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TOWER CLOCKS - MAGNIFICENT MUNIFICENCE
The story of our 1899 Seth Thomas tower clock,
as told in the exhibit Time Made Visible:
Tower clocks have long been a source of municipal pride. As early as the fourteenth century, Italian cities
used communal budgets to build and to maintain clocks. A city's tower became a proud symbol of orderly government.
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METC Clock Tower
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Tower clocks were built in America from the beginning of the eighteenth century. With movements laboriously crafted
by blacksmiths, these clock told local time for their cities before the days of standard time zones. During these
early times when much of America was rural, most citizens could not depend upon a tower clock whose bells were
audible only within city or town limits. Instead, they would have used the sun to keep track of time.
The Hotchkiss tower clock division of the Seth Thomas Clock Company produced our Museum's
clock. The movement, dial, hands, and wire cords for the weights were ordered from a factory catalogue, while the
bell and weights were obtained elsewhere. Local craftsmen put the clock together. Before its function was automated
in 1990, the clock was wound manually once a week.
By 1899, when this clock was installed, standard time had been in common use for about
sixteen years. This country's railroad system, with its need to maintain schedules and reduce collisions, had spearheaded
the movement to replace local time with the standardized time zones we use today.
Certainly, rail travelers passing behind the James Library building would have been impressed
by the clock tower that symbolized the munificence of the building's benefactor, D. Willis James.
The following photographs show details
of our Seth Thomas clock.
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The 1899 Seth Thomas clock movement. Wire cords running
upward from the movement pass over pulleys to massive weights in a shaft in the tower wall. These weights power
the clock and the bell "strike."
The silver-colored electric drill motors were added in 1990 to automate the winding of the movement and strike.
A special control circuit was designed to prevent the drive motors from creating a drag on the clock.
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Detail of the faceplate that can be seen affixed to the frame of the clock
in the photo above.
We believe that Dec. 6th, 1899 is the date of installation, while 1030 may be a serial number. According to the
Madison Eagle
the clock first struck the hour on Saturday, Dec. 16th, 1899. |
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The escapement (an upside-down V-shaped lever visible near the center of
the photo) puts the "tick tock" into a clock. Controlled by the continuous swaying of the pendulum, the
escapement controls the rotation of the gears and enables the clock to keep accurate time. |
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The central dial is the time wheel. It allows the custodian
of the clock to set the position of the hands on the clock dial. Above it is a smaller dial that measures the "tick-tocks"
per minute. The wooden shaft of the pendulum is visible on the right.
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The vertical shaft in the center of the photograph connects the clock movement
(above) to the beveled gear assembly on the floor. These gears convert the rotation of the vertical clock shaft
into rotation of the horizontal shafts that turn the hands on the two exterior clock dials. |
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This 1800-pound bell, cast in 1899 by the Meneely Bell
Company of Troy, New York, was procured independently of the movement. Poised to the right, at the flare of the
bell's mouth, is the hammer. A few minutes prior to striking, the hammer draws back in readiness. Released on the
hour, it falls by gravity to strike the bell, then recoils slightly so as not to deaden the sound.
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Superimposed on the Museum's tower, an illustration from a late 19th-century
Seth Thomas Clock Company catalogue shows the arrangement of the clock movement and bell. |
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Photos by Tom Judd
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Carla Ojha
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