Clocks are responsible for all our everyday tasks and have become a vital part of our life. Along with contemporary furniture home decor clocks have become a central attraction in the room. They have become popular decorative items which make them exceptional gifts that can be cherished as memorable keepsakes. There are many types of decorative clocks that can be given as gifts like tabletop pieces, contemporary wall clocks, elegant wrought iron creations and more.
There are a wide variety of ideas when you think about choosing beautiful and decorative clocks as a gift. For instance, you can choose a boutique rose wall clock that is available in antique finish, with Roman numeral face in a classic round shape, for someone who loves flowers. The beautiful bouquet of roses with an antique look can enhance and uplift the decor of your kitchen or add grace and charm to one’s sewing room. There are many contemporary designs available in various types of home decor clocks. They provide a chic and stylish look and a futuristic design providing great options to design the room with. They also make great and unique gift for teenagers or vivacious and spirited youths. Clocks can also be perfect gifts for your bar room.
When you are thinking of giving a gift of novelty, you can always go for metal wall clocks or wooden clocks that offer a different and unique appeal to the foyer or hallway. You can choose an attractive solid hardwood clock with classic walnut finish with metal casing and brass finish which makes a perfect accompaniment especially for a fireplace and adds a memorable touch to the mantle, shelf or desk. A wooden wall clock is a fantastic idea as the pendulum clock presents a fascinating display that adds unique character and charm to any room.
There is a fantastic variety of home decor clocks available in various online furniture stores. You can easily choose a formal style clock to add sense of elegance and charm for the dining room or a trendy bright colored wall clock for the play room or kitchen or a contemporary modern design to perfectly compliment any room in your office or home. They are available in metal, glass, wood and plastic and many are also available in various different themes. They are indeed fun to collect and are truly regarded as ideal home gifts to give to your friends and family.
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A beautiful old mantelclock. Eine wunderschöne alte Kaminuhr.
Add Antique Charm to Your Home With These Decorating Ideas
If you own an older home and want to restore its original look, or if your home is newer and you want to add some old-time charm, antiques can provide a wonderful decor opportunity. Antiques come in many shapes and forms, and they are often far more detailed in design than modern decor products. Utilize antiques to get the look and feel you want in your home. These tips will show you how.
Ornate Antiques for the Ritzy Home Decor
Want an ornate look for your home decor? Silver, gold, bronze, and cloth antique products can do the trick. And it doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Use antique table linens with embellished designs to enhance your coffee table, end tables, or night stands. Decorate with those antique family heirlooms that are hidden away in the attic or basement. Use antique-style photo frames to frame those really old family portraits. You can hang these on the wall with a couple of shabby chic wall sconces to create a wonderful antique look in a room. Or, set your old photos on tables along with an antique lamp to set the mood.
Be sure to shop garage sales, thrift shops, and flea markets to find great bargains on antique lamps, figurines, vases, and furniture. You can often find brassy or silver antique items for a bargain and polish them up to remove tarnish. They’ll shine like new and give your home the antique look you want.
Another idea is to replace cabinet and doorknobs, faucets, and other fixtures with antique-style fixtures made of bronze or silver. Pay attention to the details in every room. This really makes a difference. Set off any room with lavish drapes and beautiful rugs.
Antique Country Decor
If you go for the rustic antique look, there are plenty of wooden antiques to fill any room. Try wooden antique lamp tables or end tables, an antique wooden fireplace mantle, bookcases, wooden rocking chairs, stools, and chests. Add antique wooden figurines and knick-knacks to any room, such as wooden shoes, rocking horses, animal figurines, clocks, a rustic antique floor lamp, or wooden photo frames. Country wooden antiques create a rustic look, and a beautiful, creative decor.
A Soft Vintage Look
Certain antiques, such as homemade quilts, pastel-colored furniture, and lacey linens can give any room a soft vintage look. It’s antique without the rustic or ornate look. It’s elegant, but comfortable. Soft-colored antiques can work well with floral-colored wallpaper and pastel-colored rooms. Vintage rose, yellow, light green, and baby blue colors give a room a spring-like touch every day of the year. Beautiful ceramic lamps and wall sconces can provide soft light to set off this decor.
No matter what look you’re trying to achieve, antique decor items can be used to dramatically change a room’s look and feel. Frequent thrift shops and garage sales, or read the classifieds in your local newspaper to decorate your home with beautiful antiques for less.
Donald Rumefuld is an Online antique Business Support Executive for foxriverantique who provides detailed information on antiques and collectibles Wisconsin antique mall
Running antique mantle clock movement, had to make a few parts, pendulum, dial, chime, next to make a clock cabinet. Video of movement running. Video Rating: 5 / 5
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Through Mexico’s Copper Canyon Aboard the Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad
I
The streets of Chihuahua appeared black, movement-devoid slabs as the van unimpededly slipped over then at 0530 to the train station, not a single automobile encountered during the brief journey from the Hotel San Francisco. Founded in 1709 by the Spaniards and taking the Indian word for “dry and sandy place” as its name, Chihuahua City, located on a 4,667-foot desert plain, is the capital of Chihuahua, Mexico’s largest state, with a 150,000-square-mile area. A cowboy city, it is characterized by the Franciscan Cathedral in its main square, Pancho Villa house, cowboy hat-clad citizens, and stores displaying endless rows of cowboy boots. The state itself, topographically distinguishable by brown, vegetationless formations, is the leading producer of apples, walnuts, cotton, and jalapeno peppers, and is prevalent in lumber production and cattle ranching. An agrarian Mennonite community produces its own indigenous type of cheese.
