Dr Michael Hartl is proposing a movement in mathematical circles (no pun intended) that will mean a lot to Comitti engineers and designers or anyone with a vested interest in clock making and its inevitable concerns with radial trigonometry. Dr Hartl (an educator and former theoretical physicist) proposes the scrapping of pi in favour of a new constant symbolised by the Greek letter tau and which would be equal to 2 x pi. This measure fits more elegantly with the radian definition of circles rather than the conventional angular measure based on pi. The idea is that tau will simplify many areas of mathematics and engineering. Have a look at the BBC article for a deeper explanation of the concept: -
Here at Comitti Clocks we like to show you something just a little bit different from time to time and as we have a vested interest in artfully crafted engineering clocks such as our Congreve and Grasshopper models we do like to consider other novelty designs and concepts at times.
Bernard Gitton is a french physicist and artist who combines a fascination for liquid engineering with a love for novelty. He is well known within horological circles for his amazing and very entertaining Time Flow clocks.
The Gitton Time Flow clock has to be one of the most ingenious and inventive clocks built in the last 50 years. It does, in fact, embody quite a revolutionary principal and is a masterpiece of hydrodynamic engineering. Without going into too much detail (because it is mind boggling) the Time Flow functions on a principal of cascading syphons and vacuum locking and breaking that forms a system analogous to the escapement mechanism in a mechanical clock. The system takes its primary power from a pendulum which drives a pump. This concept of a pendulum driven hydrodynamic system with a very beautiful aesthetic has conferred a certain legendary status on this clock and consequently the original Time Flow is a highly collectable (and very valuable) item.
Time Flow iPhone app :)
Gitton is known for many other innovative hydrodynamic inventions not least his liquid 'logic' devices which are analogous to digital electronic circuits, such devices have been used to create an extraordinary water calculator that actually has the same functional principal as its electronic counterpart only using flows of water instead of electrons. Of course it is not quite as fast as the electronic version.
For those who are interested click the link below for more detailed information on the Time Flow principal including a very technical explanation of exactly how it works.
Salisbury cathedral clock is one of the oldest working timepieces in the world. We thought you may be interested in this nugget of information which also serves to remind us of our significant associations with horology and time keeping in the UK.
The clock is thought to date from 1386 and fell out of use for many years until it's restoration in 1956. As was common with many early church clocks the Salisbury machine does not drive hands on a face, but instead marks time by ringing the cathedrals tower bells by way of a striking train. At the time of its introduction the church had a much more significant place in the fabric of English society and culture than it does today, the clock was more important for its function as a device to remind the congregation(s) of the timings or intervals between the seven routine daily services rather than being an aid to other aspects of life which would have continued to rely on more instinctive ideas of time, if at all.
It is interesting to consider whether the assertion of the routines of religious worship or the technicalities of maritime navigation were the first practical motives for the social and industrial use of clocks.
A Brief History of Time Zones is an interesting BBC article on the thorny subject of global time differences. The item has a very engaging (flash) graphic that helps to delineate the topic very effectively. In our age of globally linked communications it seems a little odd now that cultural, political and other forces have contributed to the most complex disparities in global time references since the 19th century. The clamour for daylight saving time and other associated ideas which attempt to completely change our temporal frames of reference have a large part to do with this complexity. See more here:-
Here is a brief preview of our new coloured chinoiserie clocks. chinoiserie has been part of the Comitti repertoire since the company began more than hundred years ago. It is a traditional European craft form dating from the seventeenth century and largely pioneered in France. Essentially, a whimsical evocation of classical chinese arts and craft design married to the classic European renaissance style.
Comitti now offer three new chinoiserie clocks in red, green and blue to compliment our existing range on black lacquer. These high colour treatments are also an authentic chinoiserie finish or style. In fact, red was one of the most common base colours for traditional chinoiserie decoration.
Many of you may find this site to be quite interesting and also rather inspiring http://www.thewalpole.co.uk/ . Walpole British Luxury is dedicated to the promotion of all of our most iconic national brands and by default also provides something of an insight into the current state of classic British design.
Comitti are pleased to announce that we will be displaying some of our most iconic products to a select gathering of journalists and industry pundits later in June. We will report further on this next month and look forward to this highly prestigious publicity for our clocks.
A new video demonstrating our Grasshopper and Congreve clocks along with others. This is a very good piece of work, shot in high quality, high definition video.
Already Day 5 of the show and what a fantastic reaction we've had to the stunning new clocks! Comitti has brought the unique heritage of British Clockmaking to an international audience at Baselworld.
