Union Clock in Beit Quad is once again keeping time

The Clock on the Union Building is once again keeping time after a group of past and current students repaired the drive mechanism and constructed a new power system. The Clock had been non-operational for over three years after the original control system on Campus was removed and a replacement mechanism failed.

The project to repair the Clock was undertaken as a memorial to Imperial alumnus Andrew ‘Wiz’ Wilson who passed away last year. He had been involved in looking after Jezebel, the 1916 Fire Engine mascot of the RCSU, for over 40 years and was an active member of the ‘22 Club.

Members from RCS Motor Club and the ‘22 Club dismantled the old clock mechanism and removed the hands of the clock before Christmas as they had identified that parts of the original drive mechanism had been become damaged by the new control unit, which had been installed to take over the running of the clock after College dismantled the central control unit that drove all the clocks on campus.

Dr Andrew Pugh, alumnus, then re-wound the solenoid and assembled a control unit based on a programmable computer with a radio receiver, enabling the system to access the UK’s national civil time signal broadcast from Cumbria. The new system was installed last Saturday and the clock started working correctly that afternoon.

The system is designed to cope with power outages by recording what positions the hands are in when power fails and then moving them to the correct time when power is restored. This was put into use within a day of the new system being installed, when the Union suffered a power outage during the Superbowl on Sunday evening.

Since the system is based on the radio broadcast time, the clock will automatically update itself when the clocks change meaning that very little human input will be needed to keep the clock showing the right time.

The group would like to thank Ali Lown and Dramsoc for their assistance in accessing the clock-face.