Ahead, and beyond the fence, appeared the two locomotives and the four lighted passenger cars comprising the daily westbound Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad, operating as Train 74, cradled by one of three tracks as it was prepared for its still-nocturnal departure to the Copper Canyon and, ultimately, to its Pacific coast terminus, Los Mochis. I would only travel halfway today, to Posada Barrancas.
The tiny, twin wooden-bench terminal, sporting little more than two ticket windows—‘tequillas” in Spanish—was almost equally devoid of life, save for the attendant behind the barred window and three other luggage-toting, still-sleeping travelers.
Fifteen minutes before its 0600 departure, the door to the platform was opened and the handful of passengers exited through it, reimpacted by the cold, dark morning and met by the conductor, who indicated the passengers’ seat numbers. The first of the two passenger cars, configured with 68 thick, reclining seats in a four-abreast, two-two, arrangement and alternatively upholstered in red-gray or dull green, featured car-length overhead luggage racks, window pane-encased adjustable blinds, and aft, men’s and women’s lavatories. The dully-lit car, soothing to the early-morning, incompletely-opened eyes, greeted me with welcome, heater-generated warmth, as evidenced by the steady hum audible before boarding.
Protracted reaction, as the couplings snagged the trailing car, produced an initial jolt as the chain initiated movement. Creeping past the still-dark and empty streets, the train lurched over the silver rails, which passed through the suburbs of Chihuahua, seemingly slipping away from day before day itself had even arrived.
Operating over the long-envisioned rail link between the fertile Chihuahua plains and the Mexican west coast in order to transport goods to the port of Topolobambo for transfer to the shipping routes, the Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad traces its origins to Albert Kinsey Owens, an American railway engineer, who moved to Mexico in 1861 and conceived a Chihuahua-Topolobambo connection. Forming a Mexican-American company two years later to design it, he was awarded a contract by the Mexican government to build a rail line between Piedras Negras and Topolobambo which would eventually offer spur lines to Mazatlan, Alamos, and Ojinaga. However, ultimately unable to secure sufficient funding to complete the project, Owens ceded it to Foster Higgins, whose Rio Grande, Sierra Madre, and Pacific Railway Company operated over the 1898-completed, 259-kilometer section between Ciudad Juarez and Casas Grandes. Insurmountable obstacles equally precluded its further extension.
The project was next adopted by Enrique Creel, who operated the Kansas City, Mexico, and Orient Railroad and who was able to further connect Casas Grandes with La Junta after four years of additional construction, from 1910 to 1914. But revolutionary attacks thwarted further completion of the next sector, that from Ojinaga to Creel.
By 1900, Topolobambo was connected to El Fuerte by several Mexican and US rail companies, but the fully envisioned route, from Chihuahua to Ojinaga, remained elusive until 1927, when the Mexican government itself completed the sector which Creel had started. Remaining was the 260-kilometer stretch within the canyon whose topographical obstacles and 7,000-foot elevation change would require extreme engineering feats to overcome. Nationalizing the independent rail companies which operated over either end of the still-unconnected line in 1940, the Mexican government announced 13 years later, in 1953, that the program would be completed.
The originally estimated five-year construction project, commencing with Owens’ work in 1863, ultimately took some 90 years and million to complete, the final track not laid until 1961. The project, having experienced multiply-failed attempts by several companies, cost overruns of hitherto unimaginable proportions, engineering failures, the Mexican revolution, and World War I, ultimately triumphed with a rail connection between the sea-level city of Los Mochis and the high-elevation capital of Chihuahua via the rugged, inhospitable topography of a series of Sierra Madre Occidental-located canyons traversed by tracks which threaded their way through 86 tunnels and over 37 bridges, thrice crossed the Continental Divide, and were subjected to an 8,000-foot elevation change in the process.
Dawn encroached itself on night’s blackness as a colorless metamorphosis, progressively revealing the opaque hue of the cloud cover.
The Chihuahua suburbs yielded to rich, chocolate-brown foothills and the gold, straw-like hay growing right up to the rails.
Decreasing speed, the Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad ceased its momentum at Cuauhtemoc, now 132 kilometers from its origin. Originally known as San Antonio de Arenales, the village, later adopting the current name after the Aztec emperor, traces its origins to the railroad’s arrival in 1900, but experienced significant growth some 21 years later when the Mennonite community settled there.
Reinitiating motion, the train moved amid wheat-gold fields, which stretched on either side to the foothills of the Sierra Madre Mountains. The first hint of the topography to come had been glimpsed. The sky, now an illustrious blue, retained a few scattered white cotton formations.
I walked into the Dining Car for breakfast, my first meal on the rails. Located directly behind the locomotive, it featured a forward galley; four, four-place booths; a glass divider; two two-place booths on the left and a c-shaped, inward-facing divan with tables on the right; a second glass divider; and another four, four-place booths. Brass lamps attached to the car sides hung above each table. Seats alternated between dark red or green upholstery.
A standard, two-page menu featured purchasable breakfast, lunch, and dinner items. My own breakfast included an omelet of ham and cheese, fried potatoes with peppers and onions, refried beans with grated cheese, and tortillas and salsa.
Leaving the valley and its ubiquitous apple orchards, the Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad passed over the Continental Divide for the first of what would become three occasions and briefly stopped at La Junta, site of the railroad roundhouse, now at a 6,775-foot elevation. Upon departure, it commenced its gradual climb, leaving behind the plains of Chihuahua.
By 1030, having covered some 200 kilometers, Train 74 wound its way through the Sierra-Madrean oak-pine woodland as it ascended through 7,000 feet. San Juanito, at 265 kilometers from Chihuahua and at an 8,000-foot elevation, was Mexico’s coldest community, although the sun currently shined unobstructedly. Established in 1906, it, like many villages along the route, took root as a result of the railroad’s expansion.
