QUIRKY STUFF AROUND NZ

The Beverly Clock is considered one of the world’s longest running experiments and is the closest thing anyone will ever see to a “perpetual motion machine.”

The Beverly Clock ticks away in the foyer of the Department of Physics at the University of Otago and is still running despite never having been manually wound since its construction in 1865.

OPERATION

Scottish born Arthur Beverly set up his watch making business in Dunedin in 1858 and over the following five years he invented a unique clock mechanism which was driven by variations in atmospheric pressure. Daily temperature changes caused the air in an air-tight box to expand or contract and a six degree temperature variation over the course of a day created enough pressure to raise a one pound weight by one inch, which cleverly continues to drive the unique clock’s mechanism today. read more