This is the best ever show for Comitti with interest from all over the world - including Australia, China, India, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Taiwan, UAE and Canada.
The skeleton clocks have really drawn the visitors .. people passing the stand are compelled to look at the Grasshopper (in all versions), the Congreve and the Great Wheel and nearly all want to talk about them and are intrigued by the great history and romance behind each piece of 'horological art'.
Keep watching this space for more updates and photos from this event along with news about some of the new products revealed at Baselworld.
A heartening story for British business but also a special coup for clock making in the UK. This BBC item tells the story of Smith clocks who are enjoying something of a boom in export orders despite the comparative state of economic stasis at home. Apparently, "Made in Britain" has become a popular selling tag in many eastern European countries and China and of course Britain has a very special place in the history of clock making and is renowned the world over as an innovator in horology.
An interesting story about Dr John Taylor , inventive horologist and designer of the 'Chronphage' a very exotic novelty clock / work of art. Dr Taylor also cites John Harrison as a significant source of inspiration for his long term interest in clocks and horology.
The BBC “History Of The World In A Hundred Objects” series recently cited some of John Harrison’s significant horological inventions. None is more significant though than his work with maritime chronometers, devices that literally revolutionised the science of navigation at sea. The Comitti Grasshopper clock is a faithful reproduction of one of Harrisons more exotic chronometers but the BBC series focused on the historic time keeping device that was kept aboard HMS Beagle and accompanied Darwin on his epic voyages.
The BBC has recently broadcast a series of historical documentaries on Radio 4 entitled History of The World in One Hundred Objects. The series attempts to define the inventions or artifacts that have had a marked effect on the development of society, the evolution of science / engineering and ultimately defined aspects of modern life today. Obviously, the clock and time keeping is a very important aspect of this and a number of John Harrison’s inventions and patents have been cited in the documentary.
This is an interesting article about his Precision Pendulum Clock that became a vital time reference instrument, which played a significant role in maritime time keeping and navigation. In some ways it was a little like the base time atomic clocks of today.
An example of the pre-owned wristwatches currently available from Prestons of Bolton. The Patek Philippe Gondola Serata ladies watch is set with over 100 diamonds in a white gold casing with mother of pearl face. You can see the website entry here pre-owned Patek
Patek is a very distinguished name and one of the oldest Swiss watchmaking firms but probably not quite as well known as other prestige names such as Rolex and Longines. Prestons of Bolton are a major stockist for Rolex and also supply new watches by all of the other luxury brands. Over the coming months the pre-owned wristwatches collection is expected to grow exponentially and there are likely to be many interesting and highly collectable timepieces available for purchase at reduced prices.
For many years Prestons of Bolton (a well known jewelers in the northwest UK) have been renowned for their exquisite range of high prestige wristwatches. Prestons is the most significant Rolex dealer in the North but now they have also moved into the pre-owned high value wristwatch market. A new page has appeared on the website where you can see some of the magnificent and often highly collectable pre-owned watches that are currently available in store. Many of course, are available with substantial discounts!
Comitti has had many delighted customers over the years and we thought we would include a few of the testimonials written for us by customers who have had so much pleasure from their Comitti purchases.
Many of our correspondents describe how their clocks have provided a source of enchantment and interest. The comforting presence of a grandfather or grandmother clock is a theme that comes up fairly often too. "Our Kensington gradfather clock arrived last week. It is absolutely beautiful! The mahogany pillars with brass caps I had requested are exactly how I wished them to be! He is now a British/Texan Clock. Very special indeed! We will always treasure him! To you and everyone there, all our thanks! When we go by London we will come visit you." Ana Morcate, Texas, USA
"It is very seldom that I write to a company thanking them for their service, but you compel me to act. My Trafalgar mahogany grandfather clock is absolutely perfect. I am over the moon. I only have praise for the person who installed it, very proficient and dedicated. Ever since 1950 I always wanted a grandfather clock and now I have one. Thank you very much for this splendid product." Mr Salter, Surrey, UK
"This is to acknowledge the return of my clock. Your service is very much appreciated and it is very pleasant to find a company that still believes in good customer service and I would have no hesitation, in the future, of recoomending your clocks." R Cowx, Kent, UK
"I telephoned recently regarding a replacement key for a mantel clock. This has now been received and I would like to thank you very much for your kind attention and assistance in this matter. It is reassuring to receive service such as this, which is most certainly a welcome change." G West, Surrey, UK
"Just wanted you all to know how much I enjoy my grandfather clock which arrived today. It is the Admiral Nelson grandfather clock and is beautiful." Joan Quigley, Massachusetts, USA
"We just wanted to convey our delight with our beautiful grandmother clock which was delivered and set up yesterday. I have always wanted to own a grandmother clock and it is everything I hoped it would be-and much more! It looks magnificent in its position in our hallway-in fact it looks as if it has been made especially for that particular space-and I just want to keep looking at it and listening to the chime! The skill of the craftsmen who made it is evident and I would be grateful if you could pass on our thanks and appreciation to them." Mrs Tyson, Berkshire, UK
Just a handful of the many encouraging testimonials that we have received recently. Comitti are grateful for your feedback as we are a small and dedicated company and it is always interesting to know what our customers feel, and of course, we are always delighted to hear stories about how much pleasure our lovingly hand crafted clocks have brought into peoples lives.
