The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-08-18
THE FLORAL CLOCK.
Largest Clock of the Most Deli
cate Mechanism Will be on Ex-
hibitiOn nj St. Louis.

Work has been begun by the John
son Service Company of Milwaukee on
the hands and machinery of the larg-
est clock in the world which will prove
OF the most Interesting features
of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
This mammoth clock will be an engi-
neering masterpiece and will be INSTALL
ed on h side of the hill north of the
agricultural building. The dial for this
timepiece will be a flower
bed y feet in diameter.
The minute hand will be sixty feet
long, and the ring at the end. which
will be fastened to the machinery will
be eight feet in diameter, large enough
TO support twelve men easily. A hun
.dred persons might promenade on this
hand without interfering with the
movements of the timepiece. The min
ute nand will o five feet every min
ute.
The flower bed Will be q masterpiece
iof the florists art. The entire dial will
be Il flower bed, and the numerals
marking the various hours will be ff-
teen feet in length, and made of bright
lcOiCred coleuS, a foliage plant with
bright colOred leaves that rows dense
land may be pruned n kept symme-
ltrlcal without danger of impairing it's
lgrOwth. In Il broad circle. surrounding
the dial, will be twelve flower beds. one
Opposite each hour. each two feet wide
and fifteen feet long. These colIec-
items will represent various flowers, But
leach will be SO selected that the bios
some is open at the particular hour it
represents, and at no other. II this
way both the hands of the clock and
the flowers will. tell the time of day.
At night the whole vast timepiece will
be illuminated with 1000 incandescent
lights.
The machinery of the clock will be
installed in a house of glass built near
by. Here an astronomical clock, the
most delicate mechanism known 10 the
jWatchmaker's art, will direct the move
lments Of the mammoth timepiece with
Iout, and by means of compressed all
1.-THE delicate movement of its hands will
lbe transmitted to the gigantic hands
lof the flower clock. Its accuracy is thus
absolute. This is the first time such
ia delicate mechanism has been adjusted
Ito nove such a large timepiece.
The clock itself is sixteen times as
llarga as any that has heretofore been
lmade. The next largest is the clock in
the tower OF the City Hall Il Philadel-
phia, which has a dial diameter OF
twenty-five feet.
The mammoth hands are the first part
of the mechanism to be constructed, sc
that an estimate may be made of the
necessary size of the moving machin-
cry. Until they have been built and
mourted. it is impossible to determine
the amount Of power necessary TO move
them on their daily trip around the
dial. The hands will be built of struc-
Itural steel. set in trusses like the tres
tie work OF a bridge. and this trestle
work will be covered with roofing tin.
The astronomical clock, which viii
be h master of the movements of the
mammoth timepiece, is q delicate me-
Ichanism mounted on an iron column
weighing 500 pounds. to give. it stabili-
ty and freedom from Earring. The col
lumn will be supported on three cap
stan screws 10 bring it to an absolute
= -ANA
in the hollow column, which has an
absolutely ~dustproof glass front. The
weight falls inside the columns but in a
separate compartment so that il viii
not influence the swinging Of the pen
ldulum.
The works proper will be mounted in
IA dustproof glass case. The winding
of the clock Will be one ono a month
through a hole in the glass case, which
at other times will be kept Theoretically
closed.
An immense bell will strike the hours
flor his clock, and an effort Is now be-
ling made TO secure the Columbian lib
erty bell for this purpose. An immense
hour glass. five feet high, to be revers-
led automatically by a special mechan
ism every hour, will form an addition
al feature of this part Of the exposi-
'tion.-Milwaukee Sentinel