Corpus Clock Unveiled By Stephen Hawking
A £1m clock called the “time eater” has been unveiled at Cambridge University by Professor Stephen Hawking. Dr Taylor, 72, designed the timepiece as a tribute to English clockmaker John Harrison who solved the problem of longitude in the 18th century.
The Corpus clock features a time-devouring grasshopper at its top that moves around the face one second at a time. As it moves, the 60 slits cut into its face light up to show the time.
Making a visual pun on the grasshopper image, Taylor has designed a fantasy version of a grasshopper at the top of the clock face, and uses this beast — with its long needle teeth and barbed tail — as an integral part of the clockworks. Its jaws begin to open halfway through a minute, then snap shut at 59 seconds. The creature’s eyes, usually a dull green, occasionally flash bright yellow. The oversize grasshopper is called a chronophage, or ‘time eater.’