Clock tower

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This is an article on clock towers. For the video game series of the same name, see Clock Tower (series).

Clocktower at Geelong Grammar School, Victoria, Australia

A clock tower is a tower built with one or more (often four) clock faces.The clock tower is usually part of a church or municipal building such as a town hall, but many clock towers are free-standing.

The mechanism inside the tower is known as a turret clock. It often marks the hour (and sometimes segments of an hour) by sounding large bells or chimes, sometimes playing simple musical phrases or tunes.

1 Landmarks
2 History
3 Gallery
4 See also
5 References

[edit] Landmarks

Some clock towers are famous landmarks. Four of the best-known are the clock tower which houses Big Ben (often itself colloquially referred to as Big Ben) of the Palace of Westminster in London, the Rajabai Tower in Mumbai, the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin and the Peace Tower in Ottawa.

On New Year's Eve 2004 four 6.3-metre clock faces were added to the top of the Warsaw Palace of Culture and Science building in Warsaw, Poland making it the highest 4-faced clock tower in the world and the second highest clock tower in the world.^[1]. The NTT DoCoMo Yoyogi Building 240 meters (787 feet) is 10 meters higher and is the highest clock tower in the world. The Allen-Bradley Clock Tower holds the record for largest non-chiming four faced clock. The chimes were intentionally left out so that the Big Ben tower would still have that record.

[edit] History

Although clock towers are today mostly admired for their aesthetics, they once served an important purpose. Before the middle of the twentieth century, most people did not have watches. Clock towers were therefore placed near the centers of towns and were often the tallest structures there.

The use of clock towers dates back to the Middle Ages. The earliest clock tower was constructed by Su Song in Kaifeng, China, and completed in 1088. The first striking clock tower was constructed shortly after in 1154 near the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria, by the Arab engineer al-Kaysarani.^[2] The earliest clock tower in Europe was the Salisbury cathedral clock in England, completed in 1306.

JB Joyce claims to be the world's oldest tower clock maker (still in operation, presumably).^[3] The company began life in 1690 and still manufactures clocks to this day not far from its original premises in Whitchurch, Shropshire. Today it is a part of the Smith of Derby Group, started in 1856, which claims to be the largest tower clock manufacturer in the world today. The company has manufactured such notable tower clocks as that of St Paul's Cathedral and the Shanghai Customs building in China.

[edit] Gallery

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Houses.of.parliament.overall.arp.jpg Big Ben, Palace of Westminster, London, England	Rajabai-Tower.jpg The Rajabai Tower, South Mumbai, India	Kremlin Spasskaya Tower.jpg The Spasskaya Tower, Moscow	Faisalabad Clock-tower.jpeg Clock Tower, Faisalabad, Pakistan
Clk Towe Slk.jpg Clock Tower, Sialkot, Pakistan	PKiN w W-wie.JPG Warsaw Palace of Culture and Science, the second highest clock clock tower	Tower3.jpg The Clock Tower Building of The Chinese High School, a national monument of Singapore	Einsiedeln tower clocks.jpg Einsiedeln Abbey, Switzerland
Mcgraw.jpg McGraw Tower at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York	AuburnUniversity-SamfordHall.jpg Samford Hall located on the campus of Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama	TSTClockTower.jpg The Clock Tower at Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong was part of the former Kowloon Station	Peace Tower and Centennial Flame.jpg Peace Tower, Parliament Hill Ottawa, Ontario
Mamatsios.jpg Clock Tower of Saint Nicolas church, Kozani, Greece	MalayCollegeClockTower.jpg Malay College Kuala Kangsar, Malaysia	Central Station Sydney.jpg Central Terminal, Sydney, Australia	Star Ferry Pier in Central, Hong Kong.JPG The old Star Ferry pier in Central, Hong Kong
Chamberlain clock tower.jpg Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower, The University of Birmingham, tallest clock tower in England made by Smith of Derby	Mississauga.jpg Clock tower of the Mississauga City Hall in Mississauga, Ontario	Allen-Bradley.jpg Allen-Bradley Division Rockwell Automation Clock Tower in Milwaukee, Wisconsin	Minneapolis City Hall.JPG City Hall, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Sather-Tower.jpg Sather Tower, University of California, Berkeley	Memt.jpg Memorial Tower, Louisiana State University	Rome Clock Tower.jpg Clock Tower, Rome, Georgia	UNMSM foto2.jpg Tower of the University of Saint Mark, Lima, Peru
San Agustin Cathedral Tower.JPG The Cathedral of San Agustin bell/clock tower in Laredo, Texas.	Ferrybuilding1.jpg Ferry Building, San Francisco, California	UTHSCSA Laredo Clock Tower.JPG University of Texas Health Science Center in Laredo, Texas	Helsinki Railway Station 20050604.jpg Central railway station, Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland