The Clock of the Long Now, also called the 10,000-year clock, is a proposed mechanical clock designed to keep time for 10,000 years. The project to build it is part of the Long Now Foundation.
The project was conceived by Danny Hillis in 1986 and the first prototype of the clock began working on December 31, 1999, just in time to display the transition to the year 2000. At midnight on New Year's Eve, the date indicator changed from 01999 to 02000, and the chime struck twice. That prototype, approximately two metres tall, is currently on display at the Science Museum in London.
As of December 2007, two more recent prototypes are on display at The Long Now Museum & Store at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco.
The first full-scale clock's manufacture and site construction is being funded by Jeff Bezos, who has donated $42 million, and is located on his Texas land.
Read more about Clock Of The Long Now: Purpose, Design, Inspiration and Support
Famous quotes containing the words clock and/or long:
“What says the Clock in the Great Clock Tower?
And all alone comes riding there
The King that could make his people stare,
Because he had feathers instead of hair.
A slow low note and an iron bell.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“So long as State constitutions say that all may vote when twenty-one, save idiots, lunatics, convicts and women, you are brought down politically to the level of those others disfranchised.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)