1930s Gdansk Krosno Michal Miesowicz public sphere time tower clock

Tower clock from Michal Miesowicz’s factory

The sound of tower clock manufactured in Michał Mięsowicz’s clock factory. The recording was realized in the Tower Clock Museum, branch of Gdańsk History Museum (Poland).
The clock was manufactured in 1931 in the First National Tower Clocks Factory in Krosno (Poland). The factory, established by Michał Mięsowicz, functioned in the years 1901 – 1938 and was at the time the only Polish manufacturer of tower clocks. 180 mechanisms of tower clocks were manufactured there. Some of them are still in operation on church towers and in other types of buildings.
Rate mechanism of the recorded clock was based on pin wheel escapement. Rate mechanism as well as hour and quarter-hour striking mechanism of the ratchet system were installed in the iron frame
Before the popularization of house clocks and pocket clocks, tower clocks were used to indicate the time in the town. Many of them were equipped with the hour striking mechanism thanks to which it was possible to find out what the current time was also from a distance.

Sound recordist: Monika Widzicka
Photographer: Piotr Leszczyński
Video recordist: Piotr Leszczyński

Specs:

Decade:
Filesize:
Duration:
Channels:
1930s
4.8 MB
54 s
1 (Mono)
Sample rate:
Bit rate:
Bit depth:
44.1 kHz
705 kb/s
16 bit

Recorded on January 29, 2015
Tower Clock Museum
Gdańsk, POLAND
Creative Commons License