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AP Wolf
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 1624
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 22, 2004 - 5:24 pm: |       |
Most turret clocks strike the hour on a bell, it is the striking train which operates the bell hammer. A lever in the clock the striking train is pulled down and released once for each stroke of the bell, this lever pulls a wire which runs to the belfry above the clock. Here it lifts a heavy hammer which then falls on the outside of the bell. A few turret clocks have jacks who strike the hours, these are figures whose arms are moved to sound the bells. Wimborne Minster has a jack who is dressed as a grenadier guard, he sounds the quarter-chimes from his position high up outside the tower.
Already in the earliest turret clockworks, levers were not only connected to bells but also to figurines performing certain actions. These are known as Jacquemarts or Clock Jacks: little men hitting a bell with a hammer to indicate the hour. Jacquemarts are found in tower clockworks all over Europe
Jack: Originally a man struck the CANONICAL HOURS on a bell when a small ALARM warned him to do so. Then a mechanical man (AUTOMATON) was invented to strike the bell, one of the earliest known being called 'Jacquemard' (Jack o' the clock), in 1517 records of the 1383 clock of Dijon, France. This became contracted to 'Jack' in England, as with JACK BLANDIFER.
Jack Blandifer: Name of fourteenth century mechanical figure or JACK that sits above an arch inside Wells Cathedral. He strikes the hours on a bell with a hammer in one hand, nods his head, and sounds the quarters by kicking other bells with his heels. See Wells Clock.
Jack the Smiter Clock: JACK at Southwold, Suffolk, in fifteenth century 'armour', now operated by a rope.
I like this Jack the Smiter.
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