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Would you pay up $ 42 million for a clock that mark off once a year ? Before you answer , count this : It ’ll be buried 500 feet ( 150 meters ) below a mountaintop near the Texas - Mexico boundary line , and yes — you must scent it by hand .
Are you sold yet ? Well , Amazon laminitis Jeff Bezos is .
On Tuesday ( Feb. 20 ) , Bezos tweeted the first video footage of an unusual task he ’s funding , called the 10,000 - Year Clock . unfeigned to its name , the clock is designed to accurately keep meter for 10,000 years . It ’s powered by a combination of solar vigor and casual twist by any intrepid visitors who digress into the limestone drop of Texas ' Sierra Diablo mountain reach sometime over the next 10 millenary . [ 5 of the Most Precise Clocks Ever Made ]
To Bezos , whoreportedly invested $ 42 millionin the clock ’s construction , the timepiece is the ultimate symbol of long - term cerebration . To Danny Hillis , an inventor and computer scientist who first described the musical theme for the clock in Wired magazine in 1995 , it ’s a vision come to lifespan .
" I need to build a clock that tick off once a year,“Hillis write . " The century hand advances once every 100 years , and the cuckoo comes out on the millenary . "
Clock of the Long Now - Installation BeginsfromThe Long Now FoundationonVimeo
In 1996 , Hillis establishedThe Long Now Foundation , a nonprofit consecrate to building the 10,000 - year clock and further long - term thinking . On Dec. 31 , 1999 , he completed an 8 - foot - tall ( 2.4 meters ) prototype of the clock ( presently on display at theLondon Science Museum ) just in time to knell in the newfangled millenary .
In 2011 , construction begin on the first full - scale model , which will be about 200 metrical unit ( 60 m ) tall when it ’s completed . The venue : a individual , Bezos - possess passel in Texas , several hours ' drive from the approximate aerodrome and about 2,000 feet ( 610 MiB ) above the vale story .
As you’re able to see in the video Bezos posted , the clock ’s twist is well underway . The work party has already hollow out a 500 - foot - deep ( 150 m ) scape inside the raft that will swear out as the clock ’s case . A long , winding staircase has been cut direct into the limestone using a particular rock’n’roll - slicing automaton from Seattle .
At the television ’s 11 - instant mark , you’re able to see workers begin to assemble the clock ’s main power system , which includes a 10,000 - lb . ( 4,500 kilo ) weight and a three - forficate winding station that succeeding visitors can rotate to help keep the clock ticking . Because the clock may go many days ( or possibly centuries ) without being scent , the clock will be capable to power itself using solar vigor captured from the mountaintop on gay solar day , according to The Long Now . sun will also help oneself the clock stay synchronized with solar midday asthe Earth ’s axis tiltsover the coming century .
Above the power station , engineers will eventually install a cascading tower of 20 immense , 1,000 - pound . ( 450 kilogram ) train know as Geneva bicycle . This will be the clock ’s time generator — or , as Long Now board memberKevin Kelly key it , " the globe ’s slowest computer . " Once a day , the gears will turn and interlace an elaborate system of expansion slot and pins in a dissimilar combination , which determines the accurate order in which the clock ’s 10 bells will skirt . accord to Kelly , the clock will reportedly chime once a day , acquire a unequalled compounding of tones every Clarence Shepard Day Jr. for the next 10,000 years .
Further up the pecker , a 300 - lb . ( 136 kilo ) atomic number 22 pendulum will swing in slow , 10 - second cycles . A nearby display station will show visitor the current engagement and time , as well as the corresponding positions of the stars and planet . The clock will always be intimate what clip it is , Kelly wrote , but it will update the display only once it ’s wound .
One thing the 10,000 - year clock can not tell us : when it will be ready . At press time , there is no accurate date set for the clock ’s closing . Luckily , the squad has about 982 years before the jackass ’s first curtain call .
earlier print onLive skill .
