• Nouveau_Burnswick@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Because tidal clocks at based of of lunar days which are 24 hours 50 minutes and 28 seconds. Aka a tidal cycle every 12 hours 25 minutes and 14 seconds.

    I’m not familiar with this exact clock, but the clockwork is probably designed to extend the period of time the needle is on tide until it’s ready to start aligning with the countdown hours. So 4 hours 12 minutes and 37 seconds on tide.

    Since this is a tidal clock for a specific town, the times are likely important to the Digby harbour.

    • Treczoks@kbin.social
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      8 months ago

      The face of that clock is confusing. It suggest that it’s about 10 hours between high and low tide which, if the tide in Digby is not fundamentally different from anywhere else in the world, is plain wrong.

      As a tidal clock it would need to make a full turn every 12h50m14s. So they probably took a stock clockwork with just an hour hand, and just slowed down the balance spring or pendulum by about 3.5% to achieve this.