Emett water clock...and other clocks


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Yet another update! We've put some serious hours in this week, building the clock in Birmingham (Millennium Point - access is free if you are anywhere near but read on to understand what you might

Thank you for the kind comments, especially from those of you who have followed me on this journey. On location, I think the natural daylight is great - it is after all meant to be a sunflower, cobwe

Nope, not TT. On the matter of drinking, each day I've worked within that enclosure has been physically exhausting because of the heat and humidity - somewhere between a greenhouse and a sauna. Have

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Update:

Yesterday's work started at 6.30pm. I used my pickaxe to lift the slate slabs from around the clock's legs. The Intu engineers started to dig into the concrete with a 110V SDS chisel but it was hard going. Another Intu engineer used a cherry picker to remove the remaining petals. There was one that simply wouldn't budge so it was left attached.

One of the contractors doing other work on the site pitched up with a bigger electric chisel so we had a go with that on the concrete. It was still not very fruitful - the concrete semed particularly hard. We then took five and browsed some original photos of the framework. It was evident that the legs had not only been concreted in but they must be around 11 or 12 inches shorter than original. As we have aspirations to restore as near as possible to original, I suggested there was little value in spending more effort chipping away at the concrete. At best we could have exposed a few inches and still would have to extend the legs. It was agreed that we would just slice the legs off with a cutter as near the floor as possible.

Before cutting the legs, we continued with the strip down by unbolting and lifting off the sunflower. That was quite heavy but we got it down in one piece. I pulled the remaining cables clear of the clockwork control box and we removed that from the frame. The Intu engineers cut all the legs while I recovered the cables from the plastic conduit.

Four of us lifted the frame out of the basin, towards the cupcake stall. At last it was all out! I finished off by pulling the cable tails up from the basement. We were done by around 10pm. So there we have it - the clock is out!

All of the parts are to be taken away on Thursday to the temporary location from where refurbishment work will be carried out by around eight to ten members of the Rowland Emett Society. We need to get it ready for display in Birmingham (by early May I think). It will need to be fully functional, including a rotating water wheel, albeit as a dry installation (don't worry, it'll get wet again when back in the Vic Centre).

I'll post again when we've started the restoration.

Engineer

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What a great job you are doing! Although I am several thousand miles away, I enjoy your updates on the clock, and look forward to seeing it restored to it's original splendor - complete with water driven "wheel". I well remember when the clock was first revealed at the Vic. Center, and have taken a number of American visitors to see it, explain its "workings" and watch it do its 15 minute magic! I look forward to seeing it in operation again - hopefully soon!

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Yesterday I took some of the parts to show other members of the Rowland Emett Society. Several of them are members of a pre-war Austin Seven club, so are well versed in applying skills to old mechanical things. I've said I will manage any electrical aspects and sort out the drive needed for the water wheel. The deadline is to have it up and running in Birmingham by 12th May, where it will live until September.

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YouTube: nine hours of work compressed to about a minute! I'm the one in the white hat (except for when it got too hot, in which case I'm the baldy man).

"

"

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Just found another video. This is Rowland Emett at the official opening, mini-curtains and all.

http://www.movietone.com/N_POPUP_Player.cfm?action=playVideo&assetno=105041

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Have been playing that MovieTone clip a lot, trying to estimate the rotational speed of the water wheel. This is because I need to decide how fast to make it run when I specify a new motor/gearbox/drive-shaft. I have a figure now but can someone else try to estimate rotational speed and see what they come up with? Answer as x seconds per rev or RPM. Of course we don't know whether MovieTone has been reliably copied via TeleCine, so speed could be a bit out anyway.

If it helps, there are 18 water catchers and there's a section around 1:36 where over half a revolution can be observed.

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The rest of the parts were transported to a secret location yesterday. I went there in the evening to meet the group and start to divvi up who will do what. I brought the control panel, the mechanical plate (with the clockwork on it), two of the motors and a gearbox back with me.

There is a gearbox (worm and wheel type) that drives the petals with a bung on the side that says "oil level". This wouldn't have been accessible in-situ. Thought I'd better check the level....... are you ahead of me?.........dry as a bone. Luckily it only runs for around seven seconds eight times an hour so I think it's OK. I also need to swap a couple of bearings on the con-rod and do a bit of de-gunking.

The main task for me is to sort out that missing motor/gearbox/shaft/pulley. Before I can spec. the parts, we need to sort out the shaft for the main cobweb water wheel. It is clear now that the housing with two bearings in plummer blocks is not original so we have to cut that off and weld a tube on instead then decide whether it ought to have plain sleeve bearings or maybe needle roller bearings. Once that's sorted I'll have a better idea of the relative distance from drive shaft to wheel shaft. That determines the size of the drive pulley, which then determines the speed of the drive shaft. The motor gearbox is available in a range of different speeds. I've figured that the wheel needs to turn at around 5RPM.

