Peter Wagner's Crazy Clock
Initial Thoughts
My intention was that it should be “impressive” but not as intrusive and dominant as the original. Penny liked the idea of putting it around a corner in our garden so you suddenly see it and achieve the ‘wow’ factor. After producing some Photoshopped images depicting it at various scales in various locations in the garden, we decided upon a scale between half and one third size, i.e. 5/12 scale, being around 10 foot high. I wanted to make it in sections so it could be transported to various events such as the Fladbury Walkabout.
The other brilliant idea we both had was that I should not copy the original but make it personal to me. So I sat down and thought of various landmark events and things that have influenced me in my earlier life and came up with my own clock.
Before I went too far, I thought I had better check with Guinness that they had no objections. To my great relief and surprise, the archivist wrote back with a really encouraging letter and supplying much useful material:
Dear Peter,
Many thanks for getting in touch. This sounds like a fantastic project and I absolutely love the mock-up you’ve created below. [Ed. The picture below]. Top marks for ingenuity! To answer your specific questions:
· The original was 25 feet high, although I can’t find any information to say against which part of the clock this was measured. However, I should imagine it was the ball on top of the pole rather than the roundabout, as the ball is part of the core structure (i.e. it isn’t one of the ‘rising’ pieces). The 5ft one-fifth scale model in the Storehouse includes the ball in this measurement.
· There aren’t any copyright/legal restrictions as long as you aren’t using the Guinness name, nor are there any issues with using the seals [Ed. On the doors].
I’m attaching some additional material relating to the design and engineering of the original clock from the 1950s that may prove useful to your endeavour.
Please do keep us in the loop regarding progress, I would love to see some pictures of your model once it’s complete!
Just let me know if you have any further questions.
Kind regards ....
By now you are probably wondering what I will be including in my version. Well, below is another Photoshopped creation of what it might look like. The finished clock will use similar colours to the original Festival Clock.
