Incredible Grasshopper Clock - The Corpus Clock

This mechanical clock was unveiled at the University of Cambridge last Friday. Cosmologist Stephen Hawking was there to introduce what is know as "The Corpus Clock".

The clock was created by horologist John Taylor. He designed the timepiece as a tribute to English clock maker John Harrison, inventor of the first viable marine chronometer. If you want to learn more about Harrison, I recommend Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time.

The Corpus Clock has slits cut into its face behind which blue lights indicate the hour, minute, and second. On top of the clock is a mechanical grasshopper-like creature named "chronophage," meaning "time eater". The creature eats away the minutes with its moving jaws as the minutes advance toward it.

Here is an article on the clock. Here is another article on The Corpus Clock at Wikipedia.

Here is a video of the Corpus Clock.

[ Thanks Art! Thanks Aaron! ]

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