That's all for now,

Engineer

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Update:

Was at the Time Fountain bunker yesterday from 11:45am to around 6:30pm. I stripped out the rest of the bits from the control box (mainly the mechanism that lifts the petals). The box assembly is almost ready to go to the soda blasters.

I built a wooden rim for the big cobweb water wheel, to minimise damage to its water catchers when it is in transit (one or two had gotten bent during its move from Nottingham). I curved three lengths of CLS by cutting deep slots at 50mm pitch, then cut 18 off 200mm noggins to go between the rim and the wheel. It was a bit tricky to assemble this on my own but I got there in the end.

I removed 33 petal pivot pins for fettling (some need the ends trueing up where accidentally mushroomed). There are three that I couldn't shift - will have to go back with better tools - problem is that there's not a lot of space between the petal carriers "stirrups" so I can't get a drift in. I'm thinking of making a puller-type tool.

I brought the Orchestra motor gearbox home - there is evidence of grease/oil leakage and some of the bolts are loose. I need to clean it up and maybe use a bit of threadlock.

The three pendants from the Top Feature "mobile" are back from the soda blasters and looking shiny and silver-like (one of the guys reckons they might be cadmium plated).

Engineer.

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Thanks for the updates. It is fascinating reading of the work which is going into this, For most of the public it will be a case if "It went and it came back again" with no clue of all the work going on behind the scenes. I try to imagine which parts you are referring to, as if I am watching you.

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What darkazana said - but it also gives us some insight into Emett and his skills too!

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See blog at http://rowlandemett.blogspot.co.uk/

plenty of commentary and great photos

Check out the Rowland Emett Society website (www.rowlandemett.com)

Also there's a Facebook page run by Enigma1st

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  • 3 weeks later...

Update

I've been at Hut E all day. I needed to figure out the shaft and bearing arrangement for the cobweb wheel (that's what we're calling the big water wheel now because it was meant to look like a cobweb). You might have noticed that the wheel was supported by a box just behind it, within which were two bearings. Anyone mechanically minded could tell you that this was bad design as the two bearings were too close to each other. Turns out that Emett didn't build it like that - it got changed sometime in the last 40 years. We want to get it back to original so that bearing box will be cut off. Looking today, I dug paint away to reveal brass sleeve type bearings in the wheel itself so the original shaft was stationary and fixed to the frame. We'll try to reinstate this.

The frame is back from the soda blasters. I haven't seen it yet but am told that blasting has revealed the locations where the missing pipes were welded on. The frame is now with a metal fabrication specialist who is going to add the missing parts and extend the legs by around a foot (300mm to any young readers). By my reckoning there are 25 parts missing from the frame.

Still with the cobweb wheel, one of the team has taken the butterflies away for cleaning and restoration (like renewing any missing "jewels"). I removed all other attachments from the wheel today (flowers, frogs, butterfly bearing blocks and those 18 plastic cups). It is now ready for blasting. I noted a couple of welds that need fixing.

On to the "sunflower" - this is the central assembly that held all the petals. Each petal is fixed to the sunflower by what I've called "stirrups". Each of these has a steel pin on which its petal swivels up and down. Did I mention previously that the Intu engineers struggled to get many of these pins out? Their efforts unfortunately necessitated hammering, which knocked stirrups out of alignment. I had recovered 33 pins but there were three that were well and truly wedged. Today I used a home-made "puller" to get these last three pins out. I then used a two foot crowbar, a ruler and trusty eyeballs to tweak the stirrups left/right, up/down and to get them horizontal.

Several of the copper tips on the sunflower were bent (don't know whether that was historical or done during dismantling or transport) so I spent some time straightening them.

That's all for now.

Engineer

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I've not been intu Vic centre since we took the clock away.

Has there been any official notice of where it will go when it comes back?

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The clock is now noticeable by its absence. First time that space has been empty since Vic Centre was built.

I see the commemorative stone is still there - wonder whether it will be dug out and repatriated with the clock next year?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just a heads up: Some other creations by Emett (not the clock) will be featured on "The One Show" next Wednesday - probably to plug the upcoming exhibition in Birmingham.

Engineer.

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I see a new timepiece adorns the Vic Centre atrium - on the wall above entrance to Next. Not quite in the same league as Emett but at least it's keeping time.

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Speaking of the Viccy centre, I was in there the other week, went to go in the market from the ground floor, and there it was, gone! Couldn't even figure out where it had been. Thankfully it was still upstairs, but food and household all together now.

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  • Cliff Ton changed the title to Emett water clock...and other clocks

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