Guillotine

The Corpus Clock located outside the Taylor Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge may just be one of the coolest things ever. The clock was conceived by John C Taylor an alumni of the university, and was unveiled on September 19, 2008 by physicist Stephen Hawking.

The face of the clock is 5 feet in diameter sculpted from a stainless steel disk plated in 24 K gold. The disk was formed by placing the disk over a mold under water and using explosions to press the steel onto the mold. The hands of the clock are actually created by three bands of LEDs which are always on but only visible through slits in 3 concentric rings which turn with the clock’s movement. As you can see in the video the LEDs seem to race around the clock for each change of seconds, minutes, and hours.

The most obvious (and probably creepiest) feature of the clock is the strange insect monster on top which has been dubbed the Chronophage (time eater). It resembles a horribly mutated grasshopper, and acts as the clock’s escapement. It’s legs work back and forth on the outer gear ring of the clock driving the entire mechanism. It also opens and closes it’s fang laden mouth and sometimes blinks it’s eyes. The concept of the “Grasshopper Escapement” was originally conceived by 18th century clock maker John Harrison, and the Corpus clock’s Chronophage escapement was designed by Taylor as a homage to Harrison.

The operation of the clock is probably one of the neatest things to watch. The Chronophage steadily crawls along driving the outer gear as the LEDs race around the clock to signify passing time while on occasion the CPU brain inside the clock treats viewers to variety by slowing down or stopping the clock then racing to catch up on the 5 minute marks (so the clock only tells time accurately every 5 minutes). When the clock chimes the hour it actually runs backwards and forwards while the sound of a chain dropping into a wooden coffin inside the clock acts as the chime.

So you want one??? Unfortunately the Corpus clock is not available for sale and the cost to create it was £1 million (about $1.4 million in US Dollars). Although if they ever decide to market a smaller (and less expensive) version for the home you can be sure I’ll be in line for one.

The easiest way to explain I guess is to just watch the video embedded below.