The famous clock on the Kremlin tower. Kremlin chimes

In our watches the hand moves around a number circle, in Russian watches, on the contrary, the number circle rotates.

Early morning On the 15th of the spring month of April, on the 3rd Sunday of the month, while running around free municipal museums on this day, in the museum of the "Old English Compound" in Moscow Zaryadye, at an exhibition about ancient Russian arithmetic, I saw strange looking blue dial with 17 Slavic letters instead of numbers.. This was a drawing of one of the first dials of the clock of the Spasskaya (then Frolovskaya) tower of the Moscow Kremlin. Because the visit was free, I didn’t pay for photography, so I just sketched the dial, and when I got home I googled it.

"In our watches the hand moves around the digital circle, in Russians, on the contrary, the number circle rotates. Mr. Holloway, a very skilful man, made the first such clock, saying that Russians are in no way similar to other peoples, and therefore their watches must have a special design "I quote from: " The present state of Russia, set out in a letter to a friend living in London. The work of Samuel Collins, who spent nine years at the Moscow Court and was the doctor of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich // Readings in the Imperial Society of Russian History and Antiquities." - M., 1846

"Russian clocks divided the day into day hours and night hours, monitoring the rise and course of the sun, so that at the minute of ascent the Russian clock struck the first hour of the day, and at sunset the first hour of the night, therefore, almost every two weeks the number of hours during the day, as well as at night, gradually changed"…

The middle of the dial was covered with blue azure; gold and silver stars, images of the sun and moon were scattered across the blue field. There were two dials: one towards the Kremlin, the other towards Kitai-Gorod.

Before this, I thought that the strangest watches were those of the ancient Japanese, brought to Japan in the 16th century by Dutch traders (I have a model of an ancient Japanese watch from a Gakken set at home). Changing the length of seconds depending on the time of year (changes by regular wear of the length of the flywheels, of which there are 2: one swings during the day, the second at night), so that day and night there are the same number of hours (6 hours each).. Despite the fact that the length of night and day seconds coincided only 2 times a year, on the days of the equinoxes. The number of strikes in a striking clock is from 9 to 4, because 1, 2 and 3 beats are reserved for signals for Buddhist prayers. It is clear that at the beginning of the day and night periods (dawn and sunset) the clock struck six strokes, then 5, 4, 9 (noon-midnight), 8 and 7

Turns out, our ancestors were entertainers too : their seconds were constant, there were no minutes at all, but the day was also divided into day and night according to (sunrise/sunset) and a day could have from 7 hours ( winter solstice) up to 17 hours (summer solstice) due to the increase or decrease in the night. At the moment of sunrise/sunset the clock resets... Naturally, it was not the hands that rotated in the clock (as in Europe back then), but the dial.

Already in 1404, the first clock was installed on the stone tower of the Kremlin - Frolovskaya (Spasskaya since the end of the 17th century) by the monk Lazar Serbin. Muscovites heard the bell ringing every hour. The tower itself had a different appearance then. On its flat top there was a canopy, covering the bell from rain and snow. In 1491, the Italian Pietro Antonio Solarius built a new tower, which still stands today. At the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th centuries, the tower was equipped with a new clock. The documents of the time indicate that the “Chasovniki” received a salary of 4 rubles per year and 2 hryvnias and 4 arshins of cloth for meat and salt. The first chimes were installed on the Kremlin tower in 1585. But during the difficult years of unrest and foreign invasion, they died.

In the first years of the 17th century, the blacksmith Shumilo Zhdanov Vyrachev was summoned to the capital from the Komaritsa volost of the Ustyug district. He was instructed to manufacture and install a new “fighting clock” on the Frolovskaya tower - chimes. Shumila was helped by his father and son. Vyrachenykh's clock had 24 divisions, it showed daytime- every hour from sunrise to sunset. Then the rotating dial returned to its original position and the countdown of the night hours began. On time summer solstice the day lasted 17 hours, the rest occurred at night. The rotating circle of the dial depicted the vault of heaven, with numbers running around the circumference. A ray of gilded sun, fixed above the circle, served as an arrow and indicated the hour. The Vyrachevo clock ran smoothly for about twenty years, but when the tower was rebuilt in 1624, it was sold by weight to the Spassky Monastery in Yaroslavl for 48 rubles: this was the cost of 60 pounds of iron. In 1624-1626, under the leadership of master Christopher Galovey top part The Frolovskaya tower was rebuilt. Here Galloway installed a new clock. The bell maker Kirila Samoilov cast thirteen new bells for them. This clock was so damaged during the fire of 1626 that Galovey had to do all the work again. Only two years later the Kremlin chimes rang again. The “clockmakers” of the Spasskaya Tower were also court craftsmen, one of them repaired large clocks in the palace... and small watches... in silver.” In 1621, the “Aglitsky” master Christopher Galovey was invited to Moscow for the royal service. He was ordered a new clock, to preserve it from frequent fires, the wooden tower of the Spasskaya Tower was replaced in 1625 with the existing stone top. Work on the construction of a multi-tiered roof and a beautiful tiled tent was carried out by Russian master masons under the guidance of the architect Bazhen Ogurtsov. Galovey was given a rich reward from the royal treasury for installing the clock. On January 29, 1626, from Grand Duke Mikhail Fedorovich he received: a silver cup, 29 arshins of expensive fabrics, forty sables and forty martens. In total, the royal gift amounted to almost 100 rubles - a huge amount for those times. And the sovereign granted him (i.e. Galovey) for what he “did in the Kremlin-city above the Frolovsky Gate tower clock».

