Green Island School
Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand
(photos from archives of Jira Communications Ltd)
In Aug 2003 we were asked to supply a suitable Master Clock & Slave mechanism to drive the large outdoor historic display period clock as part of a restoration project at the school. The actual clock installation was undertaken by an appointed contractor and we did not have any involvement outside of supplying the equipment except for checking that the cabling employed met the specifications before activating the manufacturers 3 year warranty.
About June 2007 we happened to be in the neighbourhood and noticed the clock was not displaying the correct time. Enquiries with the school revealed the clock was randomly losing a few minutes per week and had done so for some time. When we pointed out that it had been covered under a 3-year manufacturers warranty which was now expired, they said they had been advised by their contractor that this amount of time loss was acceptable for an exposed-hands type of clock in their windy hill-top environment. They had become accustomed to correcting the time routinely.
We were able to advise them that they had purchased a high quality product which was rated for use with their clocks exposed hands weight & dimensions for up to hurricane strength winds. With the permission of the School and with the "training exercise" cooperation of the local Volunteer Fire Service (who provided long ladder access), we participated in a Community effort to dismount the clock in order to find and rectify whatever was causing the problem. The fault was traced to a bent vane in the mechanical movement possibly being caused by the minute hand shaft having been forced with excessive pressure, backwards into the movement at some time in the past (bird/object strike or careless minute-hand fitting?).
After the fault was repaired, the clock was reinstalled and reset. It then worked properly with no further time loss and in September 2007 we installed an upgrade to the Master Controller firmware so that it would follow the new daylight savings regime recently introduced for NZ.
The School Clock
Green Island Volunteer Fire Service provide access support.
The Master Controller & Slave Clock Drive Mechanism
Garth and Lyndon from Jira complete the reinstallation.
Job completion - Timothy from Jira (on balcony) confirms final time settings
Credits due:
Green Island School
Green Island Volunteer Fire Brigade
Electric Time Company, Inc. of USA who supplied the Clock Controller and Movement