Inside the Clock Tower of 346 Broadway

Since May, there's been no power here. So, winding three sets of weights by hand is impossible. So we've elected, temporarily, until power is restored, to just keep the time part of the clock going, so that the observer from the street will see the correct time. The clock will not be ringing, because there is too much of a physical burden to wind that by hand. That is why that motor was installed originally. When they built this tower, the reason that it was designed to be as tall as it is, and have the base as wide as it is, it was ornamental as far as the outside aesthetics are concerned, but it was a matter of function for the clock to be able to operate properly. So it's coming up to 32, okay, in about 15 seconds. You got 31? Well, we'll do our time, you know, after all. We are timekeepers. Brooklyn time. Okay, we'll turn the wheel, and all the hands outside are moving at the same time, all four. Man, you'd think this is easy. It isn't. There's a lot of force there. That would have chimed if the weights were up, and that was the mechanism which controls that. It goes through the motions, but it doesn't know that the weights aren't up. Okay, we'll make it 32, 30, 31. We'll go a little bit right about there, and we'll find it. Got it. Okay, we're good. This was high-tech back then. You know, this was it. And I used to work across the street at 125 Worth for Health and Hospitals, and Health and Hospitals had a number of floors here, and one was their training headquarters. So I was taking a computer course for a week, and I set the clock. I could hear this thing ring, all right? So I set the clock on the computer exactly to when the thing chimed on the first day, all right? And Monday through Friday, this thing did not lose a second. It did not lose a second.