Easter calculator from Klinghammer
The Easter calculator Kling Hammer is a mechanism which the elements of the Easter account and especially the date of Easter for the Gregorian calendar calculated. This mechanism was built by Frédéric Klinghammer in the 1970s. It is a very accurate reproduction of the Easter calculator, which is part of the famous clockwork of the astronomical clock in the Strasbourg Cathedral.
Frédéric Klinghammer
Frédéric (or Fritz) Klinghammer (1908–2006) was a former employee of the Ungerer company in Strasbourg (Alsace), which, as Schwilgué's successor, maintained the Strasbourg wonder clock . He then worked on the Messina astronomical clock , where he designed many of the mechanisms. He later went to Moulins (France) and then spent the 1970s in Morocco , where he built his Easter calculator.
Functions of the Easter calculator
The function of the Easter calculator follows the Comput Ecclésiastique by Jean-Baptiste Schwilgué (1776–1856), which is described in the reference books of 1922 and 1992. An Easter calculator is a complicated mechanical calendar. It is used to calculate the variable Easter date based on mechanically stored astronomical data. The Easter date is set in the church calendar as the first Sunday after the spring full moon. The old astronomical cathedral clocks revealed the date of Easter on large calendar disks that were calculated in advance and had to be recalculated and labeled over and over again. The Easter date was encoded using epacts, solar cycle, Roman number, Sunday letter and golden number. Reading was therefore only possible for the initiated. Schwilgué implemented the calculation mechanically in the third Strasbourg clock. The Easter calculator's gears are set in motion on New Year's Eve. This calculates the church calendar for the following year. Jens Olsen also wrote an astronomical clock with a similar perpetual Easter calculator.
The Klinghammer Easter calculator was restored by Joseph Flores in 2006–2007. A book has been published about this work (see bibliography). Flores' book has been criticized, in part for its unscientific approach and many shortcomings. Reviews were published in magazines and in the NAWCC .
Other still preserved Easter calculators
- Jean-Baptiste Schwilgué's astronomical clock in the Strasbourg cathedral (third Strasbourg cathedral clock), completed in 1842
- Auguste-Lucien Vérité's astronomical miracle clock in the Cathedral of St. Jean in Besançon (France), completed in 1860
- Auguste-Lucien Vérités monumental astronomical clock in the cathedral of Beauvais (France), started in 1876
- Louis Zimmer's wonder clock in Lier (Belgium) , exhibited at the 1939 World's Fair in New York .
- Jens Olsen's world clock in Copenhagen City Hall , completed in 1955
literature
- Alfred Ungerer ; Théodore Ungerer : L'horloge astronomique de la cathédrale de Strasbourg , 1922
- Henri Bach; Jean-Pierre Rieb; Robert Wilhelm: The three astronomical clocks of the Strasbourg cathedral. Schauenburg Verlag, Lahr 1994, ISBN 3-7946-0297-8
- Joseph Flores: Le comput ecclésiastique de Frédéric Klinghammer. AFAHA , Besançon 2007, (including a 58-minute DVD with contributions by Denis Kleinknecht and Marc Augereau)
- Günther Oestmann: The astronomical clock of the Strasbourg cathedral. Function and meaning of a Kosmos model of the 16th century. Publishing house for the history of natural sciences and technology, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-928186-12-4