Here is an interesting site dedicated to antique British railway clocks. Some of the designs have strong similarities to the Comitti Victorian Wall Clock and others. Railway clocks are particularly popular with collectors and thematic designers not to mention railway enthusiasts and heritage railway organisations. You can see that many of the clocks employ a particularly robust design with very interesting and often quite stout hands to complement heavy and bold face markings; these also include 24 hour scales. The site has clocks from all of the major pre-nationalisation companies along with early British Railways designs.
This is an animation of the Comitti Congreve clock, another popular and well known specialty model from the makers of the equally notable Grasshopper.
The clock is based on a design by William Congreve c1808, a very popular concept clock with a curiosity value revered by collectors through the ages. The solid brass ball rolls along specially constructed guide channels on a tilted plate where it then triggers an escapement which in turn tilts the plate in the opposite direction sending the ball back to the other end of the channel and again triggering the escapement thus reversing the process once more.
The function of the clock manifests an engaging delineation of the passing of time as a physical process of momentum. The Victorians were particularly keen on machines or mechanical devices that employed novel systems or appeared to describe, measure, or define the magical, divine or simple processes of time and nature, this was a time when the barometer, music boxes and all manner of automata became popular household novelty items.
The Congreve clock actually pre-dates the Victorian era by more than 20 years and many of the innovations that came to be synonymous with the industrial age though it is a highly advanced piece of mechanical engineering. The cycle and regulation of the clock is determined by very complex calculations which take into account the mass, diameter and velocity of the rolling ball and part of this is a function of the angle of the sloping plate, the length of the guide track and radius of the bends in it. The passage of the ball from one end of the track to the other takes approximately 15 seconds. The essential appearance of the clock gives an impression that it is somehow in a state of perpetual motion with only gravity and the potential energy of the ball as a driving force but this can not be possible as another form of energy is required to lift the plate and the ball at each end of its travel. The main driving force for this clock is a large wound coil spring and this provides the lifting energy for the plate which is then transferred to the ball that in turn operates the escapement mechanism.
please visit the Comitti website for more information on the Congreve clock and other traditional grandfather clocks, table top and wall clocks.
Here is an impressive piece of work created by our new graphics junior, it shows an overview of the movement action of Comitti’s famous Grasshopper clock. This is based on a photo that has been used on both the Comitti site and some of our printed literature designed by the folks at the Gate.
The original form of this clock (an 18th Century design by John Harrison) can be seen at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. The animation demonstrates the movement of the double pendulums which were cleverly designed to counteract perturbations that can arise from changing orientation of the clock itself as would happen on board a ship. Our designer has applied the same animation technique to other specialty clocks by Comitti and we will feature those here in the coming days.
The Sheraton Stick Barometer by Comitti of London.
Many people may already know that Comitti is one of a very small number of companies in the UK that manufacture traditional barometers. In fact, you could count these companies on the fingers on one hand. Barometer making has been a significant craft in Britain for nearly 350 years and ties in with that perennial British obsession --- the weather! This in turn has its roots in traditions arising from our status as an island based nation of seafarers. Barometers were first manufactured for maritime use and employed in both land based and sea going contexts, they gave seafarers a huge advantage as a knowledge of likely and impending weather conditions was so vital in the age of sailing ships.
Now after nearly 350 years the survival of the British craft of barometer making is once again facing a serious threat thanks to ongoing EU legislation on the use of mercury in non-medical instrumentation.
Traditional barometers rely on mercury which is used in the measuring tubes for both temperature and atmospheric pressure. The more sophisticated and scientifically orientated barometers may also contain a wet bulb hygrometer for measuring relative humidity; this is another component that makes use of a small amount of mercury. but later aneroid types with a dial dispaly also use small amounts of mercury for the high accuracy thermometer component. The aneroid barometer will be most familiar to the majority of people. We will keep all interested parties informed through our website, this blog and also the Comitti Face Book page.