It was a time device of a very amazing device. The only hand of the Kremlin clock, shaped like a sunbeam, was fixedly mounted on the tower. Under the allegorical gilded sun, silver stars were depicted on a blue disk, full moon and lunar crescent. Around were 17 Arabic gilded numerals and the same number of indicated words - Church Slavic letters that were used in pre-Petrine Russia. The indicated words were copper, thickly gilded and each arshin in size, and half-hour signs were placed between them. The oak dial of the clock, with a diameter of more than 5 meters, slowly turned, substituting the number of the next hour under the ray hand. To top it all off, the hand indicated the hours “day” and “night” - according to the division of time that then existed in Rus'. Daylight hours began at one sunbeam, striking from the east at the Spasskaya Tower. And in the evening, as soon as the last sparkle of dawn was extinguished on the gilded weather vanes, the creator of Galoveev’s clocks, Shumilo Zhdanov, appointed to the honorable position of “leading” the clock, grabbed the azure circle and transferred the Kremlin “hourkeeping” to the night time counting. The clocks built by Ustyug craftsmen served not only urban people, clerks in executive offices and merchants in shopping arcades. Ten miles around in villages and settlements the sound of their bells, cast by the talented Russian foundry maker Kirill Samoilov, could be heard. “The Wonder of the World”—foreigners who came to Moscow in the 17th century enthusiastically called this watch.

This is what the ambassador of the Austrian Emperor Leopold to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Baron Augustine Meyerberg, wrote about the clock of the Spasskaya Tower in his notes about Muscovy: “This clock shows the time from rising to sunset... When there are the longest days, this machine shows and strikes up to seventeen, and then the night lasts seven hours.” Having made this entry, the Austrian ambassador carefully sketched the clock in his album: apparently, for him, the clock was a significant attraction. But the clock was unlucky. On a May night in 1626, a fire broke out over Moscow. terrible power fire. The entire Kremlin was engulfed in flames. The wooden parts on the Spasskaya Tower burned down, the clock bell, breaking through two brick vaults, fell to the ground and broke. The newly restored clock served people well and faithfully for more than a quarter of a century. But on October 5, 1656, a fire broke out again at the Spasskaya Tower. The wooden staircase leading up was burned, and the clock was also burnt. During interrogation, the watchmaker said that he wound the clock without fire, “and what caused the tower to catch fire, he doesn’t know.” Pavel of Aleppo, describing the journey of the Patriarch of Antioch Macarius to Russia, talks with great regret about this fire. He says that Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who returned from the Lithuanian campaign, when he reached the Spassky Gate and saw the burnt clock tower, he wept bitterly. After the fire, the clock fell into complete disrepair and required cleaning and repair.

Interestingly, the vast majority of Russians believe that New Year occurs with the first or last strike of the bell. Whereas in fact, a new hour, day and year begin with the start of the chimes, that is, 20 seconds before the first strike of the bell. And with the 12th stroke of the bell, exactly one minute of the New Year has already passed.

