Tim Hunkin’s giant automaton clock for the London Zoo

4 thoughts on “Tim Hunkin’s giant automaton clock for the London Zoo”

1. So.. Why exactly do the toucans need to peck the pendulum to keep it moving? I thought the whole point of a pendulum was that it could sustain it’s own movement.

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2. Well, in any mechanical clock the pendulum doesn’t sustain its own movement – no pendulum can sustain its own movement outside of a completely frictionless system. In a clock, the escapement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escapement) provides energy to keep the pendulum moving. The pendulum just regulates the speed of the escapement. If you read the making of page, though, it turns out the toucans don’t actually do anything; he originally wanted them to, but now they’re just for show.

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