Corpus Christi College Clock

Images of Britain: Corpus Christi College Clock, Cambridge

The Corpus Clock is perhaps the strangest clock you might ever see. Located on the outside of the Taylor Library of Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, facing King's Parade. It is a gold-plated disc almost 5 feet in diameter and has no hands to indicate the time. Rather concentric rings of slits light up with LED's.

However it is only accurate once every five minutes or so. It was conceived as public art by John C. Taylor, a former member of the college, and was publicly unveiled in 2008 by renowned physicist Stephen Hawking. It is sometimes referred to as the Grasshopper Clock because of a large sculpture of a grasshopper-type insect on top of the clock. This is actually the world's largest grasshopper escapement, the clock mechanism that converts pendulum motion into rotational motion. The grasshopper escapement was invented by 18th century clock maker John Harrison around 1722 and Taylor intended the Corpus Clock to be an homage to Harrison.