I wrote about this project only a couple weeks ago (e.g. the 10,000 year clock) and it looks like it will begin construction soon. There is a linked PDF (below) which covers many of the design details or this lock.
For me, I only have a couple questions about this project. I find it interesting and a bit amusing in the sense that there has to be some strange sort of whimsy (coupled with some rather dark apocalyptic thoughts) to create a project like this.
There has been a lot of engineering time spent in the materials and design to this clock to try to ensure that it will run (unmolested) for 10 millennia. I am curious as to how accurate it will be…
10,000 Year Clock Begins Construction Thanks to $42 Million from Amazon’s CEO
http://singularityhub.com/2011/07/14/10000-year-clock-begins-construction-thanks-to-42-million-from-amazon%E2%80%99s-ceo
The construction of a modern wonder of the world is now underway in western Texas as the plans for a clock that will tick for 10,000 years have been green lit by the hefty contribution from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. First proposed by Danny Hillis, pioneer of massively parallel computing, in an essay 15 years ago, the clock is a beast that would make any engineer giddy at the multitude of challenges it poses. When built, it’ll stand 200-feet tall and will have a spiral staircase carved from limestone that will wrap around the massive gear mechanism and lead to the 8-foot wide clock face. A recent wired article gave an in-depth look at the project, the nonprofit foundation that was created to support the project called The Long Now Foundation and all the project’s players while attempting to answer the question, why the hell would anyone want to build this? The answer: Look to the future.
When Danny Hillis first shared the idea of a clock that would run 10,000 years, his friends either got it or they didn’t, though most assumed he wasn’t serious. A barrage of how questions naturally follow such an idea. How will it be built? How will it run accurately? How will it be powered? How will people see it? Danny had to research various science and engineering fields in order to create a design proposal (the clock’s design is detailed in a free 325-page pdf). But the true test of the clock’s feasibility had to be tested in a prototype, which was completed in 1999 and now is housed on loan in the Science Museum in London. The project waited for a patron until Jeff Bezos offered funds and a location to build it, right next to a private spaceport for a venture called Blue Origin, also backed by Bezos.
Like many mechanically driven timepieces, the 10,000 year clock consists of internal gear mechanisms and a clock face. It will have an 8-foot wide, 700-pound stainless steel gear wheel, and a 6-foot; 300-pound steel pendulum will cause the clock to tick every 10 seconds and direct energy from the stone weights into the titanium escapement located in a quartz box to protect it from dust. It will also use solar power to help wind the clock as well as synchronize it to solar noon.
The chime system is generated by 20 Geneva drives with varying numbers of teeth. These drives convert the constant rotary motion of the drive wheel into stepwise rotary motion of a second wheel, providing intermittent turns. The bearing for these wheels are made of a special ceramic that doesn’t require lubrication. Together, these drives allow for the almost 3.65 million possible chimes needed to have a unique chime for each day within a 10 millennium span. The chimes are actually being written by musician Brian Eno, who has dubbed it “The Clock of the Long Now.”
Finally, the clock face shows the sun and moon positions, a star field of the night sky, and a century ring and year ring to display the year in the “02011” format. Additionally, horizon lines and a rete show what portion of the star field is actually visible at the moment. But the main clock face is not intended to show the actual time (there is a separate face to do that). Instead, visitors have to wind the clock face to show the present time. The point of this is to show how long it has been since the last person visited.
