The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-09-20
Big City Hall Clock and
Its Mammoth Mechanism

The local Washington observatory
clocks and the jewelers. big regulator
are in the minds of the average citi-
zen the acme of accuracy, but he never
consulted the time-piece in the tower
of the city hall before reaching that
conclusion. fasaG
Never loses more than two seconds
in the week." declares the caretaker
of St. PauPs big town clock, and I
defy them to show me a time-p piece
that finishes its eight days any closer"
Thousands have scanned the four
dials in the tall tower that surmounts
the city hall and court house building
since it was erected in 1899, but they
can be written in three figures the num-
Der of those who have gratified their
curiosity by inspecting the machinery
within
1t is weary climb and not over
clean one to the spacious room in which
the clocks delicate mechanism is
housed.
One flight of steep iron stairs after
leaving the elevator on the top floor of
the big building. Two, three and then
four and you gasp for breath as the
guide, putting himself, advises a rest
and let's your eyes and soul drink i'll
the view before you.
View Is Splendid.
The view? 1t is really worth the
trouble. Not even the big clock in its
glass case alongside of you, the four
big bells in the room above, even then
sounding the quarter hour, can find a
place in your contemplation. You are
oblivious of their presence.
Interested, you walk gingerly over to
the grated window through which the
breezes are rushing like hurricane.
The people on the street far below do
not look like pigmies, neither do they
crawl, as the man looking from a great
height would have it. They are a
trifie dwarfed, it is to be conceded, and
the "newsie" with his bundle of poi
pers" racing across the street to sup
ply a reckoning customer does seem a
trifie slow but otherwise it is the same
old Mother Earth.
East, west, north and south. What
a grand scene. Every lane and every
building stands out with prominence
that is startling. To the south the
Father of Waters trails its sinuous
length until lost in the. wooded sur
roundings of historic Fort Smelling.
Like a monstrous ribbon it lies, gilt
tering under the sun, marred only at
varying distances by bridges of un-
slightly design, whose very distinctive
ness sets off the moving waters all the
more effectively. There is not a pref
tier view in St. Paul.
No Tick to This Clock.
But the big clock 1t does not tick.
as your imagination would have ii.
Enclosed in its big glass case not ten
feet away, it might as well be thou
sands of miles distant for all the noise
one hears. Neither is it's machinery
any different from the oId-fashioned
time-piece that hangs in the home. 1t
is much larger though, as much larger
as four tons of brass and iron castings
can make it.
There is the pendulum with its wind
ing length nearly two floors below and
weighing 1900 pounds, while the
wheels have toothed spaces on their
circumference in which the finger
could be comfortably placed, and a
crank for winding which the two hands
grasp in lieu of the regulation key.
FOR precautions sake the machinery
which operates the hands on the dials.
two floors above, Is housed in a cop
per-lined room. and this is supplement-
ed by moisture and dust proof case
which is not unlike an ordinary clock
case with its front of glass, though in
this case all four sides are of glass.
Weights instead of springs control
the movement of the big clock and they
are monsters. There are three of them,
hung on wire cables which encircle
as many iron drums and they weigh
2,7o0 2,400 and 1000 pounds respect
lively One operates the chimes, an
other sounds the hours and quarters
and the third keeps the clock machin-
cry proper going.
How the Chimes Are Sounded.
A shaft carrying four eccentrlcs
causes the chimes to sound. AS each
eccentric turns the notched face re-
leases a lever which trips hammer in
the room above and this strikes the
bell. The sounding of the hour aud
quarters is done on a bell which is
the biggest of the lot. 1t is a monster
and the BANNER which is used in
striking it is in proportion. Like the
others, this hammer is delicately pois-
ed. and the turning OF the eccentrics
on the clock shaft below causes it to
fall. s ..-.e
The tower has four floors. and evsry