Swiss station clock
The Swiss station clock was designed in 1944 by the Swiss engineer and designer Hans Hilfiker for the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) . It is characterized by a very clear, reduced design with black scale lines on a white background and bar-shaped, black hour and minute hands. Numbers are missing. This layout, which is easy to read even from a great distance, became the international model for station clocks .
Later, in cooperation with the manufacturer Mobatime, Hilfiker added a red second hand in the form of a thin rod with a round end disk, which is reminiscent of the station master's command line. Technically, it is a minute jump clock with an additional creeping second . The second hand "brings calm to the last minute and makes it easier for trains to be dispatched on time." (Helper). It runs a little too fast, so that it stops for about 1.5 seconds every full minute to wait for the minute signal. As a special feature of the Swiss station clock, its minute stop is still recreated today, although the original technical restrictions that led to this solution no longer apply today. The addition of the red second hand - sometimes with a stop every minute - was adopted by other railway companies.
Pause in the second hand of the Swiss station clock
The unusual pause in the second hand has technical reasons. The effort for a second pulse to be additionally conducted from the master clock to the slave clocks should be avoided. In addition, the frequent jumping of a second hand of this size would have impaired the life of the watch. Therefore, a continuously rotating synchronous motor operated with local alternating current was selected for its drive . To counter frequency fluctuations, the drive was designed in such a way that the pointer completed one full revolution per minute at the guaranteed minimum mains frequency of around 48.5 Hertz . The start of its next revolution takes place with the minute pulse:
"Once at the top it is stopped until the next minute impulse, which throws the large hand forward, releases it again for its next rotation."
This relatively long pause (1.5 seconds at nominal frequency) could be reduced with the high accuracy of the 50-Hertz AC network, which has now been achieved , but has not been changed in the Swiss station clocks to this day.
The second hand can be stopped by switching off the synchronous motor. The manufacturer Mobatime chose a mechanical solution from the beginning (1947). A pin engages in the groove on the circumference of a disc and is briefly pulled out by the magnet, which also moves the minute hand every minute. Snapping into place ensures that the second hand is in a safe resting position. The synchronous motor turns permanently. During the second stop, it slips in a friction clutch in the drive train .
Awareness of the design
The design was for wristwatches from the Swiss watch company Mondaine Watch Ltd. Taken over in consultation with the SBB and manufactured in Switzerland since 1986. Mondaine can call this type of watch the official Swiss station watch for the wrist . This watch is available both as a standard quartz wristwatch and as a watch with a minute stop of the second hand and a minute jump. The latter is also driven by a quartz-controlled stepper motor with around 3 Hertz to roughly simulate the constant turning of the second hand of the original.
The motif of the Swiss station clock was shown on the 85 centimes stamp of the “Swiss design classics” stamp series.
The company Apple used from September 2012 (with iOS 6 ) as a time display on mobile devices like the iPhone and the iPad , the Swiss Railway Clock. An agreement with the SBB, for whom the design of this watch is protected, was only made afterwards. In October 2012, according to the Tages-Anzeiger , which cites various sources , a license fee of around 20 million Swiss francs (approx. 16.5 million euros) was agreed. With the introduction of iOS 7 in September 2013, Apple dispensed with the design of the Swiss station clock.
literature
- Museum of Design Zurich : Hans Hilfiker, engineer and designer. Swiss Design Pioneers 1 series, Guide 351, Museum of Design Zurich, Zurich 1984.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans Hilfiker in: Hans Hilfiker, engineer and designer. Swiss Design Pioneers 1 series, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich , 1984, page 31, last paragraph.
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↑ Thomas Mann referred to his poetic freedom when he wished the impossible in the novel The Magic Mountain , namely that the second hand, and with it the time, should stop for a moment at 60 to show that a minute was completed:
"He could sit, his watch in hand, [...] and look down at its [...] porcelain circle, on which [...] the thin second hand made the busy pecking walk around its little sphere. [...] The little wise man padded his way without paying attention to the digits that it reached, touched, crossed, left behind, left far behind, started again and reached again. It was numb to targets, sections, markings. It should have stopped for a moment or at least given a tiny sign that something was done here. "
- The Magic Mountain (1923), Seventh Chapter, Walk on the Beach. - ↑ Hans Hilfiker in: Hans Hilfiker, engineer and designer. Series Schweizer Design-Pioniere 1, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, 1984, page 31, right column, 2nd paragraph.
- ↑ A short pause cannot be avoided with this principle, even if the mains frequency is greater than 48.5 Hertz. The start cannot take place at the same time as the stop.
- ↑ Description of the task and specification of an electrical solution in an Austrian patent specification .
- ^ Mondaine catalog
- ↑ Philacat: Online Stamp catalog
- ↑ Adrian Sulc: The dispute with Apple flooded million in the SBB fund. In: Tagesanzeiger.ch. November 10, 2012.
- ↑ Ellen Wallace: Apple's mobile iOS 7 gives up Swiss train clock ( English ) In: genevalunch.com . September 12, 2013. Archived from the original on August 11, 2016. Retrieved on August 11, 2016.