Collaborate Disseminate
If there’s one thing we’ve learned from [Chris] at Clickspring, it’s that a clockmaker will stop at nothing to make a clock not only work perfectly, but look good doing …read more Continue reading Stripped Clock Wheel Gets a New Set of Teeth, the Hard Way
If the workings of a mechanical timepiece give you a thrill, prepare to be blown away by this over-the-top astronomical clock. The horological masterpiece, which was designed by [Mark Frank] …read more Continue reading An Astronomical Mechanical Clock, in More Ways Than One
Join us on Wednesday, February 3 at noon Pacific for the Mechanical Timekeeping Hack Chat with Clickspring!
The reckoning of the passage of time has been of vital importance to humans pretty much for all our history, but for most …read more
Continue reading Mechanical Timekeeping Hack Chat with Clickspring
The fortunate among us may very well have a bit of time off from work coming up, and while most of that time will likely be filled with family obligations and festivities, there’s probably going to be some downtime. And if you should happen to find yourself with a half …read more
Continue reading For Your Holiday Relaxation: the Clickspring Sundial Build Megacut
With all the trained academics who have pored over the Antikythera mechanism in the 120 years since it was pulled from the Mediterranean Sea, you’d think all of the features of the ancient analog computer would have been discovered by now. But the mechanism still holds secrets, some of which …read more
Continue reading Hacker’s Discovery Changes Understanding of the Antikythera Mechanism
Deep in the heart of Paris, a series of underground tunnels snakes across the city. They cross into unkept public spaces from centuries ago that have since vanished from collective memory – abandoned basements, catacombs, and subways hundreds of miles apart.
Only a few groups still traverse these subterranean streets. …read more
Continue reading The Story of A Secret Underground Parisian Society
Join us Wednesday at noon Pacific time for the All Things Enigma Hack Chat!
This week’s Hack Chat is a bit of a departure for us because our host, Simon Jansen, has tackled so many interesting projects that it’s hard to settle on one topic. Simon is a multidisciplinary hacker …read more
A pocket watch, tucked into a waistcoat pocket and trailing a long chain, is a retro-hip accessory. A pocket watch gutted of its mechanical innards and updated as a smart appliance might be a horological abomination, but would still be a cool hack. A pocket watch converted to a digital Enigma machine is in a class all by itself.
[Simon] admits that he has a thing for pocket timepieces, having a sizable collection of old and not-so-old watches, some that even serve for everyday carry. Trouble is, they eventually break, and qualified watchmakers are getting hard to come by. So …read more
Continue reading An Arduino Wrapped In An OLED Wrapped Inside An Enigma Pocket Watch
Clock movements are beautifully complex things. Made up of gears and springs, they’re designed to tick away and keep accurate time. Unfortunately, due to the vagaries of the universe, various sources of error tend to creep in – things like temperature changes, mechanical shocks, and so on. In the quest for ever better timekeeping, watchmakers decided to try and rotate the entire escapement and balance wheel to counteract the changing effect of gravity as the watch changed position in regular use.
They’re mechanical works of art, to be sure, and until recently, reserved for only the finest and most luxurious …read more
Continue reading Gyrotourbillion Blesses The Eyes, Hard to Say
In an age of smartwatches, an analog watch might seem a little old-fashioned. Whether it’s powered by springs or a battery, though, the machinery that spins those little hands is pretty fascinating. Trouble is, taking one apart usually doesn’t reveal too much about their tiny workings, unless you get up close and personal like with this microscopic tour of an analog watch.
This one might seem like a bit of a departure from [electronupdate]’s usual explorations of the dies within various chips, but fear not, for this watch has an electronic movement. The gross anatomy is simple: a battery, a …read more