Half Past William Jennings Bryan
Mar. 28th, 2011 02:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beamjockeyI'd like to share excerpts from an article by Anne Hard, a reporter for Technical World Magazine. In the March 1908 issue, pages 85 through 90, she published "Clock of Many Accomplishments."
Far out on the prairie in the southwestern part of Chicago, hidden by the rude boarding of a frame house, stands a clock so intricate that it ranks among the most remarkable achievements of the clockmaker's art in America. It is one of the most accomplished clocks in the world, a lineal descendant of the famous old-world clocks of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. [...]
Part of the face of Franz Bohacek's fabulous Chicago clock. Orrery at bottom features planets and constellations. Uncle Sam stands in niche at center, where, at noon, a pageant of American history will appear.
Thousands of travelers have made a pilgrimage to see the famous clock of Strassburg, which, set in a commanding position, and beautifully decorated, represents the passage of time in minutes, hours, seconds, months, days, weeks, and years and has wonderful automata, who bow and open doors, and bells that ring and a cock that crows.
Few know of the remarkable achievement of a simple peasant, Franz Bohacek, one time clock-maker of Patzau in Bohemia, now for almost fifty years a citizen of Chicago. [...]
As the clock grew in size, Bohacek's own ideas grew, and dial after dial was added, with all the additional mechanism necessary to its operation.
Soon the little house in which the work was started became too small. One window after another was sacrificed to boarded additions. But in the semi-twilight Bohacek toiled on. Eight feet— ten feet—the clock face rose. The roof must be raised to make space. Six feet— eight feet—the little room was too narrow. A partition must be removed. Finally the family itself was crowded back into the little rooms at the rear.
Franz Bohacek, Chicago clockmaker.
Caption: "The Mother of the Clock: It was owing to Mrs. Bohacek's encouragement that her husband completed his intricate task."
There they all live today, Franz Bohacek, his wife, the little gray cat, the two dogs, the eighteen canaries, all in the one-fourth at the rear, while in the three-fourths at the front towers the wonderful clock. [...]
Instead of the gentle moon face of the ordinary clock, one is confronted with a majestic visage eighteen feet high, whose eyebrows are two dials, each three feet in diameter and each set so high above that one must crane one's neck to see them or walk out onto the platform for a better view.
One of these dials is a concession to the popular taste for a twelve-hour timepiece. From it one learns only the time of day. The other is a complete diurnal circuit of twenty-four hours, so that here one sees at a glance how many hours have passed since midnight last.
A third dial has three series of numbers and three hands. From it one may know the day of the week, the day of the month and the month of the year. [...]
This orrery was just one complication on Franz Bohacek's fabulous clock.
Earth's time, to his soaring imagination, was but a part of the great celestial time in which every planet plays its part. Accordingly he built in the center of his clock face a greater dial, over six feet in diameter. This dial represents the solar system.
About its rim run the signs of the Zodiac—Aquarius, Scorpio, Aries, Gemini and the rest. In the center is the sun— a ball of flame-colored crystal. About it swing the planets, each upon an axis of brass, each represented proportionately to its size, each accompanied by its satellites.
The figured globe which represents the earth revolves about the sun in exact proportion to the actual year, and the moon turns about the earth exactly in accordance with its actual various phases.[...]
[Here's my favorite part:]
Interior of the clock. Franz Bohacek himself is visible at the bottom. Above him is the parade of U.S. Presidents, ready to appear when the clock strikes noon. The rectangles above each President's head may be name tags.
A still more interesting middle-age reminiscence is found when the bells toll for noon and a little door at the top opens. Then, where in the old clocks of Europe, the Emperor Charlemagne nods, in this there passes in review the pageant of American history.
First an Indian appears.
He gives way to Columbus.
Columbus to the Liberty Bell, which strikes three times and is followed by Benjamin Franklin, holding in his hand the Declaration of Independence.
