The Floral Clock

[worldfairs]

The floral clock and Palace of Agriculture

[worldfairs]

THE FLORAL CLOCK.

This is one of the novelties of the Exposition. The great dial, 112 feet in diameter, is laid out in flowers and plants of bright foliage, and is located just north of the Palace of Agriculture, on the slope of a hill, hence it is visible from many points and from great distances. Each of the hands weighs 2,500 pounds. The minute hand is 74 feet long, and it moves five feet every minute. The five-minute spaces between the hour-marks are clearly marked off by differences in color into minute-spaces each five feet long. Unlike other clocks, this one moves rapidly for a few seconds and then stops on a mark. This is repeated every minute. When one goes up the hill and looks at the beautiful machinery that actuates this clock, he understands why it moves in this manner. There is a master clock under glass, and at the beginning of each minute it sets in motion a compressed-air piston that moves the mighty hands. Hours and half-hours are struck on a bell weighing 5,000 pounds. Close at hand there is a terrestrial globe, revolving once in twenty-four hours, on which one may read the time of day or night at any place on earth. There is also an hour-glass, holding 100 pounds of sand, reversed at the end of each hour. Everything connected with the interesting exhibit is moved by compressed air, but it is all controlled by the delicate, accurate master clock.