At kilometer-marker 551, the peaks of the Sierra Madre Occidental loomed ahead.
Plunging through Tunnel 4, at 4,134.8 feet the line’s longest and the location of the third crossing of the Continental Divide, the Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad emerged onto dual-branching track, ceasing motion while an eastbound freight train passed to the left before partially backing into the tunnel and reemerging on the spur line for its approach into 7,735-foot Creel. Founded in 1907, during the first stage of railroad construction, it is the gateway to the Tarahumara Indian culture and, as the principle community within the canyon proper, is inhabited by some 5,000 people. Its current economic activity includes trade, the railroad itself, the lumber industry, and tourism. A brief stop permitted a large, name tag-bearing tour group to board the otherwise empty passenger cars before the train almost instantly regained momentum and moved past the town’s main square and line of wooden shops and guest houses. Redirecting itself off of the spur line, it rejoined the main track for its canyon-penetrating journey.
As the four-car chain thread its way though rock wall and pine, the Ferromex diesel engines appeared ahead and either to the left or the right of the windows as they negotiated the turns. Climbing toward the line’s highest point at kilometer marker 583, 8,071-foot Los Ojitos, Train 74 followed the winding, ever-ascending, single track, wafts of crisp pine air and smoldering wood fires entering both ends of the cars at the conductor’s stations.
At 1235, the train threaded its way through tall, dense pine and the carpeted expanses of the canyon became visible through the left windows; moving through kilometer marker 592, it commenced a steep descent over “el lazo” as the track’s geometry looped into a complete circle and recrossed over itself.
Approaching Divisadero at 1320, now 354 kilometers from its origin, the two-locomotive and four-car Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad transitioned from mountain to canyon topography and decreased speed, moving past a chain of flatbed freight cars supporting vehicles, and ceased movement at the two-track station. Unleashed for a 15-minute scenic stop, its patrons were instantly engulfed in a Mecca of activity as they negotiated the stalls which served as the temporary displays of the Tarahumara Indian’s basketry and wood carvings enroute to the Divisadero Overlook, where they were met with the thin, crisp air and the panoramic view of the Copper, Urique, and Tararecua Canyons whose size, depth, and grandeur were awe-inspiring and silence-promoting. A thin line, representing a tributary to the Urique River, snaked 4,135 feet below. The geological formations themselves were the result of plate tectonic shifting some 90 million years ago, a planetary phenomenon which later produced the mountains of North and South America. Earthquakes of hitherto unimaginable magnitude ultimately produced the Sea of Cortez between Baja California and the Mexican mainland. Today’s canyons were deeper, greener, and four times larger than Arizona’s Grand Canyon.
A blow of the locomotive’s whistle indicated that it was time to return to the train for the journey’s continuation. The quick, four-kilometer trek to the Posada Barrancas Station, which served three canyon lodges, took me to my overnight destination, the small pick-up truck awaiting only feet from the rail car’s steps. After only a 30-second stop, the train reinitiated power and its trailing passenger car disappeared as it moved between the track-sandwiching rock faces and rounded the bend, the location’s daily lifeline now severed for another 24 hours. The truck, making its way up the dirt hill with the luggage on its flatbed, stopped in front of the Hotel Posada Barrancas Mirador.
A three-story orange adobe lodge built on the rim of the 5,770-foot-deep Copper Canyon, it featured wood-framed balconies in rustic Tarahumara Indian style and included three daily meals. The lobby, adorned with a brown tiled floor and yellow adobe walls with an Indian-patterned border, featured a cathedral ceiling of wood slats and thick, tree trunk beams with three wagon wheel-like chandeliers, a huge adobe fireplace with a pottery-adorned mantel and a crackling fire during evenings, and leather sofas and arm chairs. A small, separate bar featured small, round wooden tables, colorful Indian-motif chairs, an orange adobe fireplace, and a painted, wall-length mural of the Copper Canyon and the railroad tracks which ran through it. A large, outdoor, canyon-overlooking balcony framed by a natural branch- and trunk-border was accessed by a door from the lobby.
A tiled, outdoor walkway led past crevices of pottery, rocks, and cactus on the right and the room doors on the left. The rooms, in quintessential Mexican-Indian style, retained the hotel’s tile floors and featured rough, white adobe walls; wood-beamed ceilings; small, white adobe fireplaces with orange bases; separate, outside sinks and closets whose wooden doors were made of diagonally-patterned tree branches; inside tiled showers; and rustic tree trunk and branch balconies overlooking the canyon.
Lunch was served in the dining room, which contained long, wooden tables, and featured a downward-slanting ceiling made of thin wood branches, four wooden chandeliers, a green slate fireplace, and floor-to-ceiling windows which looked out over the canyon, and included cream of mushroom soup; filet of grilled beef, baked potato, refried beans and cheese, nachos with melted cheese and tomato sauce, and tortillas and salsa; peach cream pie with a graham cracker crust and chocolate sauce drizzle; and coffee.
The few wisps of cloud brush-stroked on the western horizon above the rock-sculpted walls of the canyon temporarily transformed themselves into pink and purple hues. The air, thin, pure, and brisk, exuded tranquillity. Far removed from a settlement or town of any appreciable size, the orange adobe hotel overlooking the rim became an isolated world unto itself.
Dinner, the second meal in the canyon, included lentil soup; barbecued chicken breast, lime rice with green olives, and mixed vegetables; and pineapple cake.
