Corpus Clock

The dominating visual feature of the clock is a grim-looking metal sculpture of an insectoid creature similar to a grasshopper or locust.

The hour is tolled by the sound of a chain clanking into a small wooden coffin hidden in the back of the clock.

[citation needed] Below the clock is an inscription from the Vulgate 1 John 2:17: mundus transit et concupiscentia eius ("the world passeth away, and the lust thereof").

The clock has many unexpected and innovative features; for example, the pendulum briefly stops at apparently irregular intervals, and the Chronophage moves its mouth and blinks its eyes.

As the huge pendulum below the Clock rocks the Chronophage as he steps round the great escapewheel, each backward and forward movement is used by sprag clutches to wind up the drive spring.

The mechanism is released by a countwheel with semi random spacing so the Blink takes place at any position in the to- and fro- motion of the pendulum.

A further countwheel mechanism chooses a single or a double blink whilst the air damper at the top of the gear train slows the action to a realistic pace.

[9] Taylor invested five years and £1 million in the Corpus Clock project, and two hundred people, including engineers, sculptors, scientists, jewellers, and calligraphers, were involved.

The clock is also featured as a plot element in the alternate history novel "The Quantum Curators and the Fabergé Egg" by Eva St. John.

The Corpus Clock at Corpus Christi College , Cambridge
The Corpus Clock with two people for scale, looking down Bene't Street at night
Video
Simplified animation of the escapement, and "second" and "minute" discs. For clarity, each "minute" is divided into only 10 "seconds", each 6 times longer than an ordinary second, and the "minute" disc is folded to the right. The green lines represent slots in the rotating discs, while the blue lines represent fixed slots.
Opened to show its interior
The Taylor Library and the Corpus Clock on the northwest corner of Corpus Christi College