FOUR-DIAL CLOCK.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 258, 30 October 1926, Page 11

FOUR-DIAL CLOCK.

FOR UNIVERSITY TOWER. MADE WHOLLY IN AUCKLAND. SPLENDID PIECE OF WORK. In a few days passers-by will be able to tell the time, north, south, east and west, from the conspicuous tower of the new University College buildings in Princes Street. The works are now ticking away methodically in the engineering works of the Gane Manufacturing Company, The Strand, Parnell, and in spells of five days at a stretch they have not lost a second nor gained one, and, according to the opinion of an expert, the University tower will house the best time-keeper in New Zealand. To the layman the most astonishing thing about this new clock is that it was designed and made, down to the smallest detail, in Auckland. As it stands there on the shop floor it is a beautiful piece of work. Its brightly-i-olished and lacquered brass parts, steel parts shining like silver, it is as attractive as a well-finished watch, though on a slightly different scale, for the, slowly swinging pendulum alone weighs a hundredweight and a-half, and the minute hand measures something over three feet. The Gane Company specialises in intricate gear-cutting, but one would still hardly have thought of looking there for such a delicate piece of mechanism as the works of a clock, but the explanation is that the manager, Mr. Neal Paton, is a clock expert, and has made a hobby of horology since he was a boy. He had a well-known gear-cutting business in Leeds, but about seven years ago he came out to New Zealand for his health, and that is how Auckland comes to be able to design and build such an important piece of work as the University College tower clock. Will Go for a Week. As a matter of fact it is, strictly speaking, not a clock, but a time-piece. A clock strikes the hours; a time-piece does not strike. The man in the street, however, calls them all clocks, indiscriminately. Mr. Paton's time-piece will go for eight days "and a bittock." The barrel is grooved so that the winding cord lies neat and close without a pos-

As mentioned before, the barrel is capable of holding sufficient cord to allow the clock to go for a week without rewinding, the height of the tower making this possible, because when the clock is nearly run down the weight will be something like 50ft below the dials. To Ring Lecture Bells. A most interesting part of the mechanism is a special device for ringing electric bells in the different classrooms at half-hourly periods to mark the beginning or ending of lectures. It is so arranged that it does not - ring during the night or during week-ends. The usual way of getting a result such as this is by a series of electric contacts, but there is only one contact in Mr. Paton's clock, the control being entirely mechanical and positive, brought about by the use of intermittent gearing. In these large clocks it is usual to make the bearings and wheels of gunmetal, but Mr. Paton has used phosphor bronze, and as all the pinions and pivots are of hardened steel they should last a very long time, one hundred years being a moderate estimate of the clock's life. Although it is a timepiece, and not a clock, provision has been made for the addition of striking apparatus, and also for a set of chimes, if some generous citizen should feel inclined to present a peal of bells to his Alma Mater. The six foot nine and a quarter inch dials are already in place in the tower. They have no figures, the hours being indicated by red diamonds, which are just as serviceable, for at that height very few people would be able to read figures, even if they had been used. To tell the time there will be a minute hand a little over three feet, with an hour hand about a foot less in length. These are hollow, of sheet copper, and it is interesting to note that the metal used for carrying them will be stainless steel where exposed to the weather. There are many highly interesting points about the clock, from a technical point of view, some of them the result ,of applying engineering principles to clock-making. For instance, every bearing has an oil-hole, a distinctly engineshop touch, which will not be found in the ordinary clock made by a watchmaker. But the man in the street would not be much the wiser even if these finer points were explained. He will, however, be able to appreciate a good time-keeper and when this very fine piece of mechanism is installed in the University tower, we are much mistaken if he will not have the most accurate piece of horology in Auckland—or probably in New Zealand.