Still larger are the dials of the great electric clock, situated 346
feet high, in the tower of the Metropolitan Life Building, on Madison
Square, New York City. They measure twenty-six and one half feet in
diameter. The minute-hand is seventeen feet from end to end, and twelve
feet from center to point, while the hour-hand measures thirteen feet
four inches in all, and eight feet four inches from the center of the
dial outward. These immense hands are of iron framework, sheathed in
copper, and weigh 1000 and 700 pounds respectively.
The big clock and the ninety-nine other clocks in the building are
regulated from a master clock in the Directors' Room, on the second
floor, which sends out minute impulses, and is adjusted to run within
five seconds per month.
At night, the dial, hands, and numerals are beautifully illuminated, of
which we present a picture, the enlarged minute-hand showing the length
of exposure. The time is also flashed all night in a novel manner from
the great gilded "lantern" at the apex of the tower, 696 feet above the
pavement. The quarter-hours are announced from each of the four faces
of the lantern by a single red light, the halves by two red flashes,
the three quarters by three flashes. On the hour, the white arc-lights
are extinguished temporarily, and white flashes show the number of the
hour.
This takes the place of the bells operated in the daytime. They are in
four tones, G (1500 pounds), F (2000 pounds), E flat (3000 pounds), and
B flat (7000 pounds), and each quarter-hour ring out the "Westminster
Chimes," in successive bars. These are the highest chimes in the world,
being situated on the forty-second floor, 615 feet above the street
level; and they attract much attention from visitors.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MOTORING THROUGH THE GOLDEN AGE--PART I
BY ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE
It was some time in June when we found ourselves drifting about
Normandy in our motor-car, and one peaceful evening we came to Bayeux
and stopped there for the night. Bayeux, which is about sixty miles
from Cherbourg, was intimately associated with the life of William the
Conqueror, and is to-day the home of the famous Bayeux tapestry, a
piece of linen two hundred and thirty feet long and eighteen inches
wide, on which is embroidered in colored wool the story of William's
conquest of England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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