Tells Everything.

Thames Star, Volume LXV, Issue 19211, 18 September 1934, Page 3

Tells Everything.

UNUSUAL HOME-MADE CLOCK. BUILT OF ODDS AND ENDS. WELLINGTON MAIL’S INDUSTRY. A clock which tells the minutes, hours, days of the month, state of the moon and the times at important places round the world, besides chiming the quarter-hours and striking the hours, but which cost only £4 to make, stands in the entrance hall at the home of its owner and constructor, Mr. G. W. Barltrop, of Newtown, Wellington. Since it was set going in August,-1914, it has kept good time. • .... Mr. Barltrop built the clock ’at odd intervals over a period of nearly 30 years, additions, being, gradually made to what was originally a comparatively siinple timepiece. ' The parts= which-were; bought were a piece of brass ‘ plate for the frame of the a dpim for the chiming mechanism, a globe which represents the moon, and timber for the case. .

The remainder consists of parts of old clocks, wire and scrap of no value put together, with the aid of such simple tools as files, hammer, hand-drill and hacksaw. The- pendulum is a piece of fencing wire and its bob an old floor polish tin filled with lead. The weight, which is tho principal motive force, is a mustard tin filled with lead and hanging on a fishing line. Pieces of many old clocks went into this masterpiece from the home workshop, Mr. Baltrop sometimes pulling to pieces a discarded clock to secure only one wheel that he needed. Even the chimes were at first assembled junk, being matched alarm clock and bicycle bells, but since he finished the clock Mr. Barltrop has been presented with a set of profes-sionally-made chimes which he has installed. There are six dials on the front of the clock. The first has a hand which points to the day of the week, changing at midnight. The second dial indicates the date in the month, also changing at midnight and skipping the appropriate numbers . of days in short months. The third dial tells what month it is. The phases, of the moon are indicated by, a revolving globe, _of which one hemisphere is painted black and tho other white. Another dial is like an ordinary, clock face arid performs the same function.

Below all these dials is another much larger one for showing the time in other parts of the world. A disc revolves inside a larger ring and, as it does so, the names of various places in the world come opposite the appropriate times. A portion of the disc is shaded to show whether it is day or night at those places, and numbers indicate how many hours ahead ,or behind New Zealand the place is. When, the case is closed and the dials are the only part of the mechanism visible, nothing but a close inspection would reveal the clock’s unusual origin, although its array of dials shows it to be no ordinary timepiece..

Mr. Barltrop has had no special training or experience in clockmaking, and has never made another clock; but the quality of his work in its essentials is indicated by the 20 years’ timekeeping which the clock has behind it.