We'll warn you in advance, this is only for those who dig the weird, all things
Stephen Hawking or clock-making in general. This £1 million ($1.83 million) timepiece took seven years to completely construct, and the initiative was led by inventor John Taylor who designed it in tribute to John Harrison (only the world's greatest clockmaker, it's said). The bizarre Corpus Clock visually explains that it relies on grasshopper escapement to function, and to let you know that time can never be regained once lost, that beast on top actually gobbles down time every 60th second. Oh, and every hour, on the hour, the sound of a "chain dropping into a wooden coffin" is played to really pound home the "time is a destroyer" concept. Thanks for the reminder, Dr. Grim.
[Via
Switched]
posted Sep 21st 2008 1:11AM
I don't care who you are, that is freakin' legit.
No matter what time it is, it always says half past the grasshopper.
Gadget of the year for sure. That thing is fucking brilliant.
I want one!
2legit2quit?
I just want to know when the apple fanbois are going to come out and say that only apple could've designed this...
and no one thought it would be a good idea to record a short video and speed it up so we could see the time being eaten?
Only Apple could have designed this.
It will reveal the location of the ark of the covenant.
@Sora
Hi i'm a clock... and I'm an iCorpus Clock.
The funny thing about the post is it says $1.8 million = 1 million Euros, but in reality, 1 Euro is equal to $1.4459 as of right now. 1 Euro has NEVER equaled $1.80, ever. Please get your conversions right bc $350,000 is a lot of money to be wrong about. Otherwise, nice gadget.
That's British pounds not euros...
I think the nanosuit would do wonders for this guy. In fact, if he's so smart, he should quit talking about Black Holes and design a nano suit.
with a mask...so he can suck the drool from his face and pump it through a hose out of his shoe where noone will see it.
I agree. They have prosthetic arms that people can control with their brains' electric impulses. Stephen Hawking should get on that.
THROW SOME PROSTHETICS ON THAT BI'.
He's a physicist, not an engineer/inventor.
Actually
Automatic lowrank for being Flashpoint. Next?
Unlike their fictional counterparts, real scientists generally excel only in the field they actually specialize in.
Talking about black holes, didn't Engadget notice that the super-safe Large Hadron Collider has broken down? So much for taking all the possibilities into account. Only fools can believe that.
I reckon that if he had put all his work into Human Biology instead of Physics, he could have thought out a cure for cancer, HIV/AIDS, common cold... And yeah, probably his own disabilities, too.
This guy deserves knighthood.
that's pretty metal....i think Devin Townsend would be proud.
Heck man.Flava Flav would totally want this.
Don't see how he'd manage this around his neck but he'd find a way.....he'd find a way.
Yeah, the grasshopper is brutal. it looks like a dragon!
In before "I wonder if that monitor is multi-touch."
But he has no use of his limbs....
...and yet he can still use a computer.
@BigD145
Hawking's computer uses a special sensor that tracks the blinking of his eyes.
well....at least its different....
i wanna see this thing in action
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHO1JTNPPOU&eurl=http://blog.makezine.com/2.html
there ya go.
Holy crap, the comment fairy is granting our wishes!
I want 7 billion dollars! Or the apple trolls to leave...
Warning! You can't unsee it.
Lolsec, thanks for the link. The poorly written article doesn't begin to do the clock justice, as the video illustrates. Amazing!
Question. How do you tell the time on that er... thing?
Magic.
I don't even think thats the point of this.
Stephen Hawking designed it specifically so that he would be the only one who could tell time on it.
Duh.
Holes with blue light behind them in the face turn around and show the time, but only once every 5 minutes are accurate it seems.
its accurate to the second.
Stephen Hawkins doesn't care what time is. He knows its just an illusion.
umm..what?
thats what she said
all I can think is WTF
He should team up with Tokyo flash to make a version that is wearable
Great deal! in for 5!
My obese great aunt called me with this article, as she was at the unveiling, and it inspired her to cease her crack-cocaine intake. apparently the grasshopper, along with general theme of death, finally drove home to her how precious her limited days are, and she decidedly proclaimed that the only way to break her energized, muscle-deteriorating trance was to see a morbid alarm clock.
You know what I think? I think you made that whole thing up just to garner attention. You whore.
If she's obese she obviously doesn't have much of a habit.
What an absolutely disrespectful and rude article!!!
The author, obviously uneducated, uncultured, and an uncouth brat!
Engadget requires some supervision as to its child contributors.
vid please...?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHO1JTNPPOU&eurl=http://blog.makezine.com/2.html
I don't understand how this clock functions. It eats grasshoppers every 60th second, and that's how it goes forward one minute? That's some weird shit there.
Watch the video (above), perhaps you'll learn something in the process...
it uses a specially designed gear invented by john harrison whereas its shape mimics that of a grasshopper (or a couple having sex doggystyle), and the size of the instrument as a whole causes it to rock back and forth on its own momentum every 1 second.
Someone needs to get Stephen Hawking a stripper before he destroys the universe with the LHC by lying to us about Hawking Radiation. He looks like he hates this cruel world ;)
Yeah, but can it play Crysis?
No. It's a clock.
The grasshopper can since it's over-clocked.......
*crickets*
*grasshoppers*
Crysis? or Time Crisis?
This clock is the shit and I don't give a damn what the article says. If I had the money I would buy it, maybe change the color gold is a bit to loud for a guy like me. Hope they team up for more abstract time pieces.
