big Ben are set in an iron framework, having a diameter of 7 meters and supporting 576 pieces of opal glass. In order for the watch masters to inspect the hands of the watch some of the pieces of glass were made in a way so they could be removed.
Each clock face has at its base a Latin inscription in gilt letters saying "DOMINE SALVAM FAC REGINAM NOSTRAM VICTORIAM PRIMAM", which means "O Lord, keep safe our queen Victoria the First".
Big Ben started functioning on September 7, 1859.
The Peace Tower Clock
The tower is part of the Canadian Parliament Buildings, which can be found in Ottawa, Ontario. It stands just in front of the Centre Block, which includes both the House of Commons and Senate chambers.
The Peace Tower is considered to be the most notable part of the building. It is 92.2 meters tall and includes an observation gallery, which provides great views of the city. The clock of the Peace Tower was developed by the Verdin Company of Ohio. It is set by the National Research Council Time Signal and includes a 53-bell carillon. The weigh of the bells varies from 4.5 kg to 10,160 kg.
For the first time in twenty eight years, on May 25, 2006, the clock on the Peace Tower stopped. Ottawans and the city's visitors were confused as the clock was inactive, displaying for a whole day 7:28.
The Prague Astronomical Clock
The timepiece is also called Prague Orloj and it represents a medieval astronomical clock. Visitors can enjoy the wonderful look of the clock on the southern wall of Old Town City Hall, which is in the Old Town Square.
Three main components make up the whole Prague Orloj. These are: the astronomical dial, which shows the position of the Sun and Moon; "The Walk of the Apostles", which is a clockwork hourly show of several moving sculptures; and finally a calendar dial, having twelve medallions, each one of them representing one month.
The clock has golden Roman numbers located at the outer edge of blue circle. These numerals represent the timescale of a 24 hour day. The curved golden lines that divide into 12 parts the blue part of dial represent marks for unequal hours, which can be defined as 1/12 of the time between sunrise and sunset. As the days get longer or shorter the markers vary during the year.
Withing a large black outer circle there is another movable circle which includes signs of the zodiac. These are shown in anticlockwise order.
The watch has a golden Sun that moves around the zodiacal circle. In such a way the clock shows the position of the sun on the ecliptic. In the same way the timepiece shows the current position of the moon on the ecliptic.