Quarter-hour tower clock

About the sound

The sound of 18th-century quarter-hour tower clock. The recording was realized in the Tower Clock Museum, branch of Gdańsk History Museum (Poland).
The clock was manufactured in the 18th century, probably in Silesia, Brandenburg or Saxony. Exact place of its manufacturing and the author remain unknown. Rate mechanism is equipped with anchor escapement cooperating with a second pendulum. Hour and quarter-hour striking mechanisms are of the ratchet system.
The clock was installed in the Lower Silesia and then, after WW2, it was transported to Wawel Royal Castle in Cracow. In 1998 it was handed over to Gdańsk History Museum.
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