Britain's Best
|
Behind The Scenes: Time, Please!
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Chatsworth House is as famous for its priceless collection of art and antiques as it is for its magnificent baroque architecture and gardens. One of the highlights in a collection that spans 4,000 years of human artistry and ingenuity is Chatsworth's 64 clocks. These intricate devices take some looking after, as John Thompson explains.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tick Tock Man
John has been tending Chatsworth's clocks for more than 22 years. Every Wednesday, he carefully winds them up - a job that takes around three hours. All his clocks have different characteristics and he knows exactly how many turns each one needs to ensure it runs smoothly. Despite their age, John says most of them are accurate to within two or three minutes a week. Back in Time The clocks at Chatsworth are hundreds of years old but mankind's efforts to log time go back much further. Around 3,500 BC, ancient Egyptians had adopted the sundial principle, using obelisks to cast shadows on the ground. Sundials became increasingly sophisticated but they were useless at night or indoors. Several ancient civilisations used water clocks. These devices usually consisted of a reservoir of water which emptied through a small hole at the bottom. The rate at which the water emptied slowed down as the water pressure declined, so markings on the side of the bowl were positioned to reflect this. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Enter your comment on Behind The Scenes: Time, Please!
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 SOUTH | LONDON | CENTRAL | WALES | NORTH | SCOTLAND |
 |
 CASTLE | PALACE | GARDEN | HISTORIC HOUSE | RELIGIOUS BUILDING | BEST OF THE REST |
Our Programmes
A History Of Britain
| Britain’s Best
| Churchill’s Bodyguard
| Himalaya With Michael Palin
| Seven Wonders Of The Industrial World
| Sex Love And War
| The Naked Archaeologist
| The World At War
| What The Egyptians Did For Us
| What The Industrial Revolution Did For Us
| What The Romans Did For Us
| What The Tudors Did for Us
| What The Victorians Did For Us
| V For Victory
In UKTV History
20th Century
| Ancient Britain
| British History
| Egypt
| Exploration
| Genealogy
| The Romans
| Kings and Queens
| Profiles
| Programmes
| The 60s
| The Crusades
| Warzone
