FIRST TURRET CLOCK

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 55, Issue 3939, 13 August 1937, Page 4

FIRST TURRET CLOCK

TYPE NOW SUPERSEDED. MAKERS’ SUGGESTIONS FOR TE AWAMUTU. Some interesting facts about town clocks were mentioned at the meeting of the special sub-committee set up some time ago by the Borough Council and Chamber of Commerce to explore the possibilities of re-erecting the town clock recently dismantled from the post office building. For instance, Mr Warburton read a letter he had received from the wellknown Wellington firm of jewellers and watchmakers, Messrs W. Littlejohn and Son, Ltd., acknowledging an inquiry. We quote: “We are very interested in the Te Awamutu town clock, for it was the first turret clock made by us in New Zealand. It was made in our workshops in the year 1880, and was first erected in the Timaru post office, where it remained until 1913, when it was replaced by a larger chiming clock, and re-erected at Te Awamutu. "This type of gravity driven clock has been superseded in later years by electrical movements, and the clocks we have recently erected in Gis borne, Wanganui, Hastings, Christ, church, Sumner, New Brighton and Dunedin have all been electric. There are various types of electric clock movements, some of which we do not recommend for public timepieces where accuracy and reliability are essentials. The type which obtains its power direct from A.C. mains is too frequently affected by breakdowns in the power supply, which causes stoppage of the clock. Numerous auxiliary movements which should carry on over any such stoppage have been tried, but none, to our mind, are satisfactory. “The type which we recommend is the waiting train turret movement, which is illustrated and described in the enclosed catalogue. The power for this type of clock is taken from the A.C. mains into continuously trickle-charged accumulators, and the clock would carry on unaffected even by a breakdown in the A.C. mains of some months’ duration.

“Your present clock is massive and weighty and must essentially be housed in a strong and rigid tower. Any movement in the tower will affect the time-keeping, which is controlled by the long, heavy pendulums. The waiting train movement is very much lighter, and will work efficiently in a tower which need not be so rigid, and the time-keeping is not controlled by the pendulum, but by a master clock which can be situated in the base of the tower or even in a building at some distance from the tower.

"It is impossible to give you any accurate quotation without having the details of the tower, but for your guidance we estimate that it would cost approximately £240 to supply new electric waiting train and striking movements and erect in a new tower, using the present dials, hands and dial motion work.

“Returning to the existing movement, may we say that if it were decided to re-install it in a new tower it could be arranged to wind the weights up electrically instead of manually as at present, and this, besides obviating the periodical hand winding, would do away with the long drop necessary for the weights. To overhaul the existing clock, convert to electric winding, and re-install in a new tower we estimate would cost approximately £275.”