The exact date of installation of the clock is not known, but it is assumed that the clock was installed immediately after the construction of the tower in 1491 by the architect Pietro Antonio Solario at the behest of Ivan III. Documentary evidence of the clock dates back to 1585, when watchmakers were in service at the three Kremlin gates, Spassky, Tainitsky and Troitsky, for which they received 4 rubles and 2 hryvnias per year, and 4 arshins of cloth for clothes. In all likelihood, the clock had an Old Russian (Byzantine) timekeeping system. The days of that time, according to the calculation of time accepted in Rus', were divided into “day” hours, from sunrise to sunset, and “night” hours. Every two weeks, the duration of the hours gradually changed with the change in the length of day and night. Whether these clocks were the first or not is not known for sure, but they are counted from them.
After one of the fires in 1624, the clock was so badly damaged that it was sold as scrap, by weight, to the Spassky Monastery in Yaroslavl for 48 rubles. To replace the faulty watches that were sold, in 1625, under the leadership of the Scottish mechanic and watchmaker Christopher Galovey, a new, larger watch was made. The Vologda peasants Virachevs worked on the manufacture of clocks under the direction of Galovey, Kirill Samoilov rang the bells for the “perechasya”, and the architect Bazhen Ogurtsov built a magnificent tent for them, which became an adornment of the entire Kremlin ensemble.
The diameter of the dial of the new watch, extending on both sides, was about 5 m and was painted blue. The design of the clock was unusual: the dial rotated, not the hands. The weight of the watch was 3400 kg. According to contemporaries, it was: “...a wonderful city iron clock, famous throughout the world for its beauty and structure and for the sound of its large bell, which was heard... for more than 10 miles.”
The first watchmakers were their creators - father and son Viracheva. Watchmakers enjoyed privileges in Moscow and were paid large salaries. The work of those who supervised the tower clock was especially valued. The special instructions said: “At the Spasskaya Tower, do not drink or drink in the chapels, do not play with grain or cards, and do not sell wine and tobacco.” After installation, the clock burned in fires more than once, after which it was restored again. However, the Galovey clock on the Spasskaya Tower stood and served people for quite a long time.

By decree of Peter I in 1705, the entire country switched to a single daily clock. Returning from travels abroad, he ordered the mechanism of the Spasskaya Tower clock to be replaced with a clock with a 12-hour dial purchased in Holland. The new Kremlin chimes chimed the hours and quarters, and also rang out a melody. The installation of the purchased clock on the tower and the alteration of the dial were supervised by the Russian watchmaker Ekim Garnov. The complete installation of the chimes was completed in 1709. To service Dutch watches, a whole staff of watchmakers was kept, most of whom were foreigners.
The chimes were broken and repaired many times, and the watches were serviced negligently. Interest in the chimes disappeared after Peter I moved the capital to St. Petersburg.
Having ascended the throne and visited Moscow, Empress Catherine II became interested in the Spassky chimes, but by that time the clock had already fallen into complete disrepair. Attempts to restore them were unsuccessful, and by order of Catherine II, the “large English chiming clock” found in the Faceted Chamber began to be installed on the Spasskaya Tower.
The German watchmaker Fatz was invited for installation, and together with the Russian watchmaker Ivan Polyansky, within 3 years, the installation was completed. In 1770, the chimes began to sound the Austrian melody “Ah, my dear Augustine” because it was very popular with the watchmaker, a German by birth, servicing the clock. And for almost a year this melody sounded over Red Square, and the authorities did not pay any attention to it. This was the only time in history when the chimes played a foreign melody.
In 1812, Muscovites saved the Spasskaya Tower from destruction by French troops, but the clock stopped. Three years later, they were repaired by a group of craftsmen led by watchmaker Yakov Lebedev, for which he was awarded the honorary title of Master of the Spassky Watch. The clock installed under Catherine II operated successfully for eighty years without major repairs.
However, after an examination in 1851 by the brothers Johann and Nikolai Butenopov (Danish subjects) and the architect Konstantin Ton, it was established: “The Spassky tower clock is in a critical condition, close to complete breakdown (the iron gears and wheels are worn out, the dials are dilapidated, the wooden floors have settled, the oak foundation rotted under the clock, the staircase needs redoing).”

In 1851, the Butenop Brothers company took up the task of correcting the Spassky chimes. Extensive work was carried out. A new cast-iron frame was cast under the clock, on which the mechanism was located, the wheels and gears were replaced, and special alloys were selected for their manufacture that could withstand high humidity and significant temperature changes.
Special attention was paid to the appearance of the Kremlin clock. New black iron dials were made with gold-plated rims on 4 sides. Numerals, as well as minute and five-minute divisions, were cast from copper. The iron hands are wrapped in copper and plated with gold. Total weight hours was 25 tons. The diameter of each of the four dials is over 6 meters; the height of the numbers is 72 centimeters, the length of the hour hand is about 3 meters, the minute hand is a quarter of a meter longer. Digitization on the dial was done at that time Arabic numerals, and not in Roman numerals, as now. The music unit was also completely redesigned. Bells taken from other Kremlin towers were added to the old clock bells, bringing total bells up to 48 for the purpose of more melodic chimes and accurate execution of melodies.
A full-scale restoration was carried out in 1913. appearance chimes, dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty. The Butenop Brothers company continued to service the clockwork.

