#corpusclock

The Corpus Clock has no hands or digital numbers and thus at first it appears difficult to tell the time. However, look carefully and there are 3 rings of LEDs, which reading from the innermost ring show hours, minutes and seconds. When an hour is struck there is no chiming of bells, but rather the shaking of chains and a hammer hitting a wooden coffin. Time passes and we all die, a fact further represented by the Latin inscription underneath the clock, mundus transit et concupiscentia eius, meaning 'the world and its desires pass away'. A further Latin inscription adorns the pendulum: Joh. Sartor Monan Inv. MMVIII, which translates as follows: Joh. is Johannes, Sartor is the mediaeval Latin for tailor, Monanensis is the Isle of Man, Inv. is invenit, a verb with multiple meanings, e.g. discovered/made/brought to fruition, and lastly MMVIII is the year 2008. Thus, John Taylor, of the Isle of Man, made it, in 2008. The clock has a Custodian, Dr Ewan St. John Smith, who shares some more little-known facts about the famous Chronophage. #corpusclock #cambridge (à Corpus Clock) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpKQsSbLQja/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

 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. The Corpus Clock is expected to be able to run accurately for at least two hundred years.

The Corpus Clock #CorpusClock #Cambridge #UK #UnitedKingdom #England (at Corpus Christi College)