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What you'll see and hear
Visuals:
- Opening images of Government Buildings clock, and title without audio
Audio - narration:
"Keeping accurate time in a busy city is easy in the digitised 21st century with the likes of cell phones and computers now able to remind us when to attend important appointments and knock off work."
Visuals:
- Department of Conservation historic ranger Paulette Wallace standing outside Government Buildings
Audio - narration:
"But in an earlier era, those of our forefathers who couldn't afford the luxury of a personal timepiece were reliant on public clocks."
Visuals:
- Exterior of the building and clock
Audio - narration:
"That's why a municipal clock was central to the design of these grand old wooden Government Buildings."
Visuals:
- Ranger outside Government Buildings
Audio - narration:
"The construction of the building in 1876, marked an important turning point in New Zealand's political history - the change from six provincial governments working in different locations around the country, to one central government located in Wellington."
Visuals:
- Ranger sitting inside the Cabinet room
Audio - narration:
"The cabinet ministers and public servants needed to know the correct time in order to keep the mechanism of government ticking along smoothly."
Visuals:
- Ranger viewed among historic display of public service office in Government Buildings
Audio - narration:
"But this prominently-positioned clock also served the general public as they went about their business in downtown Wellington."
Visuals:
- Exterior of Government Buildings
Audio - narration:
"The old clock still ticks on, night and day, telling the time to Wellingtonians. At over 130 years of age, it's one of the oldest functioning municipal clocks in New Zealand."
Visuals:
- Inside the room housing the historic clock and exterior view of the clock
Audio - narration:
"The clock was lovingly restored by skilled tradesmen during a two year overhaul of Government Buildings in the mid-1990s, and has been working pretty well since. Time stood still for a short time in 2007, but local clock restorer Doug Tucker soon got it ticking again."
Visuals:
- Still images of the clock restoration and mechanism
Audio - narration:
"Today the Department of Conservation continues to care for old Government Buildings for the benefit and the enjoyment of all New Zealanders."
Visual:
Audio - narration:
"Visitors to the building can view historical interpreation displays on the ground floor and head up to the first floor Cabinet room. The rest of the building is leased to the Victoria University law school."
Visuals:
- Historic displays in Government Buildings
Audio - narration:
"The rest of the building's leased to the Victoria University Law School."
Visuals:
Audio - narration:
"Ok. We'll head up to the attic to get a closer look at the clock."
Visuals:
Audio - narration:
"The clock needs to be wound once a week and that's my job. I'll show you how it's done."
Visuals:
- Ranger in attic of Government Buildings, walking towards the room housing the clock, and unlocking the door
Audio - narration:
"This is a flat bed turret clock popular in the 1850s. Now to think about the clock it's easiest to separate it into two parts. There's the striking or chiming train (this cog here) which causes the clock to chime the hour." (Clock chimes)
Visuals:
- Ranger standing behind clock mechanism and pointing to the parts she's describing
- Clock chime fly wheel spinning
Audio - narration:
"You can see the wire cable which goes up to the belfry."
Visuals:
Audio - narration:
"Then you've got the going train, now this is a smaller cog just behind the large one, and this is what drives the hands of the clock. Now before I wind the clock I have to first set a mechanism in place."
Visuals:
- Ranger demonstrating how the clock is wound
Audio - narration:
"So we've got this mechanism down here with a weight. I push this into the cog and that's really important because it allows me to wind the clock while the clock is still going. So the clock is still ticking away and I can then put the handle on and wind. Now this is the easiest of the two parts of the clock to wind, because it has a much lighter weight." (Clock winding sound)
Visuals:
- The maintaining power device engaging time cog
- Ranger winds the clock
Audio - narration:
"So after winding the clock, which is the smaller of the cogs, I then have to wind this big large one here which is the striking train, which makes the bell chime. Now this is a way tougher job as the weight for the hourly chime is heavier than the one for the clock."
Visuals:
- Ranger demonstrating winding the clock and close-up of clock mechanism
Audio - narration:
"The weight of the chime and the weight of the clock hang down a shaft of four stories, all the way down to the basement. Now these two weights combined weigh a massive 140 kilograms. As the clock unwinds, so do the weights. They unwind all the way down to the basement."
Visuals:
- Ranger standing behind clock mechanism
Audio - narration:
"I check the time and listen to the clock, and this is all I have to do once a week to ensure the clock keeps going."
Visuals:
- Close up of ranger with clock mechanism.
Audio - narration:
"The pendulum is timed and geared to lift and lower two claws fitted to the escape wheel. As the forward claw lifts it allows the wheel to turn one cog, then the rear cog stops it. The regular stop/start movement creates the tick tock sound."
Visuals:
- Pendulum and escape wheel.
Audio - narration:
"If the clock is running a little slow or too fast, I can adjust the minute dial, and to reset the hourly chime, like for daylight saving, I adjust this wheel here."
Visuals:
- Minute dial and striking train
Audio - narration:
"Only a few years ago, the name of the clock's makers, Gillett and Bland of Croydon, London, was discovered on the back of the brass minute dial. Before this discovery, it was thought that this name here G.L. Jenness, of Wellington, was the maker."
Visuals:
- Minute dial and name of G.L. Jenness
Audio - narration:
"Now Jenness was in fact a clock maker based in Willis Street who imported the clock from London in 1876. It is thought that members of the Jenness family kept the Government Buildings clock wound and on time for years after it was installed in the attic of Government Buildings."
Visuals:
- Clock mechanism and exterior of Government Buildings
Audio - narration:
"The clock has cast iron hands and figures originally set on an opaque glass front designed to be illuminated at night. The illumination was initially lit by a gas lamp."
Visuals:
Exterior and interior of clock face
Audio - narration:
"Earlier this century this clock was electrically linked to the Meteorological Office at the Dominion Observatory, to ensure the accuracy of the timepiece was strictly monitored."
Visuals:
- Ranger standing behind clock mechanism
Audio - narration:
"Today the time is set according to the hourly time pips on Radio New Zealand."
Visuals:
- Close up of clock mechanism.
Audio - narration:
"Past restoration work revealed an electrical winding mechanism. Now the Department of Conservation has chosen to manually wind the clock week by week, to ensure that the use of the clock is as close to original as possible."
Visuals:
- Close up of clock mechanism
"There are not many of these clocks still hand-wound. So while we might not be right on the money when it comes to the time, we do our best to ensure that commuters rushing to the nearby railway station get to their train on time."
Visuals:
- Exterior of Government Buildngs with street of traffic and pedestrians and close up of ranger
Audio - narration:
"And in today's fast-paced world, people can always check their watches or cellphones."
Visuals:
Download shorter video clips in two formats
Windows Media Player
Part 1: (WMV, 13,707K 3 minutes 37 seconds)
Part 2: (WMV, 10,941K 2 minutes 51 seconds)
QuickTime
Part 1: (MOV,10,365K 3 minutes 37 seconds)
Part 2: (MOV, 8,180K 2 minutes 51 seconds)
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