In 1917, during the artillery shelling during the storming of the Kremlin, the clock on the Spasskaya Tower was seriously damaged. The clock stopped and was faulty for almost a year. In 1918, by decree of V.I. Lenin, it was decided to restore the Kremlin chimes. First of all, the Bolsheviks turned to the company of Pavel Bure and Sergei Roginsky, but after the price for repairs was announced, they turned to a mechanic working in the Kremlin, Nikolai Behrens. Behrens knew the structure of the chimes, since his father worked in a company that serviced the chimes previously. Together with his sons, Behrens was able to start the clock by July 1918, repairing the mechanism for turning the hands, repairing the hole in the dial and making a new pendulum about one and a half meters long and weighing 32 kilograms. At the direction of the new government, artist and musician Mikhail Cheremnykh figured out the structure of bells, the score of chimes, and scored revolutionary melodies on the playing shaft.
In 1932, the exterior was repaired and a new dial was made, which was an exact copy of the old one. 28 kg of gold was spent on gilding the rim, numbers and hands, and “Internationale” was left as the melody. At the direction of I.V. Stalin, the funeral march was cancelled. A special commission found the sound of the chimes' musical device unsatisfactory. Frosts and wear of the mechanism greatly distorted the sound, as a result of which in 1938 it was decided to stop the musical drum and the chimes fell silent, beginning to chime the hours and quarters.

In 1974, a major restoration of the Spasskaya Tower and chimes was carried out, and the clock was stopped for 100 days. During this time, specialists from the Watch Industry Research Institute completely disassembled and restored the watch mechanism, and replaced the old parts. A system for automatic lubrication of parts, which was previously done manually, was also installed, and electronic clock control was added. In 1996, during the inauguration of B.N. Yeltsin, the chimes, which had been silent for 58 years, began to play again after the traditional chiming and striking of the clock.
The last major restoration work was carried out in 1999. The work took half a year. The hands and numbers were again gilded and the historical appearance of the upper tiers was restored. Important improvements were made in the operation and monitoring of the Kremlin Chimes: a special ultra-sensitive microphone was installed for more accurate timely monitoring of the movement of the clock mechanism. The microphone picks up the accuracy of the stroke, based on which software helps to establish the presence of problems and quickly identify in which unit of the watch mechanism the rhythm is disturbed. Also, during the restoration, the chimes were reconfigured, after which, instead of the “Patriotic Song”, the chimes began to play the approved national anthem Russian Federation.

The world-famous clock on the Spasskaya Tower of the capital of the Russian Federation appeared a very long time ago, according to historians, in 1404. However, they were installed for the first time not on the Kremlin tower, but were located near the Annunciation Cathedral, right in the royal courtyard of Vasily Dmitrievich himself. The name of the master who made them is forever imprinted in the chronicles of those years: “The clockmaker was conceived by the prince himself, the clock was installed by the Serb monk Lazar.”

Clock on the Spasskaya Tower: history

The word "chimes" with French translated as "current". The Kremlin chimes, familiar to all of us since childhood, with the chime of which we celebrate the New Year, have amazing story. They are a tower clock, which, thanks to a set of tuned bells, produces a musical chime of a certain melody. This clock tower overlooks Red Square and has a passage front gate, which in all times, except for the revolutionary ones, was considered holy.

Only in 1658 did the Spasskaya Tower receive this name; before that it was called Florovskaya and was one of the 20 towers of the Kremlin; it was built in 1491 by the Italian master and architect Antonio Solari. By historical documents, the clock on the Spasskaya Tower was installed in the 16th century by watchmakers who received a good salary per year and four arshins of cloth for clothes.

The clock became fully operational in 1585. The fact that they existed earlier is indicated by one more piece of evidence: it turns out that at three gates of the Kremlin tower structures - Spassky (Florovsky), Troitsky and Tainitsky - “hourkeepers” were in service. At the beginning of the 17th century, tents appeared over the Kremlin towers (except Nikolskaya), and thanks to this, the ten-story Spasskaya Tower began to reach a height of 60 meters. Nikifor Nikitin became a watchmaker in 1614, his duties included maintenance, repair and timely winding of the mechanism. It is also known that the combat watch, which had become completely unusable, was sold in 1624 to the Spassky Yaroslavl Monastery by weight.

