Great Gravity Clock, (sculpture).

Great Gravity Clock, (sculpture).

Ride & Show Engineering, engineering firm.

Great Gravity Clock, (sculpture).

Copyrighted Jan. 1994. Dedicated May 1994.

Sculpture: steel tubing, stainless steel, and plastic, painted; Basin: concrete and stone.

Sculpture: approx. 52 x 293 x 73 ft.; Basin: approx. 1 1/2 x 33 x 27 1/2 ft.

A huge kinetic timepiece composed of a four-column tubular steel structure which supports a colorful fourteen foot diameter analog clock face. The clock face is mounted thirty-one feet above a water fountain base. A digital clock is located below the analog clock face. The structure supports a ball feed elevator that lifts multicolored seven inch diameter balls to a height of fifty-two feet, the rate of one ball every ten seconds. When a ball leaves the elevator it is selectively routed to one of three possible stainless steel guide paths. There are more than 400 feet of guide paths within the structure.

One guide path directs the balls through a series of spirals and loops along the west and front of the sculpture, actuating a vertical wave exhibit. Another ball guide path, similar in design, guides the balls along the east side of the sculpture. There the rolling ball triggers a counterbalance pendulum display. At the rate of one ball each minute, a third guide path directs the balls to the rear of the structure to an intricate series of elevator drops which take the balls to the top of the clock face where they are picked up by the rotating "second hand" of the analog clock. When balls leave the "second hand" they are received by the digital clock, where they are routed through three guide rails, the top "minute rail," the mid level "ten minute rail" and the lowermost "hour rail." One can tell the correct time by reading the number of balls on each of the three digital clock guide rails.

Object -- Furniture -- Clock

Outdoor Sculpture -- Florida -- Fort Lauderdale

Museum of Discovery & Science, Exhibits Division, 401 SW Second Street, Covered atrium, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33312

Text panels near the sculpture explain how it works. IAS files contain a museum hand-out on the clock.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Florida survey, 1997.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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