The canyon, now devoid of light, was reduced to a black, referenceless hole. The grid of stars, unobstructed by a single cloud vapor, pollution-caused haze, or ground light, penetrated the night sky like high-intensity beams melting into black wax. The cold, rarefied air was heavy with the aromas of the burning logs in the lodge’s adobe fireplaces. Surrendering to sleep, I lapsed into the void of oblivion…
II
Pierced only by the sounds of the periodically-howling coyotes, night had remained invisibly black. At 0630, between the Copper Canyon and a band of black cloud, dawn poured itself into day as molten orange lava through a sliver on the eastern horizon, progressively encroaching itself until the once-black cloud band became infused with tinges of orange, like a sponge gradually absorbing day’s liquid. The crevices and corrugations of the canyon’s cliffs, although still indistinguishable, became visible in silhouette form beneath the dark-blue sky whose nocturnal light, the profusion of interstellar stars, had faded until only a planet-representative pinpoint of light remained diagonal to the lodge’s balcony. Absorbing the full fury of day, the cloud band hovering over the horizon became engulfed in fiery red flame.
The daily westbound train, which would take me the remaining half of the distance to its terminus, Los Mochis, had just pulled out of Chihuahua.
The clouds, now totally consumed by fire, were completely engulfed by red. As the flame burned itself out, the red once again progressed to a cooler orange and the sky transformed itself into a morning baby blue. The gray granite of the canyon’s sculpted rocks and the green of its lower-elevation vegetation became distinguishable.
Breakfast, served in the hotel’s dining room, had included orange juice; a fresh fruit plate of watermelon, papaya, cantaloupe, banana, cherries, and limes; pancakes, maple syrup, and bacon; and coffee.
By late-morning, the lodge seemed suspended by its silence as its guests, temporarily away, became involved with hiking and horseback riding excursions, almost in anticipation of the daily train from Chihuahua, lifeline to the isolated canyon community. A very small, colorfully-clad Tarahumara woman, carrying a baby cradled in a fabric sling behind her back, peeked into the lodge’s window, in curiosity of the “other” life experienced here.
The suspension of silence, time, and society was abruptly shattered at 1330 as the dark green and red Ferromex diesel locomotive, sprouting gray smoke and pulling its chain of five cars, appeared between the bushes on the single track, following the right curve and stopping at the “Old West’-resembling wooden platform on which some 20 people, having emerged from Posada Barrancas’ three lodges, congregated. Unlike yesterday’s train, today’s was comprised of a single locomotive, the standard dining and bar cars, and three passenger cars. Clamoring on board with the rest of the luggage-carrying passengers, I reached my left-hand seat just as the engine had released its brakes and the westbound train had slipped between the two rock faces on the other side of the dirt road.
Only moments after leaving the station, the Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad followed the multiplying tracks into San Rafael and stopped parallel to the eastbound train. A gradual descent, from 7,500 feet to sea level, would characterize most of the remaining journey.
Lunch, served in the dining car, included a California baguette of ham, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, mayonnaise, and Dijon mustard on French bread with crispy French fried potatoes.
Rounding a left bend, the Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad plunged through a tunnel and over the 695.4-foot Laja Bridge, the tracks now nestled in a pine tree-rich canyon. At 1515, it pulled into the 5,300-foot station of Bahuichivo, which serves the town of Cerocahui, located 16 kilometers amidst apple and peach orchards, and the village of Urique, which is located at the bottom of the canyon. Between kilometers 688 and 708, the train bored through a series of 16 tunnels carved into the canyon’s edge. The track, paralleling the slender, rocky, almost-dry Septentrion River below, was itself “miniaturized” by the green-carpeted peaks of Chihuahua pine, Douglas fir, and Quaking aspen towering above it. The sky, abundant with majestic, floating silver cloud islands, was otherwise an illustrious blue.
Reduced to but a model railroad, the six-chained linkage moved amid the towering, granite and green alpine-topographical peaks of oak and pine, periodically swallowed by a series of tunnels, which instantaneously reduced day-blue to night-black. Mimicking the locomotive’s turns, curves, and jolts at slightly delayed rates, its trailing cars followed suit with uncanny precision. As soon as the train exited a tunnel, the seemingly tiny round hole representing the entrance into the next always appeared ahead.
Entering tunnel 49, the train, now descending into the Santa Barbara Canyon, executed a 180-degree turn before emerging and again was subjected to a second 180-degree bend on the bridge spanning the Septentrion River. The village of Temoris, founded in 1677 by Jesuits and located on a 3,365-foot plateau above the station, had been reached by 1610 in the afternoon.
Passing through the Rio Septentrion Canyon, Train 74 traveled through notably tropical topography, characterized by banana, palm, and mango trees
At 1708 and kilometer-marker 748, the train crossed the 1,018.5-foot Chinipas Bridge which, at 335 feet above the green surface-appearing Chinipas River, was the highest of the line, and, six kilometers later, bored through the last and longest of its tunnels, number 86, which was 5,966 feet in length. Like the last sounds of a symphony, the Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad exited canyon country.
As evening approached, the passengers, many of whom belonged to one of two travel groups, made way to the bar car for wine and cocktails. The car itself, located between the dining and the passenger cars, had been configured with an inward-facing bar with several round bar stools, mirrored shelves for wine and liquor bottles, and upside-down hanging glasses. Primarily upholstered in red, its lounge chairs were sandwiched by small, round drink tables, while a stand-up bar and a concessions counter for salable snacks and souvenirs was installed at the front of the car.
