Omaha daily bee., 1903-04-19
UNCLE SANS TlMEKEEPER
Big POstOfics Cock that Measures 0maha''
Days and NightS
ITS CONSTRUCTION AND ITS ODDITIES
Hardly FIFTY Pieces in Its Mechanism,
Yet Il IL Accurate and serves
the Public well in Ala
Sorts of weather.

Probably $4,000 different people turn, at
some time or other during the day or night,
TO look up at the clock in the postofice
tower and read the time of day on the
dial Of the clock. 1t is handler than TAX
ing a watch out Of your pocket and then
II Is always right. Few Of those who use
the clock from time to time have ever come
to realize how much they have come to
depend upon It as a marker Of the flight Of
time and only when, for a few hours the
clock takes on some of the ailments Of its
kind, does anyone stop to give more than
passing thought to this timepiece. 1t is
like all public servants in this respect, no
ticed only when they are d~erelict in their
duties. Then for a moment thought is
given to their usefulness and they are for
gotten again when things are as they were.
So IT is with the clock. Not one in fifty
has any conception Of the power behind the
hands: Of how they are made to 20 round
in their proper time and who winds the
clock, II It ever be wound. II one we're to
ask Of the passers on the street, the de-
scriptions OF this power behind the hands
would be as various as the winds that
carress the hands and then drive with
angry fury against the four dials.
To some the thought would come that
btuilU II lONI great uldlo All 10 . huuh
mass OF wheels and springs and others
would make the clock as small as a accent
alarm clock, with an electric attachment
to move the hands around.
What the Clock Is Like.
Ia reality the clock is neither small nor
IL 1t massive. Standing in the middle Of
the middle Of the tower, 100 feet above the
street, II marks out the measured beat Of
time. Two great weights hang from two
drums and and slowly unwind the coil OF
cable that keeps the mechanism moving.
The weights are far greater than the clock,
yet are governed solely by the interlocked
bars and c~ogwheels that stand above them.
1t does not seem possible that this simple
collection of cogs and bars, not more than
fifty pieces in all, could hold such deli
cate. perfect power in them. They are
all held on a standard Of iron not more
than twd feet high and two by four in
length and breadth. The two drums on
which are coiled the sixty feet Of steel
cable rest side by side. From one is hung
an S00-pound weight and, as 1t slowly I'M
coils, the hands on the four dials are
slowly moved about in their proper pro-
g~ression. A heavy pendulum. eight feet in
length, swings ponderously at one end Of
the drum and, with its silent beat, it lets
the drum slip slowly round and the weight
downward. A little three-forked wheel and
the pendulum are the governor of the clock
and on them depend the keeping time of
this clock. In the language OF the clock
maker. this is gravity escapement, and but
a few OF the large clocks, like this in the
postof1ce tower. are so equipped.
From the cable on the other drum is sus-
nandad a 4 Onn -l,,n -,,F-IN 81 &c.
here comes the power that makes the
striking of the hour possible. Two bars
reaching from the mechanism of the
clock, itself, regulate the movements OF
this drum. Seven minutes before the halt
and whole hours the bar which holds the
fan, as 1t is called, is released, and warn
ing of the time is given. Then the Sec
ond bar slowly raises until, at length, the
drum is loosed and slowly and deliberately
the hour is struck, beat by beat, upon the
bell in the upper room. The sound is
clear and resonant, and is as loud on the
street beneath as it is here in the room
behind the dials.
Where the Bell Hangs.
In the loft above, which is within a few
feet Of the gabled roof OF the tower, the
bell is hung securely from the rafters and
INC mdbSlNO CldppeT hdllbB nail llIleu, lot
the signal from the clock. Here the winds
Of summer and winter, the rains and the
snow all enter as they list, for the windows
are without glass and only screens to keep
out the birds are stretched before the shut
tered openings.
There is no waiting below. The pendu-
lum swings slowly back and forth in its
measured swing and watches day grow into
night and night into day. With the coming
of the night II turns on the eight Welsbach
burners that are ranged around behind each
of the four glass dials. They brighten and
as they do, the dial grows bright and mel.
low in the darkness OF the tower and the
hands and minute marks are siihouetted
against the circle OF light. The might
passes. and with the coming of daylight
the same power in the clock that turned
on the lights, turns them OF again. Al
the seasons of the year change and the
days are changed likewise In length tbs
man who attends to the clock arrangel
the clock so that the lights will be turnec
on and on, according to the rising and the
setting Of the sun.