This is an old VHS recording found collecting dust which I found of great interest.
Dan Parkes is a famous character in the clockmaking world and it is wonderful to see and hear him in this film.
I believe the film dates from 1983 and was made by James Archibald and Associates Limited.
Written, produced and directed by James Archibald.
Including clocks from the Royal collection, and wonderful images of Dan Parkes's workshop, and 'Big Ben'.
Clockmaker: Dan Parkes
Technical Advisor: Charles Lee
Commentator: Alan Dobie
Harpsichord Played By: Leslie Pearson
This is just the sort of content I wish there was more of on KZhead.
Thank you. Made in the days when documentaries were well made, educational, and worth watching.
Great British History and Craftsmanship at its BEST
HUGE thanks. BBC took a downturn in the Blair era and never recovered. Great find, this.
How very gentle and civilised. Like going back in time! Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it
Fascinating stuff! The narrator’s voice is so relaxing and pleasant to listen to, I could listen to him all day. Sounds like it was recorded in the late 70s or early 80s. I’m saving this and will be watching it multiple times. Thanks so much for uploading it.
Pleasure to listen to this man. Probably a great teacher if he took on apprentices over his time
Thank you for sharing a history of clockworks from Britain.⏲⏲⏲.
thank you for sharing i adore Alan Dobie's narrations such a unique voice
Really enjoyed it and learned some things.
Wow! Great documentary, magnificently produced and directed and how wonderful chance to hear Mr. Parkes explaining all the mechanisms of these great jewels of humanity. Keep looking for these dust collecting masterpieces.
Thanks for taking the time to upload this Tommy, enjoyed watching it 👍
A very academic account of very interesting movements. Thank you for sharing
This clocks is so great
I really enjoyed this! I had been searching around for history or mechanical clocks. This was way more informative than most of the modern youtube content I ran across. Wish I could see some of these old time pieces and demonstrations in high res!
Thank you! From The Clockmaker, July 2010 "The evening was officially hosted by The Guild of Arts Scholars, Dealers and Collectors. Ronald A Lee was the family business of the family of Georgina Gough, the current Arts Scholars Clerk, and in 1981 they made this 45-minute film to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the granting of the Charter to the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers on 22nd August 1631 by King Charles I. The technical adviser, Charles Lee and the director and producer James Archibald"
Thank you that’s fantastic information. I’ll add it to the description.
Bravo tommy 👏👏👏 a good reportage 👍
Thanks!
MANY THANKS, ENJOYED IT TREMENDOUSLY!
Glad you enjoyed it. It is a fantastic film.
A wonderful save - thank you! The section @14' demonstrating the recoil escapement also incidentally illustrates that eccentric 'beat' from the slightly unequal teeth you can find in this age of mechanism - I have often wondered if it's due to age, or a characteristic of lesser efforts in this era of horology - my 'blacksmithed' lantern clock from the late c.17th has a unique sequence of ticks that could be identified blindfold, and fills the room with an rhythm that is at least as organic as mechanical.
This is so informative and goes some way to explaining how Britain truly turned into Great Britain. Accurate Navigation was such a n important step forwards. Clearly there were many clever guys around
Thanks for uploading this. Very informative!
for some reason i started watching various vids relating to the subject. love it. tick tock . at the tone the time will be, beep. dun , dun , dun. lovely vid . thanks for digitizing it. :):):):)
fantastic job ! keep up the great videos
Fantastic video. Thank you Sir.
Glad you liked it!
Wonderful video!
Thanking you this is going to be a good watch we mean clock, watching this from start to finish beginning right now. Lance @ Patrick. What a great history Greenwich time learned here via a small search during this viewing. A real detailed clock functionality. We sure love mechanical tools and time keeping devices clearly set the bar our watch movements are so in need to be very precise and spot on every single time. 36:35 we begin to get excited seeing the aboard ship clock, followed by 38:53 pocket-watch wow wee.
This video is so old that he has Tompion movements on his bench! The narrator sounds like Alan Dobie.
Great upload!
I went looking for this having seen a mention, by a contributor, to having just been to the "premier" showing. The reference was in "Antiquarian Horology", Winter 1980. I guess that dates it pretty accurately.
Should I revise for my alevels next week? Nah. Should I fuel my obsession with history? Absolutely
Touching such rare clocks with bare hands nowadays would be unthinkable...
It amazes me, as an entry level novice clock repairman wannabe, how in ancent times they had the skill to do such accurate and precise machining making such crucial components to clock accuracy and function continuity like the teeth on the wheels, perfectly round shafts and bushings, etc. Everything had to be so accurate and precise! Not like just die casting a pendulum bob! Im thinking so much must have been done by hand with a keen eye for accuracy, they didn't have accurate machine tools back then like we do now. And how could they machine the fine machine screw threads way back then? With some scientific speculation,such as is there life on other planets, there is no proof at all. But with my personal mystery of accurate and precision technology in ancient times, the proof is real and abundant!
Nice documentary, beautiful clocks, pertinent context of development for navigation. On the flip side, except Huygens in Holland, everything was invented in the British Isles, right?😉☹️French and Swiss clock makers? Thanks for posting, I enjoyed. Cheers from Paris!
Lovely video. Shame that not one pendulum clock sounds like it’s in beat though!
Hi I have inherited an old longcase clock by the maker ‘John Shepley Stockton’ made circa 1700. Could you recommend someone to refurbish it for me? Regards Stephen
Does anybody know what music is playing at 24 min?
Amazing and so well explained. You have enlightened me on the different escapement methods. Tompion and Harrison etc the heroes of time keeping. Is your son carrying on the tradition? Many thanks.
I assume the H4 shown was actually one of the replicas - but whose? Was it another made back then or a recent construct? I know it was decided not to run the H4 to preserve it - unless this was a rare exception.
This is the real one. I think this film was made before the decision to stop running it.
G'day Tommy, What's the George Graham escapement at 32:00? Cheers
Wish the quality and resolution of video was better so that the old timepieces could be seen in detail. Such a great documentary but relevance nullified as it Seems the video was made from television.
The quality will never have been much better than this, but it has definitely suffered being transferred from Betamax to DVD to KZhead!
@@TommyJobson It's suffered more than that. Everything was recorded onto film, then edited and spliced together. It was next copied to another film by projecting the spliced film and recording to the second by filming it with a camera again. In order to put it onto magnetic tape (i.e. Betamax), the second film would then be projected and recorded with an electronic video camera recording it onto magnetic tape at very low resolution by today's standards. This tape was then played, digitized, and recorded onto DVD. The DVD was then copied into memory and uploaded to KZhead; both of these processes use lossy compression algorithms. And this is also assuming the video wasn't recorded from a television broadcast! It's amazingly clear given all of the conversions and that it doesn't look like mud.
180622
Put me to sleep in 5 minutes
It is certainly a very pleasant and relaxing video!
Did the bells at the end wake you up again? 😁
all this invention was protestant, not Catholic much to the chagrin of the pope, even today never forge guy fawkes, or the inquisition.
The great man talking about horology. Many thanks for sharing this Tommy.