At kilometer marker 781, the train passed over the Agua Caliente Bridge, which spanned the Fuerte River and, at 1,637 feet, was the line’s longest. Traversing low, scrubby cactus and thornforest terrain at 1730, it moved at considerable speed beneath paling blue skies and dark, periodic nimbus cloud collections characteristic of dusk. Horizontal lines of cloud, brush-stroked on the western horizon, were eaten by burning orange coals. Hovering only feet above the curved silhouettes of the mountains, the sun, in pure cylindrical geometry, burned with orange fury before slipping behind them. Settling into nocturnal rest, it projected a volcanic eruption of purple and orange liquid lava skyward in its aftermath. The snaking river below the bridge cradling the track seemed lit with a violet match. The cloud formations, temporarily torched by orange, metamorphosed into purple as night snuffed out the few remnants of day’s embers burning just above the horizon. A quilt of ruby and gray stratonimbus draped itself over day, covering it with suffocating darkness, and leaving the warm, lighted interior of the passenger cars as the only remaining light.
Train 74, now traveling parallel to flat, almost-desert scrub in the state of Sinaloa, had left the Copper Canyon and the foothills of the Sierra Madre behind, and would close the remaining gap to its final destination in blackness, leaving only the “clock” of its wheels against the track as audible evidence of its advancement.
Walking to the dining car for the last meal on the rails, I ordered a bottle of French white wine and an entrée of chicken cordon bleu with a mushroom cream sauce, Mexican rice, and mixed vegetables.
The town of El Fuerte, reached at 1910, was of Spanish colonial architecture and had been founded in 1564 by the Spanish conqueror Francisco de Ibarra for the purpose of erecting a fort to protect its citizens against Indian attack. Serving as a trading post on the Camino Real for three centuries, whose Spanish mule trail had connected Guadalahara, the Alamos mines, and the Sierra Madre Occidental, it had become the capital of Sinaloa in 1824.
Lurching on the single track beneath dark velvet, star-diamond skies and moving over the flat expanse of land, Train 74 covered the remaining 82 kilometers between El Fuerte and Los Mochis, the rectangles seeming to skim along the sides reflections of its lighted passenger car windows on the track-side vegetation.
The rectangular reflections of the car windows were like the reflections of the journey: unlike other rail lines, which offered alternative transportation means to certain destinations, the Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad offered the only land line to and through the Sierra Madre Occidental and its related canyons. The life line to the communities along its track, from Chihuahua to Los Mochis, it offered singular-method, vital transportation; traveled over 653 kilometers of track whose route could only be equated with an extreme feat of railway engineering; offered unparalleled mountain and canyon scenery; and connected the Mexican and Tarahumara Indian cultures.
The single track burgeoned into many and the train passed a considerably-sized railway yard. The lights of Los Mochis, the modern city located only 19 kilometers from the port town of Topolobambo, loomed ahead. Creeping through the suburbs, the houses of which were only yards from the actual track, the Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad moved past the modern Estacion de Los Mochis at a snail’s pace and snagged its brakes for the last time at 2205, completing its 16 hour, 20-minute journey from the plains to the Pacific.
Taking my suitcase from the overhead rack and climbing down the few stairs to the platform, I watched the uniformed crew turn off the train’s lights and file into the terminal, having completed another westbound run, and could only marvel at the vital role they played in the railroad’s purpose to link the Copper Canyon with the rest of Mexico.
A graduate of Long Island University-C.W. Post Campus with a summa-cum-laude BA Degree in Comparative Languages and Journalism, I have subsequently earned the Continuing Community Education Teaching Certificate from the Nassau Association for Continuing Community Education (NACCE) at Molloy College, the Travel Career Development Certificate from the Institute of Certified Travel Agents (ICTA) at LIU, and the AAS Degree in Aerospace Technology at the State University of New York – College of Technology at Farmingdale. Having amassed almost three decades in the airline industry, I managed the New York-JFK and Washington-Dulles stations at Austrian Airlines, created the North American Station Training Program, served as an Aviation Advisor to Farmingdale State University of New York, and devised and taught the Airline Management Certificate Program at the Long Island Educational Opportunity Center. A freelance author, I have written some 70 books of the short story, novel, nonfiction, essay, poetry, article, log, curriculum, training manual, and textbook genre in English, German, and Spanish, having principally focused on aviation and travel, and I have been published in book, magazine, newsletter, and electronic Web site form. I am a writer for Cole Palen’s Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York. I have made some 350 lifetime trips by air, sea, rail, and road.
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I’m starting to age I guess in that I’m enjoying more the sounds of my youth like a simple clockwork cuckoo clock. The timeless sound of the cuckoo bring back many memories. When I was a child, both my uncle and grandparents had cookoo clocks. I remember they were dark colored cases with ornate carvings but the bird that came out was brightly colored. I was told these were from the black forest in Germany.
I guess the Germans have a lock on authentic cuckoo clocks as when I got older, I went shopping for one and they were all German made clockworks. The new ones however were just like I remember. Darker carved woods on the outside with ornate carvings.
My parents had both a mantle clock and a wall clock that struck the quarter half and hour times. They were wonderful. Many people have fond memories about growing up. Foods, holidays, smells, and even sounds. I remember how our home was always breathing the sounds of our clocks. Even as an adult, going for visits brought me in many respects back to childhood days when hearing the constant patterned sounds of those time trackers. It was home!
Today, I have a grandfather clock, cuckoo clock, and several other clockwork type clocks all around my home. Yes, they aren’t as “accurate” as quartz timepieces or as fancy as the latest technology has to offer. But there’s something about their even pace, pendulums, weekly winding and yes, the announcement that time is marching on, that is somehow soothing. Almost melodic.