Christopher Gallway mechanism

The clock of the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin was the most primitive at that time; in addition, it suffered greatly from frequent fires, and then the famous English watchmaker Christopher Gollway was invited to Moscow. Russian blacksmiths helped him - Zhdan, his son Shumila and grandson Alexey. In 1626, the clock on the Spasskaya Tower burned down and was restored again by Galloway.

The Russian artist Bazhen Ogurtsov created a magnificent tent for them in 1636, which became a decoration of the entire architectural ensemble of the Kremlin. Vologda peasants - father and son Viracheva - worked on the production of watches, and Galloway supervised this process. For the “re-hour,” foundry worker Kirill Samoilov cast 13 bells.

At that time, the annual salary of an English master was 64 rubles. The old clock mechanism was sold for 48 rubles. This indicated that watchmakers in Moscow enjoyed great respect and privileges, they were paid large salaries, and those who monitored the tower clock were especially valued. Even special instructions were created for the workers, which stated that it was forbidden to drink, play cards, sell tobacco, wine, etc. in the Spasskaya Tower.

Description of the watch

According to contemporaries of that time, it was a wonderful city clock made of iron. Thanks to their beauty and design, they were famous all over the world, and their noble sound could be heard more than 10 miles away. The dial was painted blue. The main and central parts of its circle remained motionless, while the outer side, which reached a width of 1 meter, rotated. The watch had letters from the Slavic alphabet; the watch weighed 3,400 kg.

The clock on the Spasskaya Tower measured day and night time, indicated by letters (copper, gold-plated), and played music. Instead of hands, there was a sun with a long ray attached to the top of the main large dial itself. The disk was divided into 17 equal parts, which was due to the maximum day length in summer. The middle of the disk was covered with blue enamel, and silver and gold stars and images of the sun and moon were scattered across it. There were two dials (5 meters in diameter). One was facing the Kremlin, the other overlooked Kitay-Gorod.

Peter I

By the end of the 17th century, the clock on the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin, once made by Christopher Gollway, became completely unusable, and then in 1704 Peter I brought new ones from Holland by sea. They were transported from Arkhangelsk on thirty carts; more than 42,000 efimki (Western European silver coins) were allocated from the treasury for this matter. At this time, the entire country switches to a single daily clock. Three years later, this huge clock with a 12-hour dial was installed on the Spasskaya Tower. Ekim Garnov and several other apprentices took up the matter and adjusted and launched the mechanism in 20 days.

Master Fats

However, after some time, this clock also became dilapidated, and after the great fire of 1737 it completely fell into disrepair. True, by this time St. Petersburg had already become the capital, and therefore no one was in a hurry to repair them.

When Catherine II ascended the throne, she became interested in the Kremlin chimes. Later, the Berlin watchmaker Fatz (Fats) will replace the clock with large English chimes discovered in the For three years, under his leadership, they will be installed by Ivan Polyansky, a Russian master, in 1770 the work will be completed. Since the chief master was discharged from abroad, at his will the song O du lieber Augustin (“Oh, my dear Augustine”) sounded over the Kremlin. This is the only time they played a foreign tune.

Napoleon times

When Napoleon's troops were expelled from Moscow, the clock on the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower was thoroughly examined, and it was discovered that its clockwork mechanism did not work. Then master Yakov Lebedev, in February 1813, offered to repair it at his own expense. He was entrusted with this matter, but before that they made a sign that he would not completely disable the mechanism. And after 2 years the clock was launched again, and Lebedev was awarded the title of watchmaker of the Spassky clock.

After several decades, another attempt was made to clean the mechanism without stopping the chimes, but this was not possible. Then the company of the Butenop brothers was hired for a major overhaul. In 1850, the clock was dismantled, the mechanism was rebuilt, and parts that had become unusable were replaced. By this time, a new frame had been cast, its weight was 25 tons. For performing this work, the company received money in the amount of 12,000 rubles. As a result, in March 1852, all work was completed, and for the first time the chimes on the tower began to play the melodies “Preobrazhensky March” and “How Glorious is Our Lord.”

The updated clock worked for 25 years, and in 1878, master V. Freimut undertook to repair it for 300 rubles, who became the next watchmaker of the Kremlin tower. Initially, it was necessary for the chimes to play the melody “God Save the Tsar!”, but Emperor Nicholas I did not allow this, wanting any musical compositions to be played except the anthem. In 1913, for the anniversary of the House of Romanov, a full-scale restoration was carried out. The Butenop brothers company continued to service the mechanism.