Lol. Wut?
Salvador Dalí would love that clock.
It's gold so yeah you could melt it I guess, then it would still be accurate, once a day.
Twice a day.
Not sure why I was low-ranked, Dali is known for having melted clocks in his pictures you know.
Or perhaps the thing was too obvious?
As for twice a day, I thought the clock was one with a 24hour face, which is a strange and illogical assumption I guess, so yeah twice a day.
This just in: Engadget hates art.
This clock is absolutely beautiful. Fuck practicality, this is art for art's sake.
everyone who reads engadget is an engineer or physicist
we hate art
and?
I've just been reading 'Longitude', by Dava Sobel, which 'chronologs' the story of John Harrison and his clocks. He was a carpenter, not a clockmaker, yet he made some of the greatest clocks we've ever known, including the clocks which enabled Sailors to find longitude and stop smashing into rocks or dying from scurvy and starvation while lost at sea. Great reading.
He was a clockmaker, who happened to use wood.
So, for those of you old enough to remember...
He's a clockmaker!
He's a woodworker!
No, he's both!
WTF What a huge waste of money, what with so many starving people in this world. At least being a university they could have used the money for education in a third world country or something if they have that much to waste.
BTW that stupid looking clock looks more ugly and pathetic than Hawking.
If they weren't starving in the 3rd world they'd be busy shooting and maiming eachother, sad but observingly true.
Also I'm going to suggest that if they didn't all have 5 kids when they can't even feed themselves to start with they might have less of such issues.
Also if you had given the money that bought you that computer to the starving you'd not be commenting, and yet you are.
What about computers? What about wars? What about this? What about that?
THINK OF THE STARVING CHILDREN!
Douche.
Anyone with the name "GoVegan" cannot be taken seriously...at all.
This just in: poor people are criminals.
"Observingly true", Wwhat? The world is a big place out there, you know.
Right, because every SINGLE PENNY not spent on feeding starving children is wasted. Excuse me while I go back to living in a cave and wearing loincloths, delete all my music and never do anything just for enjoyment's sake ever again.
@ND:
It was a simplified reply to a simplification by GoVegan.
We all know these things are complex and that it's nice if we can help out a somewhat decent person (of whatever age) who doesn't turn around and starts abusing others.
As for crime, I think we also know that there are many forms of crime and that the wealthy just do/use different crimes rather than committing less of them. (Very noticeable right now, see: wallstreet)
i wanna see Hawking in action
GoPretentious
Bit fake though, he's probably not even vegan or vegetarian.
GoGoEngadget low rank!
@ GoVegan: Please, stop commenting on this article. You are doing bad to animals by begin stupid and using this nickname.
Lame
My hero.
Jiminy Cricket's...er grasshopper...cool clock!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHO1JTNPPOU
Time isn't holding us.
Time isn't after us.
Same as it ever was.
And how many unnecessary items are there in your house?
I bet people thought the same thing when the computer was first released
The grasshopper is a lie..
But will it blend...?
You first.
" uh yes , we calculated the costs and we've come up with a total price .. one....MILLION pounds !" cue blood curdling scream
the clock is a doorway to the past, the present and the future ..it also tell you how long till dooms day ..hah!
There will be a hero movie at some point that will have a scene that takes place where this clock is. There will be a fight mega sword fight, and someone will grab this clock to use as a shield while reflecting sunlight back into the enemy's eyes blinding them. Then the grasshopper jumps off and eats said foe increasing the power of the shield...err clock. I have watched too much anime.
@"J.D" who wrote "Anyone with the name "GoVegan" cannot be taken seriously...at all."
Well how about Leonardo da Vinci, one of the greatest minds that has ever lived, he was vegan and people still take his work seriously.
Also Carl Lewis (Olympic athlete) who admits that it was being a vegan that helped him become the fastest runner in the world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOTETXwfIaY
Or Mac Danzig, Ultimate Fighter champion, who is also an ethical vegan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_Danzig
Keith Holmes World Middleweight boxing champion.
Tobey Maguire (Spiderman)...
The fact is I could sit here and list many people that are vegan and are taken far more seriously than you probably ever will be. Seriously don’t feel bad for being wrong, most people are ignorant on the matter of veganism.
I love how you try to take the high ground about veganism right after you took the p!ss out of the disabled guy...
"BTW that stupid looking clock looks more ugly and pathetic than Hawking."
Whoptie doo!
You still haven't address how you are not a hypocrite in that you are using a computer which could be donated to the less fortunate, or the money used to purchase it could be given away.
Here's the deal, what you, or any other celebrity, artist, et al. does with their life, I really don't care. If being vegan wets your panties, then good for you, but don't start preaching to people about it who are happy being the carnivores that they are (me included). Not only does it make you look more like an asshole than I'm sure you already are, it makes it seem that all vegans are self absorbed, preaching idiots.... oh wait....
Oh, and to make you happy, I just thought I'd share that I'm getting an entire cow butchered and it will be occupying my 23 cu. ft. chest freezer soon here. GoMeat!
"The bizarre Corpus Clock visually explains that it relies on grasshopper escapement to function...."
I almost wish I could unwatch the video so I would still have a really odd image in my mind of how a grasshopper escapement clock works.
For a moment, I tought that was a photoshop picture.
Hi Stevie, Do something usefull and prove Creation to the world. Use that brain of yours.
Please
I want that above my headboard.