In the night, when every is asleep, I sometimes go down to the living room and just think. The clocks are busy, as always, pacing out time and announcing yet another quarter hour has past. It’s recognition of mortality, that some things don’t last, while others, like the cuckoo clock seem to last lifetimes.
Abigail Franks writes on a variety of subjects that affect families today. For more information on the timeless Cuckoo Clock go to
Measuring the passage of time has been a continual challenge to mankind. Throughout history we have created increasingly intricate devices to give us an accurate idea of the time but all of our modern methods of time keeping can all be traced back to the Sun travelling across the sky.
The first device to measure the passage of time was the Sundial, using shadows cast by a tall objects people could get an approximation of the time. The earliest Sundials historians have found are older than 6000 years. In 3500BC the Ancient Egyptians used large stone Obelisks aligned with the celestial pole as gigantic Sundials.
Technology did not move on for several thousand years, and when it did it came in the form of water. Egyptians discovered that the flow of water was regular enough to keep time and they immediately saw the advantages of water clocks over Sundials, as they could tell the time at night and in poor weather. The oldest known water clock was built at the Tomb of Amenhotep I in about 1500BC. Hundreds of years later water clocks were still in use, particularly by the Ancient Greeks who, in 400BC, used more accurate water clocks known as Clepsydras.
After the fall of the Roman Empire much of the technology behind timekeeping was lost and instead slaves were used to keep time by transferring stones, one at a time, from one helmet to another.
It was not until hundreds of years later that a French monk named Luitprand rediscovered the lost art of glass blowing in about 800AD, and because of this he is attributed as the creator of sandglasses. Legend tells of King Charlemagne possessing a huge sandglass which took twelve hours before it needed turning, with hourly divisions down its side.
Candles have also played their part in the telling of time. In 980AD King Alfred the Great used burning candles to tell the time, with markers down its side to depict times for studies, prayer, duties and rest. And from about 1000AD the Chinese used candles and ornate incense sticks to show the passage of time.
Mechanical clocks did not start appearing until about 1285AD, back then they were merely devices to let monks know when the correct time to ring the church bell was.
Although Sandglasses had been around for a few hundred years at this point it was not until about 1300AD that sandglasses became popular in Europe, particularly by sea farers from northern Italy.
The first public mechanical Clock was built into a church in Milan around 1335, it only had one hand for the hours, and it travelled clockwise to mimic the path of a sundial shadow.
Around the 1500s mechanical Clocks were slowly becoming more commonplace, however back then they were expensive cutting-edge technology compared to the simpler Sandglasses that were used throughout Europe. Churches and kitchens were often home to these classic timekeeping devices. They were even used in politics with public speeches, academic lectures and town meetings all being timed with Sandglasses. Even the House of Commons used a two minute sandglass for voting and it is rumoured the Spanish Inquisition used them for timing torture sessions.
Expense was not the only factor limiting the prevalence of mechanical Clocks, as they frequently needed maintenance and repairs. In an effort to improve this Peter Henlein from Germany invented the spring powered clock in 1510. However these clocks never kept an accurate time as they constantly slowed down, until the technology was improved by Jacob Zech of Prague who invented the Fusee or spiral pulley in 1525 which improved the clocks timekeeping.
At this point clocks still only measured the passing of hours, and it was not until 1577 that Jost Burgi invented the first clock that had a minute hand. Unfortunately the minute hand was never that accurate.
Although he never used it in a timepiece, Galileo proved in 1583, that successive swings of a pendulum always takes the same length of time, regardless of the distance the pendulum swings. It was not until Dutch astronomer Christopher Huygens used Galileos discovery of the pendulum to invent the first pendulum clock in 1656, whose minute hand was the most accurate yet.
Improvements in the Pendulum Clock lead to another leap forward in time keeping. Around 1685 the increased use of Huygens pendulum clocks allowed for timekeeping devices which can count seconds for the first time in history.
In Germany Franz Anton Ketterer uses pipes in his clocks for a two tone cuckoo noise in about 1750, and the first Cuckoo Clocks are made.
Time keeping remained the same for a while; until 1839 the Telegraph was invented, allowing the instant transmission of time signals. This, along with the increased use of Railroads, led to a big change to the measurement of time. As people were travelling rapidly in east-west directions, particularly across America, they discovered that time changed the further you travelled. Rail companies struggled to keep accurate schedules and for a while the world was thrown into a state of chaos.
In 1883 two trains collided in America because the train timetables didnt account for the change in time across different states. This disastrous event called for an immediate and critical change in time measurement. After the horrific head on train crash, the Prime Meridian conference rationalized real time over 15 degree zones, or time zones, and also set Greenwich Meridian as the starting line in 1884.
Whilst looking for more reliable ways of keeping time, Warren Marrison, a Canadian born engineer developed the worlds first quartz clock in 1927. Despite the clocks large size, Marrison proved that it was more accurate than any timepiece that had come before and Time Standard laboratories across the world abandoned their mechanical clocks in favour of quartz powered clocks.
In 1949 the International Bureau of Standards builds the first atomic clock which is so accurate it proves that the Earths orbit around the sun is slightly irregular. This led to a drastic rethinking of how time should be measured. For the first point in history the measurement of time is based on something other than the Earths orbit around the Sun. In 1967 a second is formally defined as 9,192,631,770 vibrations of a caesium atom.
Today quartz powered Clocks and Watches are everywhere, and Radio Controlled Clocks now get the correct time transmitted to them from Atomic Clocks. Clocks have become so much more than devices to tell the passage of time, with many of them being decorative centrepieces to buildings and rooms that combine function with form to produce truly striking ornaments.
