
Beverly Clock - tzury
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverly_Clock
======
oldcynic
See also Cox's Clock:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cox's_timepiece](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cox's_timepiece)

I'm sure Wikipedia used to have a much better write up, and more info on other
clocks of a similar type. It's a shame they started on deleting and merging so
much of the historic and esoterica - they lost a lot of accuracy and good data
in the process.

Now the best write up and photo is at [http://www.douglas-
self.com/MUSEUM/POWER/oddclocks/oddclocks...](http://www.douglas-
self.com/MUSEUM/POWER/oddclocks/oddclocks.htm)

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neotek
Off topic, but I have never understood Wikipedia's intense drive to rid itself
of anything interesting or unusual or esoteric. It's text in a database,
you're not running out of space, nor are you diminishing the quality of other
articles!

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Amorymeltzer
It's an encyclopedia; its content should be encyclopedic. A website that holds
on to everything else would be something different. While that's also fine,
it's a different project with a different goal.

~~~
jamesrcole
I know citing definitions only gets you so far, but the first definition
Google provides for encyclopedic is "comprehensive in terms of information."

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yoz-y
If the content starts to touch topics which are too niche, there is a risk
that no-one will be able to verify it and the information will become
unreliable.

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Double_a_92
Where would be a good place to actually store that niche knowledge? I agree
that it doesn't really belong on Wikipedia... But it could still be valuable.
Maybe even more valuable than "normal" content because if it's lost it's lost
for good.

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yoz-y
In an ideal world, on the free decentralized web of interconnected webpages
indexed by search engines and archived in several places for posterity. In the
current state, I suppose something like Wikia but for anything? It definitely
deserves some place.

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gopz
So this is probably a dumb question...but is the clock at all accurate? It
says it stops periodically when there isn't sufficient fluctuation in
temperature so do they manually correct it after?

~~~
toi98uhn
I own a similar clock (the Atmos clock mentioned in the article). It loses
several minutes per month. FWIW, I live in Los Angeles and it has been the
same regardless of time of year over the past decade or so. It's great that I
don't need to wind it, and it's mesmerizing to watch, but it's not the most
accurate clock in the world.

~~~
zokier
If it is consistently slow (or fast) then it sounds like it should be
correctable; most good clockwork mechanisms have some way of adjusting the
beat rate.

~~~
op00to
Indeed Atmos clocks do have a speed adjustment, though they are very
sensitive. I'd contact a professional since any repairs to them get expensive
very fast.

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placebo
I wonder if a similar principle could have been used in the construction of
the late Dr David Jones’s bicycle wheel:

[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4762778/How-r...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4762778/How-
riddle-bike-wheel-finally-solved.html)

~~~
PuffinBlue
This was my exact thought. I guess all these attempts at perpetual motion
machines are variations of heat engines at some level of operation.

At the least this clock could take the title of longest running 'fake'
perpetual motion machine.

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laurent123456
It says the clock has never been manually wound, but can it be manually wound?
It's weird they keep repeating this in the article (and all the linked
articles) because it seems it's just not how it works, a bit like a solar
powered watch.

~~~
jstanley
Sure it can, just raise the weight by hand (or, if I've misunderstood it, do
whatever other operation is caused by the change in pressure).

It probably doesn't have a winder, but that doesn't mean it can't be wound.

~~~
laurent123456
Yes that would make sense. It seems it's the article that's not making much
sense:

> While the clock has not been wound [...] it has stopped on a number of
> occasions.

> when the ambient temperature has not fluctuated sufficiently to absorb the
> requisite amount of energy, the clock will not function

...so it's been wound.

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toomanybeersies
No, after it was initially wound, it hasn't been wound by a person again. It
has stopped, but it has restarted on its own without human intervention.

~~~
GuiA
For all we know, it never had to be initially wound.

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creeble
31 micro-watt-hours. Wow.

Analog clocks don't have much to do, but I'm glad we still use them.

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ableal
That got me curious about digital clock chips.

A quick search netted me this:
[https://www.ablicinc.com/en/doc/datasheet/real_time_clock/S3...](https://www.ablicinc.com/en/doc/datasheet/real_time_clock/S35390A_E.pdf)

They specify a typical current of 0.25 uA at 3V supply, that's 0.75 uW power.
So an energy of 18 uWh over 24h.

Same ballpark, but does not move gears (just talks on the "phone" ;-)

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sannee
The STM32L0x1 series has just a bit more at 0.9 uW (stop mode + RTC), but it
gets you a full microcontroller.

I am unsure if we have enough of an energy budget to get us some display
(e-ink likely) (and the MCU also needs some extra energy for the updates)
though.

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mpetrovich
Related: Atmos clock

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmos_clock](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmos_clock)

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xupybd
I'm surprised to see Dunedin pop up twice in one day one Hackernew. Maybe NZ
is more influential than I thought.

