Whittington chime on cuckoo bellows

This is an 8 day wall clock with a movement by Haller. Instaed of chime rods it has 8 tuned cuckoo bellows which are activated from the hammer stems by white cotton threads. I uploaded a similar video of this clock a few months ago, but I deleted it as the clock needed some fine tuning and servicing. The case was made locally by a man called Freddie McAulay (now deceased), and when I got it it had the remnants of an old striking movement. I wondered for years how to use this amazing case, then I hit on the cuckoo bellows idea as I had a fair number lying around from scrap cuckoo clocks. I bought a few extra bellows on ebay plus the two lowest notes from Meadows & Passmore, and assembled them in a kind of collage, the higher notes to the front, the lower notes to the back, to ensure the threads do not get tangled. I would say it's fairly unusual but I don't really know if it's unique. More chiming clocks will be featured over the next few months once the rebuilds are complete.

http://tommysclocks.blogspot.com/

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Whittington
• chime
• chiming
• chimes
• Westminster
• Haller
• cuckoo
• bellows
• clock
• Wanduhr
• Pendeluhr
• pendule
• Kuckucksuhr
• reloj

[Clockmaniac5445]

Are they pulled by a string?

[TommyWylie]

@Clockmaniac5445 Each has a thread connecting it to the hammer stem on the movement.

[speedstick77]

I lived in Germany for nine years. A Pastor in Frankfurt used to haunt second hand furniture shops. He managed to score three shield clocks with little organ pipes on top playing tunes. The only other ones I saw were in the Deutsches Museum in Munich. I applaud your creativity. I just finished restoring a woodchopper cuckoo I got for 20 bucks at the flea market. I said a lot of bad words in the process.

[TommyWylie]

@speedstick77 Those organ clocks are worth a fortune if they are in good condition. I have a woodchopper cuckoo clock that plays music, with a waterwheel on the side. I haven't videoed it but it is featured in my most recent clock collection video.

[Adelaide6986]

Lovely I didn't know that cuckoo clocks weren't the only clocks that used bellows.

[TommyWylie]

@Adelaide6986 Well, strictly speaking, they are. I used redundant cuckoo clock bellows to convert this clock to play the Whittington tune in this way.

In the Black Forest in Germany there were musical clocks made, which used a big single bellow to play tunes using several tuned pipes like an organ.

[Gartfield112]

Wow what an amazing clock never heard Whittington chime on bellows before. Thanks for this great video

[Clockmaniac5445]

Oh, cool. Well, thank you for answering.

[meanjean214]

I love this! Very cool and creative :)

[tonihc19]

you are missing the cuckoo clock with bells... :D