Turret clock

Under Clock Tower is meant

• A large, highly visible, usually furnished to a church steeple or a clock tower clock. Usually dials on all four points of the compass are mounted back.
• The entire watch mechanics, ie the movement with the additional components, for a large public clock on a building such as the town hall, school, castle, church or monastery. The dial must not necessarily be placed on a tower.

History

Shock watches

Tower clocks were the first mechanical clocks at all and found towards the end of the Middle Ages widespread. Watches were very expensive at that time, so that a tower clock for all inhabitants of a place brought a benefit. As a central and authoritative time indicator, these movements were installed on the high towers of churches, town halls and castles. The first mechanical clocks with weight drive (from about 1300) announced the first full hour by automatic chimes. Alternatively, beat watchmen at any early hour to the associated bell.

With the invention of striking clock for the first time it was possible to represent equinoctial hours by means of a mechanism to without having to perform astronomical calculations. A mechanical clock with display of previously common temporal hours would have been very costly, although their design has been isolated yet tried. Shock watches are first documented in conjunction with equinoctial hours in 1344 in Padua. Genoa followed in 1353, Bologna 1356. Subsequently striking clocks were used throughout Europe.

Watches with pointers

Later watches were used with pointers. They brought an "official " for the respective region binding time. In the first dials one was content with just one hand, which counted the hours. The tower clocks were constructed back then still traditionally handmade by forging of iron.

On the dial of tower clocks with Roman numerals is the 4 often portrayed as ' IIII ' and not as a common practice since the Middle Ages as ' IV'. The "wrong" representation is chosen for reasons of symmetry. By ' IIII ' means an optically equivalent counterweight to the opposite ' VIII '. In addition to this, all payment methods are equally often before (four stroke, V - and X - numbers). To date, both spellings are common.

Tower clocks were used for timing for liturgical purposes ( prayer times ) and the division of the working day. A very early German -language instruction manual for regulating a clock tower with a so-called " Waagbalkenhemmung " is known from the year 1385. Long these watches were asked daily service to a sundial or a lunch Weiser, not necessarily because they were inaccurate, but because until the 19th century, the daily position of the sun redefined true time was used.

Presence

Today mechanical tower clocks are rarely in use, the modern technology with radio-controlled plants and also the complex, difficult maintenance of watches have made their contribution.

Curiosities

The church tower of the parish church of the Assumption in the South Tyrolean Terlano shows different than usual today, with the short clock the minutes and the long hand the hour.