Clock of the Long Now – Installation Begins

 

“The Long Now is the recognition that the precise moment you’re in grows out of the past and is a seed for the future.”

                  – Brian Eno (founding board member of The Long Now Foundation)

After over a decade of design and fabrication, we have begun installing the first parts of the Clock of the Long Now on site in West Texas.  In this video you can see the first elements to be assembled underground, the drive weight, winder and main gearing.  This is the first of many stages to be installed, and we continue to fabricate parts for the rest of the Clock in several shops along the west coast.

The 10,000 Year Clock was conceived by Long Now co-founder Danny Hillis as an icon to long-term thinking, and the first prototype of the Clock now resides in the Science Museum in London.  This monument scale version, built in partnership with Long Now supporter Jeff Bezos, began with construction of the underground site itself, and is now moving into the installation phase.

This monument scale Clock is designed to run for ten millennia with minimal maintenance and interruption. The Clock is powered by mechanical energy harvested from the temperature difference from day to night, as well as the people that visit it. The primary materials used in the Clock are special grades of stainless steel, titanium and dry running ceramic ball bearings.

The Long Now Foundation was founded in 01996 as a non-profit dedicated to encouraging long-term thinking and responsibility. The 10,000 Year Clock is one of our many projects which include long-term data archiving, documenting endangered languages, and producing events and media that engage the long-term future. Long Now is entirely funded by donations and the support of more than 9000 members around the world. Find out more at Longnow.org

Some of the engineers and fabricators seen this video include:

Jascha Little: Power System Lead Engineer

Brian Ford: Lead Install Engineer

Jake Faw: Machinist and Install

Alexander Rose: Project Design and Install

Sean Riley: Lead Rigging Design

Dave Freitag: Rigger

Aaron Griffith: Site Supervisor

We would also like to thank the amazing people, partners, shops, and artisans that we have worked with over the years to make these parts and the underground site.  Without all their devoted efforts and attention to detail this work would not be possible.

Applied Invention
Machinist Inc.
Rand Machine Works
Swaggart Brothers Construction
Seattle Solstice
Bollinger Atelier
NW Precast
CG Mechanical
Boca Bearings
LMI
Autodesk

 

Video Production by Sustainability Media

Director of photography: Chris Baldwin

Photography and editing: Jesse Chandler