There are currently hundreds of companies worldwide producing a huge range of timepieces, from wall clocks, mantel clocks, alarm clocks all the way to digital alarms and stop watches. However manufacturing methods have come a long way since the invention of the first mechanical clock, and the art of crafting ornamental clocks is getting lost. One company who still maintains this art is Newgate Clocks. Founded in 1991 Newgate has gone forward to become a world leader in decorative wall clocks and mantel clocks. Visit their website to discover why.
Located at the Volo Antique Malls in Volo IL, Chuck & Angie’s Antiques have been dealers for over 25 years and specl[ie Art Glass-Murano, Crystal, Lalique, Limoges - vases, dinnerware, Art Deco, Lamps - floor & table models, Black Forest Carvings, Clocks - Mantel and wall clocks, Victorian furniture Taxidermy - Mounts, Pottery vases & Art Glass - Art Deco and many more. Video Rating: 0 / 5
glass mantel clocks eBay auctions you should keep an eye on:
GLASS DECO MANTEL CLOCK BY ROGER LASCELLES
GBP 37.50 End Date: Tuesday Sep-07-2010 11:50:21 PDT Buy It Now for only: GBP 37.50 Buy it now | Add to watch list
Floral Print Glass mantel Clock, Brand New
GBP 8.99 End Date: Tuesday Sep-07-2010 12:09:34 PDT Buy It Now for only: GBP 8.99 Buy it now | Add to watch list
If one wants to be punctual, clocks and watches are the prime gadgets to purchase and rely upon. With this invention, one has realized the meaning and importance of time. With the upcoming of different websites, one can easily get the information regarding the product online.
Details regarding the well known brands that are in the business of clocks and watches manufacturing, from Titan, Timex, Gucci, to Casio, can be acquired online. Details of wrist watch to watch with chain strep can be taken from these websites. If one is keen to know more about the clocks and watches, one can search on internet, as lots of information is available online. If one wishes to buy second hand product, you can buy it online from various sites which deal in sell and purchase of second hand products. One get easily get the desired information regarding the person who is willing to sell/purchase watches online just by clicking a few websites.
Clocks and watches are available in varied styles and designs which vary from Napoleon style mantel clock to wooden finish revolving clocks, from picture frame alarm clocks with brass accents to animated pendulum clocks. It makes the job of the user all the more easy as one can easily get the information about the types of clocks, different brands, different colors, models, different features, shapes and sizes, number of years it is used and many more information on free classifieds. This information displayed makes the job of the user very easy. One can easily get the information on price as well as by tapping on these sites and this in a way encourages the user to click and get the desired information online. These details are beneficial for both the users as well as the buyers as one can easily purchase the watches by viewing the information displayed on websites and on the other hand, the dealers can easily make huge profits as they can sell the products in bulk.
Shelf clocks and wall clocks with all wooden works were made by some American makers in the early 1800s.Long case grandfather clocks were commonly made in the 1700s with wooden gear movements.The long case of the grandfather clock allowed greater drop distance for the weights which drove the movement.Shelf clocks of the pillar and scrill type were popular in the 1800s and were made by American makers.
In the late 1700s and early 1800s there was a shortage of metals due to the British embargo.This caused some clock makers to produce wooden gear clocks.If you want to purchase one of these wooden works clocks from this period be prepared to spend thousands of dollars.They are now prized antiques and much sought after.Several thousand dollars is commonly the asking price which is beyond the means of many clock fanciers.
The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago has on display a very fine wood gear clock which was made in the early 1800s.This clock is still in good running order after 200 years.Those who would like to build a reproduction of this wonderful old clock can do so from detailed drawings and plans which are available.
This beautiful antique clock can be reproduced in your wood . working shop.A wonderful clock with,excellent time keeping capability,can be made from these plans with careful workmanship.To build a wooden works clock is not difficult but it does take time and careful workmanship.
Hundreds of years earlier wooden clocks of more primitive design were commonly made.You can also build a fifteenth century wooden gear clock from available plans.This is a wall clock and is weight driven.This is a much simpler clock building project which has fewer moving parts.The clock will however keep time and looks great on your wall.
Building wooden works clocks is a wonderful hobby.Craftsmanship and wood working skills are involved.You do not however need an array of power tools.The original makers of these clocks used only simple hand tools and the modern craftsman can do so also.The individual parts of the clock are of simple design and quite easy to make. The skill comes in finishing the parts accurately and fitting them together properly so that the clock will run smoothly and keep good time.
Today there are a few makers of wooden gear clocks which are mostly sold in the form of kits and plans.The average home workshopper can quite readily build a really beautiful wooden clock from a plan.With attention to detail and careful workmanship the end product is a fine time piece which will be a center of attention in any home.Your own hand built wooden geared clock produces sweet music as it tick tocks time away on your mantel.
John Mowatt,now retired from business,makes wooden works clocks as a hobby.He writes about this project and shows you how to make a fine working wooden gear clock.For more resources and details of the plans available go to http://www.woodenworksclock.com
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The pendulum was a most remarkable step. Right up until the 1930’s, and with the advent of the quartz movement, the pendulum was the timekeeper for every clock
It’s thought that Galileo Galilei was the first person to receive the spark of the idea from examining the movement of a chandelier in Pisa Cathedral in 1582.
In 1602, he began work in earnest on the device and developed the Metronome, which musicians ever since have found to be so valuable.
A derivative of this also proved invaluable to a physician friend of his, and the machine was named the Pulsilogium. As the name suggests, it was used for taking his patients’ pulses.
In 1641, Galileo actually designed a clock regulated by a pendulum, but the poor old chap never lived to see his design in action. It could be said that every development has been made by people standing on the shoulders of giants. Christiaan Huygens perched on Galileo.
