Elephant clock

In the process of sinking, the bowl pulls a string attached to a see-saw mechanism in the tower on top of the elephant.

At the same time, a system of strings causes a figure in the tower to raise either the left or right hand and the mahout (elephant driver at the front) to hit a drum.

The cycle then repeats, as long as balls remain in the upper reservoir to power the emptying of the bowl.

Another innovative feature of the clock was how it recorded the passage of temporal hours, which meant that the rate of flow had to be changed daily to match the uneven length of days throughout the year.

During a visit to the London Science Museum in January 2010, BBC journalist Nick Higham described the five metre high, working Elephant Clock replica produced by 1001 Inventions as "spectacular".