This is the first working prototype of the Orrery, or planetary display for the 10,000 Year Clock. This prototype was just recently re-installed at our San Francisco Museum & Store. This part of the clock might help future visitors understand other parts of the clock by accurately showing the positions of the human eye visible planets - Mercury through Saturn. The lower six layers each make a binary mechanical calculation for one of the six planets above. It is designed to make one calculation tick at noon, and again at midnight to update the planet positions. However this display model may be activated at any time, and if you come by feel free to ask for a demonstration.

A new stone base was fabricated for the Orrery recently by the amazing stoneworkers of Seattle Solstice. We wanted a base that showed what this part of the Clock might look like if it were in natural rock. Seattle Solstice sourced a serpentine boulder from a nearby construction site and carefully sliced the top 6 inches off with a wire saw. They then machined pockets for the feet and drive mechanisms so the Orrery would drop right in. You can now see this mashup of stone and metal on display at our Museum & Store.

The Orrery was conceptualized by Danny Hillis, project management and additional design by Alexander Rose, lead engineer was Paolo Salvagione, and lead machinist and fabricator was Christopher Rand. Other machinists include Erio Brown, Brian Roe, Mark Ribaud, Reason Bradley, General Precision, Oakland Machine Works, Jim Johnson, Brian Ford, Ebin Stromquist, and the base was fabricated by Seattle Solstice

All engineering for the Clock of the Long Now is done in Pro Engnineer courtesy of PTC. All CAM processing is done in GibbsCAM courtesy of Gibbs & Associates. The Long Now Foundation thanks them for their support.

Share This ▼

Long Now recently completed this prototype of the Solar Synchronizer for the 10,000 Year Clock, and it is now on display at our San Francisco Museum & Store. This mechanism will help the Clock keep accurate time over the millennia. While the Clock’s day to day time-keeper is a slow pendulum, a mechanism like this one is needed to correct drift over the long haul. On any sunny day, when the sun lines up with this mechanism, light is focused onto a piece of nickel-titanium wire that reacts when heated by the sun. This motion is used to synchronize the Clock to solar noon. The synchronization is also modified slightly by the equation of time cam, which accounts for the +/- 15 minute difference of solar to absolute time. Due to meteor impacts and volcanic eruptions, the clock may not see the sun for several years, so it must be accurate enough to stay within the range of this correction during those times.

This mechanism was originally conceptualized by Danny Hillis, project management and additional design by Alexander Rose, lead engineers were Paolo Salvagione and Greg Staples, and lead machinist and fabricator was Christopher Rand. Shape memory alloy calculations and consulting by Pete Von Behrens of Alternative Motion Solutions.

All engineering for the Clock of the Long Now is done in Pro Engnineer courtesy of PTC. All CAM processing is done in GibbsCAM courtesy of Gibbs & Associates. The Long Now Foundation thanks them for their support.

Share This ▼