There are many different types of pendulum, but for the purposes of this article, we’ll content ourselves with those that fit in Grandfather and Longcase clocks, and have a quick look at those used for mantel clocks.
Temperature is one of the enemies of timekeeping in mechanical clocks. Friction is the other. When the pendulum rod warms up, its length is increased, thereby causing the clock to run slow. When it cools down, the opposite happens. Let’s see what can be done about this.
There are four main types used for the Longcases. The simple bob hung on a wooden rod. This makes for a very adequate timekeeper, because of wood’s relatively low coefficient of expansion. This means that if the clock’s situated in a cold room, overnight, say, the pendulum rod will contract and the clock will gain time. Once it starts to warm up in the morning,the reverse will happen.
Wood, though not the best material for pendulums, is nevertheless a most adequate timekeeper. From there, though, we find a metal named Invar, or later, Elinvar. Now this is really first class, because the coefficient of expansion here is negligible.
The Royal Pendulum beats in seconds, and has a theoretical length of 39.14″. It’s named for the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. The theoretical length of such pendulums are 39.14″, taken from the centre of the suspension spring from which they hang, to the centre of the bob.
The third type of pendulum came along in about 1715 and was invented by the English clockmaker, George Graham. He added a jar of mercury to the bottom of the rod. When the rod cooled down, the mercury contracted, effectively increasing the length to compensate, and of course vice-versa.
Then, in 1726, John Harrison of chronometer fame, (we’ll discuss him later), came up with what became known as the Gridiron pendulum. The gridiron type, invented by John Harrison, carried rods made alternatively of iron and zinc, which expanded and contracted at different rates. Zinc expands more than iron, so the same sort of thing happened. The one medium expanded and contracted more than the other, thus keeping the length constant.
Now, high quality wall clocks may enjoy the same sorts of compensation as their bigger brothers, the grandfathers, and indeed good quality French mantel clocks very frequently have mercury pendulums fitted to them.
These, then, are the four basic types of pendulum. I haven’t entered into the mathematics of pendulum calculation; there’s an excellent source for that which I’ll give later. My intention here has been solely to give you some idea of what the pendulum is and what function it plays in the clock.
I’m indebted to Wikipedia for some of the historical information in this article, and a lot of mathematical formulae may be found on their site.
A metal named Invar, and later Elinvar, came on the market and this has virtually no coefficient of expansion whatever. http://www.theclockssite.com
Some recent french mantel clocks auctions on eBay:
FRENCH MANTEL CLOCK BRASS BEZEL GLASS P/P ON PAYMENT
Cuckoo clocks have been around since 1730 and this is the very reason why there are antique cuckoo clocksavailable today for our collection. These antique cuckoo clocks were manufactured by skilled craftsmen and gifted artists.
The designs that are touted to be worth investing in are those containing older pieces that were minimally cared for then but are greatly revered to date.
Did you know that well preserved antique cuckoo clocks have a history behind it? Back in the 18th or 19th century, these time pieces can bring a king’s ransom or it can also be bought at auction houses and high priced boutiques.
Cuckoo clocks during that time were considered to be very valuable. They are esteemed for their hard carved scenes, attractive facades, and whimsical displays.
If you analyze the antique cuckoo clocks, you will realize that these are telling a story through their designs.
Even to day, whenever someone hears cuckoo, he will turn his head. This is because the familiar cuckoo still resonates from then to now. There is something so unique upon hearing the sound of a bird who abandons her young birds in the nest to come out and remind us of what time it is.
As for children, they anticipate the bird’s cuckoo and count the numbers of cuckoo as if were a mathematical game. For some reason, antique cuckoo clocks became commemorative and collectible items simply because the cuckoo clock is a worldwide phenomenon.
The cuckoo clock is similar to the automobile or the airplane that was also manufactured during that time.
The humble beginning of these inventions make it more interesting for the collectors of antique cuckoo clocks to carefully analyze the designs of these time pieces and make sense of these all judging from the era that these were manufactured.
On eBay alone, there are a lot of antique cuckoo clocks for sale. The experts on these collections know the right value for a particular design.
Some may be sold at a cheaper price but others are obtained as quickly as possible no matter the price simply because of the history that goes with these.
If you know someone who is an expert on antique cuckoo clocks and you are considering to buy these, then it is best that you ask for his opinion so you know what you are getting in to.
Finally, you should also know the proper care for these time pieces. If you are going to buy antique cuckoo clocks and restore these to be sold again then these must be cared for in the best way possible.
Who knows? You might even get your money back ten times.
It’s my Granddad’s eightieth birthday next month and I wanted to purchase something special and traditional. I racked my brains for many weeks as to what I could get him and decided that a nice high quality clock would be a lovely present for him. He likes things that are good quality but as he says ‘reminds him of the old days’. A handmade clock with a wonderful barrel design quartz mantel clock in a mahogany solid case made in England with an exceptional fine finish. In addition to this it will have a brass bezel which will look fantastic with the face of the clock and against the wood. With a clear white dial and black roman numerals and spade hands. Along with this it comes with green braize upon the base to help minimise scratching of the clock. I do believe this product will make his birthday as special as possible. He loves objects that still have the quality and handmade finish of products made 50 years or more ago. Things that are individual without the feeling that it’s come out of a machine which mass produces thousands a day without giving each products that hand finished touch.
I really hope he enjoys his birthday as he deserves it for being such a special Granddad and supporting me through growing up. If anyone else is finding it difficult to come up with exciting ideas for their grandparents birthdays I would recommend this gift or something similar. So go for it!
