Top Things to Do in Cambridge: The Corpus Clock with Town & Gown Tours
Unveiled in 2008 by Stephen Hawking, the Corpus Clock is one of the most hypnotic and popular attractions in Cambridge. Situated outside the Corpus Christi College’s library, right in the centre of town, the clock was designed Corpus Christi alumnus Dr. John C. Taylor, whose most famous invention is the thermostat controls for the cordless kettle.
The Corpus Clock is an example of a grasshopper escapement mechanism. John C. Taylor decided to turn the clock inside out, and made the little escapement and grasshopper the biggest gear on the clock so you can actually see the grasshopper escapement working.
Hence the large looming creature which stands on top of the clock. This strange creature is known as a ‘Chronophage’, coming from the Greek chronos (time) and phago (to eat), making it a ‘time-eater’. Indeed, if you watch the creature carefully you will their legs pulling away at the time (the grasshopper mechanism at work) and their mouth slowly eating away at it — every minute the Chronophage takes a large bite of time.
There are also no numbers or hands on the Corpus Clock. Instead there are three rings which each contain slots for blue LED lights. The outer ring shows the seconds passing by, the middle ring the minute and the inner ring the hour.
But be careful, the clock is full of tricks! John C. Taylor wanted to capture the relativity of time — sometimes time seems to pass by really quickly whilst sometimes it seems to lag and passes by really slowly. So for this reason you may notice the clock slow down, stutter and maybe even stop. But do not worry, the clock is designed so that it can rapidly speed up and realign itself to show the correct time.
A special selection of tricks can be observed on four days of the year: John Harrison’s, creator of the grasshopper escapement mechanism, birthday (25th March), John C. Taylor’s birthday (25th November), New Year’s Day and Corpus Christi Day.
The Chronophage is truly a memorable and iconic Cambridge attraction and it just one of the many sites we visit on our tours. For more about the science behind its creators, book our science tour.
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