Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1896 — BIG TOWER CLOCKS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BIG TOWER CLOCKS.

Very Cortly Machine* to Keep Tab On Father Time. Chicago has one of the greatest and In every way most magnificent quarterstriking, Westminster chime tower clocks in the United States. It Is in the tower of the St. Francis German Catholic Church. 12th street. The four ten-fcot dials are 180 feet from the street, and are automatically illuminating, the regular movement being supplemented with a mechanism by which the dials become illuminated at nightfall and the light closed oft at daybreak. Every fifteen minutes there peals forth a chime from five great bells of considerable melody. This clock was built six years ago at a cost of between 55,000 and 56,000. These Westminster chime attachments for tower clocks usually vary from 2,850 to 11,000 pounds. The largest tower clock that Chicago ever had was the Board of Trade timer, with font out-of-door dials, each ten feet and a half wide. It was bought from exhibits at the Centennial Exposition,* 1876, although not bought until 1885. Additional to the four massive outside dials, it also had two others down below, one in exchange hall, and another in the delivery room, the lattej dial being about 400 feet from the clock movement. Last year when the tower was taken down as a matter of safety the clock was considered too large to replace, and, with its 4,500-pound bell, was consigned to the lumber room. It cost $5,000. The second largest clock in. the world is now building for the new City Hall at Minneapolis. It will have a dial 22 feefS inches, in diameter. Until thiswork is accomplished the San Francisco Chronicle clock, put up about five years ago. and having 16%-foot dials, holds the belt for America. Chicago’s biggest time-piece is that in the tower of the Grand Central Railway Station. Its dials are 13Va feet across. The Tolk Street Dejnit; clock is a 10-foot dial; so is the Rock Island. The Illinois Central's is 8 feet. On a 10-foot dial the numerals are 2 feet and 4 Inches long; cn a 10-foot, 18 inches long; and on a 5-foot they are 9. People have been heard wondering whether these tower, clocks with, more Tlialn ofie dial required “a clock“*to each, dial. Nd. One complete movement suf-

fires for any number of dials. The shaft that turns the hands is a solid one running from the clock’s movement to the dial room, where it is connected with a tower center, consisting of four bevel wheels operated by one on top that moves the four simultaneously. These four move the hands. A first-class tower clock should not vary more than five to ten seconds a month.

SECTIONAL VIEW OF A TOWER CLOCK.