Revolution

These are hard times October revolution, and in 1917, a live shell hit the dial directly and severely damaged the legendary watch. In the summer of 1918, when Moscow again became the capital, V.I. Lenin instructed the government to urgently repair the chimes.

They looked for craftsmen for a long time, everyone was afraid to take on this work. Famous watch brands (Bure and Roginsky companies) requested huge sums, which the newly created state was unable to allocate at that time. And then the then Kremlin mechanic N.I. Behrens undertook to repair them. He knew how the complex mechanism worked, since his father had once worked for a company that previously serviced chimes. And the artist Ya. M. Cheremnykh agreed to help him in this matter; he also composed the score for the music “You Fell a Victim” and “The Internationale” at the request of the leader of the proletariat.

And then, at great expense, a new pendulum was created, about one and a half meters long and weighing 32 kg. Restoration work was completed in September 1918. That was the first time Muscovites heard the clock on the Spasskaya Tower striking. Some time later, in 1932, the chimes will again require repairs. The craftsmen made a new dial ( exact copy old) and re-gilded the rims, numbers and hands, which cost about 28 kg of gold.

Stalin

On Stalin’s instructions, they tried to set the clock to the melody of the new USSR anthem by Alexandrov, but to no avail. In 1991, they again wanted to complete this task, but, as it turned out, there were not enough three bells for this. In 1996, after 58 years of silence, the Kremlin chimes played a melody at the inauguration of Russian President B. N. Yeltsin (“Patriotic Song” and “Glory” by M. I. Glinka).

The last restoration took place in 1999, it lasted six months. The hands were gilded again, the entire appearance was restored, and instead of the “Patriotic Song,” the clock finally played the Russian anthem.

Clock on the Spasskaya Tower: photos and dimensions

The clock occupies special floors on the Spasskaya Tower: from the 8th to the 10th. Their main mechanism is located in a special room on the 9th floor. It is driven by three weights weighing approximately 160 to 224 kg. The musical mechanism consists of a set of bells (all of them tuned based on a certain scale) and a so-called program cylinder, the diameter of which reaches two meters, which is rotated by a giant weight weighing 200 kilograms.

Cylinder pins drive the bells, each of which weighs 500 kg. The tenth floor is dedicated to the bells. By the way, on one of them it is written that it was made by Claudius Fremy in Amsterdam in the summer of 1628.

It’s hard to imagine the size of this entire device, because the dial alone has a diameter of 6.12 m. How long is the minute hand of the clock on the Spasskaya Tower then? And what are the dimensions of the sentry? Let's think about it. Based on the fact that the size of any of these elements should not exceed half the diameter of the dial, we can assume that the large hand will be approximately 3 meters. And the small one, accordingly, will be a little smaller. Now let's turn to the official data. So, the minute hand of the clock on the Spasskaya Tower is 30 cm shorter than the hour hand - 2.97 m. The clock is wound twice a day. With the help of an electric motor, weights are lifted, each shaft picks up weights from cast iron ingots weighing up to 200 kg; in winter their weight is increased.

Control and maintenance

Every day the clock mechanism undergoes a preventive inspection and once a month - for details. The clockwork on Spasskaya is checked by the watchmaker on duty using a chronometer and controlled by special instruments. The entire mechanism is lubricated twice a week, and summer and winter lubrication are used.

The mechanism of the Kremlin clock on the Spasskaya Tower has been working properly for almost a century and a half. On the cast iron side it is written that the clock was remade by the Butenop brothers in Moscow in 1851. At noon and midnight they play the Russian anthem, and in between - “Hail.”

Conclusion

Many people are interested in the question: “Which tower, besides Spasskaya, has a clock on it?” In the Moscow Kremlin, in addition to the chimes, there are also clocks at the Grand Kremlin Palace, Trinity and

The legendary chimes still measure the history of the great country; they have become the main symbol of the great and mighty Russia.

On the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin there was a strange clock of an absolutely incredible design. These are ancient Slavic watches, Tartar watches, which were used everywhere and apparently for many centuries.

Clock of Tartaria

If you look for information about the first Russian clock, you will come across an article on Wikipedia about the clock on the Spasskaya Tower.

It is possible that some will be surprised to learn about unusual Russian watches that are not similar to modern ones and will even start Googling further and find many surprises for themselves.

The first Russian watches. Official version.

It is believed that clocks first appeared in Moscow in 1404. They were located not on the Kremlin tower, but in the courtyard of Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich, not far from the Annunciation Cathedral.