Franklin ushers in the procession of the presidents, from Washington to Roosevelt.
And hidden in its place, waiting its turn to appear at the door, salute and stiffly pass on, Bohacek cherishes a little figurante of William Jennings Bryan.
For the present, at least, Admiral Dewey salutes and closes the door.
That's right-- this is the Lydia the Tattooed Lady of clocks! Thank you, Anne Hard.
Naturally I am wondering what became of the clock. My horological history consultant, Roger Zimmermann, is attempting to run down more information about Bohacek's clock. He has found a Chicago Daily Tribune report from 1901 indicating that the Bohaceks lived at 6304 Winchester Avenue, near Damen and 63rd Street, about halfway between Midway Airport and the University of Chicago. (I remember driving past there a few weeks ago! I was on my way from Winston's Sausage Shop, with its gigantic fiberglass steer on the roof, to the site of the world's first controlled nuclear chain reaction, where I wanted to check out some books.)
Franz Bohacek was also known as "Frank," and under that name we can find more pictures of the clock from the Chicago Daily News and a 1901 story from House Beautiful. We have found no indication that the clock still exists. If it did, it would be a wonderful sight to see.
Far out on the prairie in the southwestern part of Chicago, hidden by the rude boarding of a frame house, stands a clock so intricate that it ranks among the most remarkable achievements of the clockmaker's art in America. It is one of the most accomplished clocks in the world, a lineal descendant of the famous old-world clocks of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. [...]
Part of the face of Franz Bohacek's fabulous Chicago clock. Orrery at bottom features planets and constellations. Uncle Sam stands in niche at center, where, at noon, a pageant of American history will appear.
Thousands of travelers have made a pilgrimage to see the famous clock of Strassburg, which, set in a commanding position, and beautifully decorated, represents the passage of time in minutes, hours, seconds, months, days, weeks, and years and has wonderful automata, who bow and open doors, and bells that ring and a cock that crows.
Few know of the remarkable achievement of a simple peasant, Franz Bohacek, one time clock-maker of Patzau in Bohemia, now for almost fifty years a citizen of Chicago. [...]
As the clock grew in size, Bohacek's own ideas grew, and dial after dial was added, with all the additional mechanism necessary to its operation.
Soon the little house in which the work was started became too small. One window after another was sacrificed to boarded additions. But in the semi-twilight Bohacek toiled on. Eight feet— ten feet—the clock face rose. The roof must be raised to make space. Six feet— eight feet—the little room was too narrow. A partition must be removed. Finally the family itself was crowded back into the little rooms at the rear.
Franz Bohacek, Chicago clockmaker.
Caption: "The Mother of the Clock: It was owing to Mrs. Bohacek's encouragement that her husband completed his intricate task."
There they all live today, Franz Bohacek, his wife, the little gray cat, the two dogs, the eighteen canaries, all in the one-fourth at the rear, while in the three-fourths at the front towers the wonderful clock. [...]
Instead of the gentle moon face of the ordinary clock, one is confronted with a majestic visage eighteen feet high, whose eyebrows are two dials, each three feet in diameter and each set so high above that one must crane one's neck to see them or walk out onto the platform for a better view.
One of these dials is a concession to the popular taste for a twelve-hour timepiece. From it one learns only the time of day. The other is a complete diurnal circuit of twenty-four hours, so that here one sees at a glance how many hours have passed since midnight last.
A third dial has three series of numbers and three hands. From it one may know the day of the week, the day of the month and the month of the year. [...]
This orrery was just one complication on Franz Bohacek's fabulous clock.
Earth's time, to his soaring imagination, was but a part of the great celestial time in which every planet plays its part. Accordingly he built in the center of his clock face a greater dial, over six feet in diameter. This dial represents the solar system.
About its rim run the signs of the Zodiac—Aquarius, Scorpio, Aries, Gemini and the rest. In the center is the sun— a ball of flame-colored crystal. About it swing the planets, each upon an axis of brass, each represented proportionately to its size, each accompanied by its satellites.
