Andrew Chase – { feuilleton }

The Peacock Clock

Something discovered courtesy of the Google Art Project is James Cox’s splendid Peacock Clock automaton, an exhibit at the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg:

The history of the Hermitage’s Peacock Clock begins in 1777, when the Duchess of Kingston visited St Petersburg. Balls were given in the Russian capital in honour of this wealthy and distinguished guest. Grigory Potiomkin, who met the Duchess in society, learned of James Cox’s magnificent mechanisms. Pandering to Catherine II’s passion for collecting, the Prince commissioned the celebrated craftsman to make a monumental automaton with a clock for the Empress’s Hermitage. In order to meet this expensive order as quickly as possible, Cox, whose financial affairs were currently not in the best of health, decided to use an existing mechanical peacock that featured in the Dublin lottery. He expanded the composition with a cockerel, owl and a clock mechanism with a dial incorporated into the head of a mushroom, and removed the snakes. To create his new automaton, Cox recruited the assistance of Friedrich Jury, a German craftsman who had settled in London. (More.)

The snakes referred to were from an earlier work which Cox used to create this one, and the Google view shows a snake-like base to the construction. Google shows us all the detail but to see the clock in action we need YouTube. Astonishing work even if the crowing rooster spoils things a little. Cox was the first owner of the equally remarkable (and arguably more beautiful) Bowes Swan automaton which was featured here some time ago.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Ghost clocks
• Mystery clocks
• Skeleton clocks
• The Midsummer Chronophage
• Andrew Chase’s steel cheetah
• The Corpus Clock
• The Bowes Swan

The Midsummer Chronophage

The Midsummer Chronophage.

John C Taylor’s Corpus Chronophage—the extraordinary mechanical clock surmounted by a time-devouring monster—was featured here following news of its installation at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 2008. Two years later its creator is ready to unveil a new clock which he calls The Midsummer Chronophage.

The Midsummer Chronophage pays homage to the 18th century clockmaker John Harrison, inventor of the marine chronometer and the ‘grasshopper’ escapement, a low-friction mechanism for converting pendulum motion into rotational motion. The Midsummer Chronophage takes the grasshopper escapement out of the clock and presents it on the outside as a sculpture. The mythical creature is also the world’s largest grasshopper escapement.

The face of The Midsummer Chronophage is a 24 carat gold-plated steel disc almost 1.5M in diameter, polished to resemble a pond of liquid metal with ripples that allude to the Big Bang. It was created by a series of underwater explosions.

The Midsummer Chronophage has no hands or numbers but displays time by aligning slits in discs behind the clock face back lit with blue LEDS; these slits are arranged in three concentric rings displaying hours, minutes and seconds.

Dr Taylor’s new clock can be seen at London’s Masterpiece Fair from 23rd of June. For those outside London there are more pictures of the device here, and videos of the Corpus Clock in action here.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Andrew Chase’s steel cheetah
• Another Midsummer Night
• The Corpus Clock
• A Midsummer Night’s Dadd
• William Heath Robinson’s Midsummer Night’s Dream
• The Bowes Swan

Andrew Chase’s steel cheetah

From tiny metal animals to something a lot larger. Andrew Chase‘s fully-articulated cheetah is 61 cm (24 inches) high and 127 cm (50 inches) in length, and joins a similar mechanoid giraffe and elephant as part of Chase’s ongoing Timmy project. Lots more pictures of all the animals at Baekdal. Now if only these were fully-functioning robots…

Previously on { feuilleton }
• The Corpus Clock
• The Bowes Swan