Tinkerer's Clock

Just outside the Tinkering Studio stands a twenty-two-foot-high clock. Small cartoon characters are poised to oil, brush, weld, or otherwise tinker with the numerals; knobs let visitors animate the characters so they can attend to their tasks. On the hour, the work is finished. The numbers swing out to form a clock face and a mellow Chinese gong rings.

“Science museums used to display all sorts of mechanisms,” says the maker of the clock, artist/engineer Tim Hunkin. “But now so many things are electronic. The clock takes us back a bit in time. You can see how it works.”

Read Tim Hunkin's stories about the various mechanisms that make this clock work, and the challenges he faced in designing and building it. (click image to enlarge)

Go behind the scenes to learn more about the Tinkerer's Clock.