The figured globe which represents the earth revolves about the sun in exact proportion to the actual year, and the moon turns about the earth exactly in accordance with its actual various phases.[...]
[Here's my favorite part:]
Interior of the clock. Franz Bohacek himself is visible at the bottom. Above him is the parade of U.S. Presidents, ready to appear when the clock strikes noon. The rectangles above each President's head may be name tags.
A still more interesting middle-age reminiscence is found when the bells toll for noon and a little door at the top opens. Then, where in the old clocks of Europe, the Emperor Charlemagne nods, in this there passes in review the pageant of American history.
First an Indian appears.
He gives way to Columbus.
Columbus to the Liberty Bell, which strikes three times and is followed by Benjamin Franklin, holding in his hand the Declaration of Independence.
Franklin ushers in the procession of the presidents, from Washington to Roosevelt.
And hidden in its place, waiting its turn to appear at the door, salute and stiffly pass on, Bohacek cherishes a little figurante of William Jennings Bryan.
For the present, at least, Admiral Dewey salutes and closes the door.
That's right-- this is the Lydia the Tattooed Lady of clocks! Thank you, Anne Hard.
Naturally I am wondering what became of the clock. My horological history consultant, Roger Zimmermann, is attempting to run down more information about Bohacek's clock. He has found a Chicago Daily Tribune report from 1901 indicating that the Bohaceks lived at 6304 Winchester Avenue, near Damen and 63rd Street, about halfway between Midway Airport and the University of Chicago. (I remember driving past there a few weeks ago! I was on my way from Winston's Sausage Shop, with its gigantic fiberglass steer on the roof, to the site of the world's first controlled nuclear chain reaction, where I wanted to check out some books.)
Franz Bohacek was also known as "Frank," and under that name we can find more pictures of the clock from the Chicago Daily News and a 1901 story from House Beautiful. We have found no indication that the clock still exists. If it did, it would be a wonderful sight to see.
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-28 08:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-28 08:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-29 12:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-29 02:09 pm (UTC)Meanwhile, it must be said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0SG4YhiuYU
no subject
Date: 2011-03-29 03:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-29 03:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-18 11:37 pm (UTC)One must be prepared for the worst news on this. It is possible something might be accomplished by tracking down descendants or relatives and politely asking them, "What'n hell didja do with Franz's *clock*?" Unhappily, I know of more than one story of immigrants producing the most wonderful objects or working collections of something during their lives in America, only to have them dispersed or simply put in the trash by their assimilated second- or third-generation descendants who wanted to be "normal Americans" and couldn't see keeping Grandpa's/Grandma's old whatever-the-heck-this-was...
You might also see if (in the U.S.) the
National Watch and Clock Museum [ http://www.nawcc.org/index.php/museumlibrary ]
American Clock & Watch Museum [ http://clockandwatchmuseum.org/Home.asp ]
or the American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute [ http://www.awci.com/ ]
know anything of this clock. (Simple site searches at their pages turned up nothing.)
It is imaginable that the British Horological Institute [ http://www.bhi.co.uk/ ] might know of it, as the British sometimes track American activities better than we do (though a search of their site didn't reveal anything). Another of the various European institutions *might* have something if anyone was following Mr. Bohacek...
It begins to look like this may simply have gotten treated as any number of other pieces of "folk art" from a hundred years ago did; I'm not presently optimistic...
no subject
Date: 2011-07-18 11:50 pm (UTC)http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/Census/individual_record.asp?indi_code=1880US_6832086_0&lds=5®ion=0®ionfriendly=1880+US+Census&frompage=99
So we have "Frank (Franz) Bohacek" (1840 - 19??) . [The birthdate is plausible to judge from the available photos of him.] It doesn't help much that he was apparently working on this clock (starting c. 1882) in obscurity.