The first documentary mention of these first hours is found in the Litsevoy Chronicle Code (Trinity Chronicle). The chronicle itself is given by Karamzin in volume 5 of the History of the Russian State. The chronicle is named after the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, where it was kept. Written in semi-charter of the 15th century. on parchment. Discovered in the monastery library in the 1760s. Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences G. F. Miller. Burnt down during the Moscow fire of 1812. Possibly a copy of the code of Metropolitan Cyprian 1408.

“In the summer of 6912, Grand Duke Vasilei Dmitrievich conceived a clock and set it up in his yard behind the church for the Holy Annunciation. This clock will be called the clock; for every hour he strikes the bell with a hammer, measuring and calculating the hours of the night and day. It is not man who strikes, but humanoid, spontaneously And self-propelled, weird Somehow it was created by human cunning, it was dreamed up and contrived. The master and artist of this were some monks who came from the Holy Mountain, born Serbin, named Lazar. The price for this is more than half a hundred rubles."

In total, they took over watchmaking immediately and as is, and after the Kremlin they began to build the same ones everywhere.

But, we read “History of Science and Technology” part 2, U/P Author A. A. Sheipak:

“The first Moscow watch was made by the monk Lazar Serbin in 1404 by order of Prince Vladimir Dmitrievich, son of Dmitry Donskoy. This monk arrived in Moscow from Athos, where there were several Orthodox monasteries that spread Byzantine culture among the Slavs. They were installed in one of the towers of the white stone Kremlin, not far from the place where the Annunciation Cathedral is now located. These watches were designed in a special way. Typically, the hand on a watch rotates, but the dial remains motionless. Here it was the other way around: the dial rotated, but the hand remained motionless. And the hand was outlandish: in the form of a small sun with rays, which was mounted on the wall above the dial. To top it off, the dial did not indicate 12 o'clock as usual. and as many as seventeen."

Stop! Maybe the author A. A. Sheypak was mistaken? Or does he not go to the “History of Russia” website? Maybe he has doubts creeping in about the “Facebook Chronicle” itself, which was found by the “luminary” Russian history"with an "unblemished" reputation by G. F. Miller?

Sheypak Anatoly Alexandrovich- organized the department of “Electrical engineering, heating engineering, hydraulics and power machines.”

Doctor of Technical Sciences, Honored Worker high school Russian Federation, academician Russian Academy Transport, professor and full member of the International Academy of Sciences of San Marino, member of the International Academy of Sciences and Arts, member of the scientific and methodological council on mechanics and chairman of the scientific and methodological commission on hydraulics of the Federal Education Agency.

Author of over 200 published works: 3 monographs, 11 teaching aids(1 with the stamp of the Ministry of Education, 2 with the stamp of NMS), one textbook (with the stamp of UMO), 8 standard and exemplary educational programs), forty inventions (20 of them are used in industry). 35 articles and reports on scientific conferences published abroad.

“In the first years of the 17th century, the blacksmith Shumilo Zhdanov Vyrachev was called to the capital from the Komaritsa volost of the Ustyug district. He was instructed to manufacture and install it on the Frolovskaya tower new “fighting clock” - chimes. Shumila was helped by his father and son. Vyrachenykh's watch had 24 divisions, they showed daytime - every hour from sunrise to sunset. Then rotating dial returned to its initial position and the countdown of the night hours began. On the summer solstice day lasted 17 hours, the rest occurred at night. The rotating circle of the dial depicted the vault of heaven, with numbers running around the circumference. A ray of gilded sun, fixed above the circle, served as an arrow and indicated the hour. The Vyrachevo clock ran smoothly for about twenty years, but when the tower was rebuilt in 1624, it was sold by weight to the Spassky Monastery in Yaroslavl for 48 rubles: this was the cost 60 pounds of iron."

The Austrian ambassador A. wrote about the clock restored after the fire of 1654 as one of the attractions of Moscow at that time:

"The main clock to the east on the Frolovskaya Tower, above the Spassky Gate, near a large shopping area or market, near the palace bridge. They show the hours of the day from sunrise to sunset. On the summer solstice, when the most long days, this clock shows and strikes until 17, and then the night lasts 7 hours. Attached to the top of the wall, a still image of the sun forms a hand indicating the hours indicated on the rotating hour circle. These are the richest watches in Moscow."

Augustin Meyerberg; 1622-1688) - Austrian baron, traveler and diplomat. In fact, the drawing of the clock was preserved in his album "Meyerberg's Album of Views and Everyday Pictures of Russia in the 17th Century. Drawings from the Dresden Album, reproduced from the original in life-size with the appendix of a map of the route of the Tsar's embassy of 1661-62."

Is it possible that Mr. Sheypak confused the 17th century Clock with the one installed in the 15th century? It's strange, but this error occurs often.

