Occasionally in novels, I read of a clock “striking the quarter-hour.” When were such in use? I’ve never seen/heard a striking clock that sounds more often than every half-hour.
We used to have a grandfather clock that struck the quarter hour by playing the first bar of the Westminster Chimes. The half hour was the first two bars, and so on. On the hour it would play the complete tune, plus chime the hours.
Also, the world’s most famous clock tower, Big Ben chimes the quarter hour, as well. In fact, it was probably the inspiration for our grandfather clock.
The obvious example is Big Ben in London that strikes the *Westminster * chimes on the quarter hours. There are similar examples in Australia.
The clock on one of the buildings at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale chimes the half-hour as well, just as another anecdotal point.
Quarter hour chimes are a fairly modern, turn-of-the-20th century innovation in domestic clocks. Before then, quarter hour chimes were found mainly in tower clocks.
The only clocks that I know that strike the half hour and not the quater hour strike once on the half hour and the hour count on the hour (or sometimes double the hour count like Bong, bong, pause, Bong, bong, pause, Bong, bong for 3 o’clock.
Clocks that strike the quarter hour really usually chime the quarter hour; that is they play a small tune as others have mentioned.
The bell in the Chapel tower at Merton College, Oxford plays a “progressive chime”, i.e. the first quarter after the hour (xx:15) has three notes, the half-hour (xx:30) has the first three plus four new notes, the third quarter (xx:45) has the previous seven plus three new notes, and the new hour (xx+1:00) has the previous ten plus four new notes, then the chimes representing the hour count. This is similar in structure to the more-famous Westminster chimes, but it’s a different tune.
[There must be a MIDI of this out there somewhere…]
Lots and lots of places use the Westminster chimes, though I’m sure a lot of them are really just a speaker system and a .wav file.
The ones in Australia are generally clocks in 19th century municipal and public buildings: post offices, town halls etc. They usually have the old-fashioned bells.
My uncle had a clock that struck the quarter-hour. It’s been many years, but as I recall, it struck one bell at :15, two at :30, three at :45, and four bells plus the hour at :00.
My father told me it was striking ship’s bells, but the link indicates he was not quite correct. My uncle’s clock ran on a one hour cycle rather than a four hour one.
Yes, if it were striking ship’s bells then it would strike on the half-hour, not the quarters. I’d quite like a clock that did that!
Auckland central has two such quarter-hour/half-hour clocks – our 19th century Art Gallery building, and early 20th century Town Hall. I’ve always thought clocks in large cities did that. Handy when I’m trekking across the streets between appointments.
My parents have a grandfather clock that’s come down through the family. It chimes the quarter-hour, and then a longer chime at the hour mark. It’s about 100 years old.
We have a grandfather clock that my wife grew up with that strikes the quarter hour. It’s Westminster chimes - 4 notes at X:15, 8 notes at X:30, 12 notes at X:45, and all 16 notes, plus a “bong” for each hour, at Y:00. I’ve heard many clocks that strike this way, and I thought it was rather common.
While I know some clocks strike only at the hour and half-hour (with a single “bong” at the half-hour), I have run across very few of them.
The Riverside Church Carillon here in NY does something I’m not aware anyone else does: it plays a snatch of Wagner to tell the time.
And it’s quite a bell: heavy as a fully loaded city bus and just as tall. Sounds like Og Himself, provided you believe in Him.
The clock on Muse Hall at Radford University chimes every quarter hour as well. It was handy when I lived there b/c I always knew what time it was. It was another one with different chimes for different times.
-Mosquito
The clock at the Oxford University Press chimes the quarter hour (it’s just down the street from me, so I know it well). It’s not quite a progressive melody - it just repeats the same short phrase, once for the quarter hour, twice for the half hour, three times at a quarter to the hour, and four times (followed by an appropriate number of chimes) on the hour itself.
We have a mantle clock that’s 50+ years old that chimes on the quarter, half and hour. Mr. Adoptamom’s parents gave it to his maternal grandparents for their wedding anniversary years ago and we’ve inherited it.
The chimes drive our kids nutz.
There is a church clock tower near the White House (NY Ave and H to be exact) that does this. It’s a nice way of “broadcasting” the time to every one within a 2 or 3 block radius.