- Clock tower
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This is an article on clock towers. For the video game series see Clock Tower (series).For the UAE roundabout, see Deira Clocktower.
A clock tower is a tower specifically built with one or more (often four) clock faces. Clock towers can be either freestanding or part of a church or municipal building such as a town hall. Some clock towers are not true clock towers having had their clock faces added to an already existing building. These 'false' clock towers should not be confused with true clock towers but are still significant buildings.
The mechanism inside the tower is known as a turret clock. It often marks the hour (and sometimes segments of an hour) by sounding large bells or chimes, sometimes playing simple musical phrases or tunes.
Contents
Landmarks
Kremlin Clock on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin.
Some clocks towers are famously known landmarks. Five of the best-known are the Clock Tower, Palace of Westminster, which houses the Great Bell (generally known as Big Ben) in London, the Rajabai Tower in Mumbai, the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin, the Torre dell'Orologio in the Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy, and Zytglogge clock tower in the Old city of Bern, Switzerland.[1] The Royal Mecca Clock Tower in Saudi Arabia is the largest clock tower in the world.[2]
On New Year's Eve 2004 four 6.3-meter clock faces were added to the top of the Warsaw Palace of Culture and Science building in Warsaw, Poland. This building is 231 m (757 ft) tall and is the second tallest 'false' clock tower in the world .[3] The NTT DoCoMo Yoyogi Building is 240 meters (787 feet) high and is the tallest 'false' clock tower in the world. The Allen-Bradley Clock Tower is the tallest non-chiming four faced false clock tower in the world.
History
Although clock towers are today mostly admired for their aesthetics, they once served an important purpose. Before the middle of the twentieth century, most people did not have watches, and prior to the 18th century even home clocks were rare. The first clocks didn't have faces, but were solely striking clocks, which sounded bells to call the surrounding community to prayer. They were therefore placed in towers so the bells would be audible for a long distance. Clock towers were placed near the centres of towns and were often the tallest structures there. As clock towers became more common, the designers realized that a dial on the outside of the tower would allow the townspeople to read the time whenever they wanted.
The use of clock towers dates back to the antiquity. The earliest clock tower was the Tower of the Winds in Athens which featured eight sundials. In its interior, there was also a water clock (or clepsydra), driven by water coming down from the Acropolis.[4] In Song China, an astronomical clock tower was designed by Su Song and erected at Kaifeng in 1088, featuring a liquid escapement mechanism. In England, a clock was put up in a clock tower, the medieval precursor to Big Ben, at Westminster, in 1288;[5][6] and in 1292 a clock was put up in Canterbury Cathedral.[5] The oldest surviving clock tower in Europe is the Salisbury cathedral clock, completed in 1306; and another clock put up at St. Albans, in 1326, 'showed various astronomical phenomena'.[5]
JB Joyce & Co claims to be the world's oldest tower clock maker (still in operation).[7] The company began life in 1690 and still manufactures clocks not far from its original premises in Whitchurch, Shropshire. Today it is a part of the Smith of Derby Group[8] started in 1856, which claims to be the largest tower clock manufacturer in the world. The company has manufactured tower clocks for St Paul's Cathedral in London and the Shanghai Customs building in China.
Line (mains) synchronous tower clocks were introduced in the United States in the 1920s by Telechron, now Electric Time Company of Medfield, Massachusetts. Electric Time Company is now the largest tower clock manufacturer in the world.
List of Tower Clock Makers
- E. Howard & Co., Boston, Massachusetts
- E. Dent & Co., Ltd., London, United Kingdom
- Electric Time Company (formerly Telechron), Medfield, Massachusetts
- JB Joyce & Co, Whitchurch, Shropshire, United Kingdom
- Nels Johnson (Century Tower Clocks), Manistee, Michigan
- Seth Thomas Clock Company, Thomaston, Connecticut
List of Clock towers
Africa
Americas
Argentina
- Torre Ader, Buenos Aires
- Torre Monumental, Buenos Aires
Aruba
Willem III Tower at Fort Zoutman, Oranjestad, Aruba.- Willem III Tower at Fort Zoutman, Oranjestad
Barbados
Brazil
- Central do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro
- Júlio Prestes Station, São Paulo
- Luz Station, São Paulo
Canada
- Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Ontario
- Hamilton City Hall, Ontario
- St. Paul's Cathedral (London, Ontario)
- Old City Hall (Toronto), Toronto, Ontario
- Central Post Office (Ottawa), Ontario
- Peace Tower, Parliament Hill Ottawa, Ontario
- Queen's Quay Terminal, Toronto, Ontario
- Kerr Hall, Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario
