Underhaven Water Clock

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(article by Heidi Henderson, posted 09/07/12)

History of the Clock:

The Obelisk Clock is centrally located in the Council Plaza section of Underhaven. Its use is important to the trolls, most of whom spend their lives underground, with no way to gauge the passage of time or day into night because they are cut off from the light of the world above, and the movement of the sun, moons, and stars. It was designed in RTH 1006 as a joint venture between the four houses, and was erected in such a fashion so as to be visible from most major portions of the city. A number of miniature clocks based upon the original, large one, have been crafted for use by those who do not have visual access to the main clock.

Timekeeping on the Clock:

The Clock itself is a large, vertical stone about 200 feet high that is divided into 24 hours, called bells, by the trolls. Each bell is subdivided into four quarters, and each quarter is subdivided into three marks (approximately 3.75 of our minutes apiece), as follows:

The Clock's Mechanics:

A pulley system slowly raises a bar up markings on the stone to keep track of time. When the bar reaches a marking for an hour, another mechanism strikes a large, loud bell (affectionately referred to as “The Clang”) that can be heard throughout much of the city to announce that a new hour has begun.

The trolls also use the clock to determine what time of day it is, and the clock face is color-coded to indicate this. The lower 8 bells are morning bells (light blue), the middle are day bells (medium blue), and the top 8 are evening bells (dark blue).

The mechanics of The Clock are relatively simple. A precisely controlled drip of water (a) fills small spoon-shaped cogs on the end of a gear (b). As the spoon-shaped bowl fills up, the weight of the water causes the gear to advance one tick, thus emptying the basin and presenting a new cog for filling. This turns the central gear of the clock, which is connected to a pulley system (d) that causes the clock bar (e) to slowly rise at a controlled rate.

Once the clock bar reaches the top of the tower, the mechanism resets itself and lowers back to the bottom to begin anew.

The trolls have designated technicians from each house to help with the maintenance of the clock. These positions are considered to be high-status, honorable jobs, due to the clock being such an ancient part of both the trolls' culture and landscape.