Canada likes to think of itself as a progressive country—always moving forward. But this seems to be going to extremes. The clock on the Peace Tower (Parliament Buildings) does not go backwards. Thus, according to CBCNews [
Time stops annually on Parliament Hill as Peace Tower clock falls back]...
While most Canadians scurry around their homes changing their clocks back to standard time this weekend, the clock-keepers of Parliament Hill will only sit and wait.
At 2 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Sunday, a Public Works employee will open a glass housing and flip a switch, bringing the 50-year-old mechanism that runs the Peace Tower clock, with its four faces, to a halt....
For 60 minutes, the technician will just wait and then will restart the 1950s-era electric motor drive that runs the big clock, several levels overhead, at exactly 2 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, according to the National Research Council time signal
They need to wait out the hour because the old motor drive only goes forward, says Brian Cook, the Public Works property manager for Parliament Hill.
At the risk of sounding stupid, why doesn't the technician just advance the clock eleven hours?
Canada likes to think of itself as a progressive country—always moving forward. But this seems to be going to extremes. The clock on the Peace Tower (Parliament Buildings) does not go backwards. Thus, according to CBCNews [Time stops annually on Parliament Hill as Peace Tower clock falls back]...
Because he or she is on an hourly rate with excellent overtime pay due to the lateness of the hour?
ReplyDeleteHey - if you're that progressive why not simply abolish the rather silly Daylight Saving Time nonsense altogether?
ReplyDelete"... why doesn't the technician just advance the clock eleven hours?"
ReplyDeleteAh.
Why didn't I think of that?
"It's as plain as the nose on my face." Only I am not generally the one who sees my nose.
Another possibility is that if the clock has a chiming mechanism (I have no clue if it does), the chimes are set on a 24hr schedule and advancing it 11 hrs would throw that off 12 hrs, neighbors wouldn’t want to hear Beethoven’s Ode to Joy at midnight or something along those lines (add. Having gone to college where the chimes range 6am to 9pm, that would get real annoying trying to sleep)
ReplyDeleteBecause fast-forwarding causes additional, non-standard wear-and-tear on the mechanism, possibly? And if the clock chimes (even in a standard 12 hour cycle) you do have to let it to strike all the hours -- and possibly halfours or even quarters, I don't know this clock -- so it does not lose any.
ReplyDelete