- Upper Canada College, Toronto, Ontario
- Hart House (University of Toronto), Soldiers' Tower (University of Toronto), Toronto, Ontario
- Queen Street Viaduct, Toronto, Ontario
- Cathedral Church of St. James, Toronto, Ontario
- St. Lawrence Hall, Toronto, Ontario
- Press Building, Exhibition Place, Toronto, Ontario
- Fire Hall & Police Station, Exhibition Place, Toronto, Ontario
- Summerhill-North Toronto CPR Station, Toronto, Ontario
- Mississauga City Hall in Mississauga, Ontario
- Gare du Palais, Quebec City, Quebec
- Montreal Clock Tower, Quebec
- Vancouver City Hall, Vancouver, British Columbia
- Place d'Armes Clock Tower, Montreal, Quebec
- Edmonton City Hall, Edmonton, Alberta
- Toronto Fire Services Station 227, Toronto, Ontario
- former Toronto Fire Department Hose Station # 8, Toronto, Ontario
- Memorial Clock Tower (Cenotaph), Wainwright, Alberta
Mexico
- Reloj Monumental, Pachuca, Hidalgo
Peru
- Tower of the University of Saint Mark, Lima
United States
See also Category: Clock towers in the United States.Asia
Hong Kong- The Clock Tower at Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong was part of the former Kowloon Station
- The old Star Ferry pier in Central, Hong Kong
India
Central Clock Tower with entirely different architecture located in the busiest commercial center of Erode.- Ram Narain Periwal Clock Tower, Fazilka, Punjab
- Clock Tower, Chaura Bazaar, Ludhiana, Punjab
- Rajabai Tower, South Mumbai
- Secunderabad Clock Tower, Hyderabad
- Central Clock Tower, Erode
- Ghanta Ghar, Dehradun, Uttarakhand
- BITS-Pilani Clock Tower, Pilani
- Husainabad Ghanta Ghar, Husainabad, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
- Ghanta Ghar, Subzi Mandi, Delhi, Delhi
- Hari Nagar Ghanta Ghar, Near Hari Nagar, Delhi, Delhi
Indonesia
Israel
The Jaffa Clock Tower, IsraelLebanon
- American University of Beirut's College Hall Clock, Beirut
- Place D'Etoile
Malaysia
- Malay College Kuala Kangsar Clock Tower
- Sultan Abdul Samad Building, Kuala Lumpur
- Tan Beng Swee Clock Tower, Stadhuys Square, Malacca
- Jubilee Clock Tower, Penang
- Birch Memorial Tower, Ipoh, Perak
- Malayan Railway Building, Penang
- Teluk Intan Leaning Tower, Teluk Intan, Perak
Pakistan
- Merewether Memorial Tower, Karachi
- Clock Tower, Faisalabad
- Clock Tower, Sialkot
- Clock Tower, Multan
- Clock Tower, Hyderabad
Philippines
- Manila City Hall Clock Tower, Manila
- Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene Clock Tower, Quiapo, Manila
Singapore
- Clock Tower Building of The Chinese High School, a national monument of Singapore
- Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall
Sri Lanka
- Old Colombo Lighthouse
- Khan Clock Tower
- Koch Memorial Clock Tower
Myanmar
Saudi Arabia
United Arab Emirates
Europe
On New Year's Eve 2004 four 6.3-metre clock faces were added to the top of the Warsaw Palace of Culture and Science building in Warsaw, Poland. This building is 231 m (757 ft) tall and is the second tallest 'false' clock tower in the world .[3]Albania
Denmark
- Dipylon Clock Tower in the Carlsberg District, Copenhagen, Denmark
Greece
- Clock Tower of Saint Nicolas church, Kozani, Greece
Finland
France
Poland
Romania
- Sibiu Evangelical Cathedral, Sibiu, Romania
- Sighişoara Clock Tower, Sighişoara
Russia
Serbia
Switzerland
Turkey
- Büyük Saat, Adana
- Dolmabahçe Clock Tower, Istanbul
- Etfal Hospital Clock Tower, Istanbul
- İzmir Clock Tower, İzmir
- İzmit Clock Tower, İzmit
- Nusretiye Clock Tower, Istanbul
- Yıldız Clock Tower, Istanbul
United Kingdom
- Clock Tower, Palace of Westminster, London, England (Big Ben is the name of the bell inside)
- Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower, The University of Birmingham, England
- Parkinson Building, The University of Leeds, England
- Haymarket Memorial Clock Tower, Leicester, England
- City Hall, Cardiff, Wales
- Victoria Tower, Liverpool, England
- Clock Tower, Clevedon, England
- Clock tower, Redcar, Cleveland, England
- Bank Hall Clock Tower, Bretherton, Lancashire, England
AustraliaSee also
- Bell tower
- Campanile
- Minaret
- Su Song (engineer who built a clock tower in Song Dynasty capital of Kaifeng)
- Thirteenth stroke of the clock
References
- ^ "UK Parliament - Big Ben:". http://www.parliament.uk/bigben/. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
- ^ Worlds bigges clock begins ticking in Mecca, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/Worlds-biggest-clock-begins-ticking-in-Mecca/articleshow/6294653.cms[dead link]
- ^ a b History of PKiN in a nutshell.
- ^ Joseph V. Noble; Derek J. de Solla Price: The Water Clock in the Tower of the Winds, American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 72, No. 4 (1968), pp. 345-355 (353)
- ^ a b c Clocks, Encyclopaedia Britannica 5, 835 (1951).
- ^ Frederick Tupper, Jr., 'Anglo-Saxon Dæg-Mæl', Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Vol. 10, No. 2 (1895), p. 130, citing Archæologia, v, 416.
- ^ Jbjoyce.com
- ^ Smithofderby.com
External links
Categories:- Clock towers
- Horology
- Hellenistic engineering
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