Dutch Music Box and Clockworks Tour: Tower Clocks

cazalea · 2018-04-17T12:21:30Z

Explore European tower clocks and their intricate mechanisms in Cazalea's Dutch Music Box and Clockworks Tour, Part 8. Discover historical horology.

cazalea

WPS member · Horological Meandering forum

5 replies1486 views27 photos

Cazalea takes readers on an immersive tour of Dutch music boxes and clockworks, with this installment focusing on the grandeur and historical significance of European tower clocks. His photographic essay encourages looking up to appreciate the horological marvels embedded in architectural history.

Thanks for joining me on this 8th episode of our tour up the Rhine, seeking clockwork adventures. In this post I encourage you to look up, things aren't as bad as they seem in the world around us. And the heavens are beautiful. There is hope. The folks in medieval times felt this therapy was useful - that there was something higher than our lives here on the flatlands - can we?

So we have a collection of photos with a video at the end. This compilation is simply the clock tours and church spires I spotted. These make use of my Sony camera's 50x Zeiss lens.

Cologne Cathedral starts us off

This appeared on my radar just as we were going under a bridge.

As discussed earlier in another thread, we learned this tower "clock" is not a 10-hour French clock, but a river water level height indicator (cleverly disguised as a clock)

I'm sorry that I cannot identify all these towers.

Some were at the extreme end of my zoom's reach.

Others were taken through coach windows, around corners, and in driving winds.

What do you suppose is indicated by the lower dial ? It's not Leap Years... is it minutes?

I wonder who has the turret room in this tower, with those windows?

Most of these dials look very well maintained.

This era, these countries -- they were reaching for the top

These are Protesting churches, from the time of Luther and Calvin.

This one was chiming. It's on the video later

Sundials!

World's finest astronomical clock, sadly undergoing maintenance.

Annoying electrical pole in the way.

Twin-tower church in the Black Forest.

This looks like a Cuckoo Clock

This is a crazy-crazy priced Cuckoo Clock. I put it in because everything else in this post is HIGH.

Tower Carillons

A carillon is a musical instrument that is typically housed in the bell tower (belfry) of a church or municipal building. The instrument consists of at least 23 cast bronze, cup-shaped bells, which are played serially to produce a melody, or sounded together to play a chord. (A carillon-like instrument with fewer than 23 bells is called a chime.)

A traditional manual carillon is played by striking a keyboard – the stick-like keys of which are called batons – with the fists, and by pressing the keys of a pedal keyboard with the feet. The keys mechanically activate levers and wires that connect to metal clappers that strike the inside of the bells, allowing the performer on the bells, or carillonneur/carillonist to vary the intensity of the note according to the force applied to the key. The volume however, is always LOUD.

The word "carillon" is from the French quadrillon, meaning four bells.

In German, a carillon is also called a Glockenspiel.

The percussion instrument called a "glockenspiel" by English speakers is often called a carillon in French.

Key Points from the Discussion

The term 'carillon' originates from the French 'quadrillon,' meaning four bells, and is also known as a Glockenspiel in German.
The lower dial on some tower clocks, which the author questioned, likely indicates quarter hours, a historical practice to add accuracy before minute hands were common.
Early clocks often featured only an hour hand, with chimes or additional bells indicating quarter hours, a principle also seen in modern 'Monozeiger' watches.
A Glockenspiel is a percussion instrument with tuned metal plates or tubes, distinct from a xylophone, and is related to the carillon.

The Discussion

MTF

Apr 17, 2018

Mike, I was stuck on this paragraph: " The word "carillon" is from the French quadrillon, meaning four bells. In German, a carillon is also called a Glockenspiel. The percussion instrument called a "glockenspiel" by English speakers is often called a carillon in French." Q: "Does it hurt?" A: "Only when I laugh..." MTF

Marcus Hanke

Apr 18, 2018

It follows the same principle as my "Monozeiger" watch made by AHCI member Rainer Nienaber: Only Rainer combined it into a single dial. In earlier times, clocks normally only had a single hand, indicating the hours. This was considered accurate enough. A chime stroke the hours. A bit later, increased accuracy was added by means of an additional bell, striking the quarter hours. For optical indiaction of this quarter hour, either a second dial was added, or (more often) a second hand, that was mu

cazalea

Apr 18, 2018

I scratched my head too, but let it stand because I couldn’t follow the circular reasoning either. Knowing a clever Purist would sort it out for us. Shrug. Does this help? A Glockenspiel: [Glocken: bells + Spiel: set] is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. It is similar to the xylophone but xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, thus technically making it a metallophone. The gl

cazalea

Apr 18, 2018

When we were there in Speyer, I saw the hand indicating when the clock struck the quarter hours, so I assumed minutes. But later looking at the photos I wasn’t sure. Mike

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Dutch Music Box and Clockworks Tour: Tower Clocks

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