I have recently put another electric master clock on display in the museum. What you see has taken many years to come together. The mechanism was given to me in the 1980s by the late Arthur Page, who had used it as the timekeeper in his observatory, with a gun cleaning rod as a pendulum. He had bought it from a junk shop and it was in a case many years its junior. Eventually I worked out that the mechanism was one of the first ones made here in Brisbane by the founder of the Synchronome Electrical Co of Australasia, A.G. Jackson, and pretty similar to one he installed in the Brisbane Central Technical College and University of Queensland at Gardens Point about 1916.

Years later, a case of correct age turned up, in shocking condition. It had been made in England,of walnut, but was the style that had been copied locally, in silky oak. But after clamping warped pieces straight for a few years, I was able to reassemble it. With the case I was able to get a dumpy lead pendulum bob. If you look at it long enough you can learn to love it too. I did not fit a dial in the case so visitors would be able to see the workings more clearly. Although the one at Gardens Point did have a dial inside, it was not uncommon to not fit one in those days as the 'controller' would be operating up to 100 dials, many in more convenient places. Here, there is only one dial up on the wall. Look for its hands jerking forward every 30 seconds.

For more information, look here.