There was also a historian Ivan Yegorovich Zabelin who wrote a book " Home life Russian Tsars".

Ivan Egorovich Zabelin (September 17, 1820, Tver - December 31, 1908, Moscow) - Russian archaeologist and historian, specialist in the history of the city of Moscow.
Corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the category of historical and political sciences (1884), honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences (1907), initiator of the creation and fellow chairman of the Imperial Russian Historical Museum named after the Emperor Alexandra III, Privy Councillor.

In his book we read the following:

“We do not know what design the mechanics of these watches were. The indicated, or recognizable, circles or wheels, i.e. dials, were arranged only on two sides, one for the Kremlin, the other for the city, and consisted of oak ties, dismountable on checks , reinforced with iron hoops. Each wheel weighed about 25 poods. The middle of the wheel was covered with blue paint, azure, and gold and silver stars with two images of the Sun and Moon were scattered across it. Obviously, this decoration depicted the sky. Around the border were the indicated words, i.e. Slavic numerals, copper, heavily gilded, total 24 , between them were placed half-hour stars, silvered. The indicated words on the Spassky clock were measured in arshins, and on the Trinity clock - in 10 vershoks. Because in these hours instead of a hand, the dial itself turned around, or an indicating wheel, then a stationary beam was established at the top, or a star with a beam like an arrow, moreover, with the image of the Sun."

It's funny, isn't it, that the description of the watch is completely identical except for the detail that the book says there are 24 numbers, but in the picture with the text there are 16 of them!!!

This picture is so similar to Meyerberg's drawing that at first I thought it was it, but count the letters!

Was the number 13 suddenly missing? It was missed because further on the Slavic counting goes 14, 15, 16, 17.

All this is very strange and it seems that all this dance with the number of hours in the day of the old Russian clock is not out of ignorance, but a deliberate distortion of the truth.

Old Believers, more accurately calling themselves " Old Russian Inglistic Church of Orthodox Old Believers-Inglings" They say that a day is considered to have 16 hours in a day.

“An hour is divided into 144 parts, a part is divided into 1296 shares, a share is divided into 72 moments, a moment is divided into 760 moments, a moment is divided into 160 centigrades, a whitefish is divided into 14,000 centigrams.
A day is a day, originally divided into 16 hours.
Week - 9 days. The days are called: Monday, Tuesday, three-day, four-day, Friday, six, seven, eight and week. Ynglings consider these names to be reconstructions, citing quotes from P. Ershov’s fairy tales as arguments.
A month is 40 days (even) or 41 days (odd). Only 9 months: Ramhat, Aylet, Beylet, Geylet, Daylet, Elet, Veylet, Heylet, Taylet."

You can even find on the forums how to make old Russian ones based on ordinary watches. But here 16 o’clock and 13 are in their place and not like in Zabelin’s book and not 17 like in Meyerberg.

They claim that their watches are real antique and have nothing to do with the “Russian clocks” of the Spasskaya Tower.

Regarding 17 and 24 hours there is this explanation:

“On this “old” clock there is no division by 17. There are also 24 hours in a day. These clocks showed alternately daytime and nighttime. Depending on the date and month, the number of “daytime” and “nighttime” ranged from 7 to 17. T. That is, for example, in winter there were 7 "day" and 17 "night" hours. In March there were 12 "day" and 12 "night" hours, and in May there were 17 "day" and 7 "night" hours. In total, all the same, 24 hours in day. In general, this is the same clock as now, only showing the day and night lengths of the day))."
...That is, if, for example, in the spring at some time there are 14 dark night hours, and the remaining 10 are daytime, such a dial should have rotated (the hand is stationary) to the number 14, and then scrolled back to the number 1 and from it again count the hours of the day."

It would seem this description explains everything and there are no questions here. But aren’t there too many inconsistencies here and there to close the topic?

Another strange thing, in my opinion, is that there is a claim that Russian clocks counted counterclockwise as they do now, but all the existing pictures do not confirm this in any way. The letters should in this case go from right to left in a circle and not from left to right, both in the case of a rotating dial and in the version with arrows.

But, be that as it may, how many hours there are in the day is important! The clock on the Spasskaya Tower (for now we will continue to talk only about them, for simplicity) is not a toy, not a fashionable device! Of course, again, all Russians are wild and stupid, and the first clock, you see, was built for us by a foreigner and, of course, a monk.

But why did he suddenly decide to install a system that no one had ever used anywhere before?

Exactly the same story as with Cyril and Methodius! Didn’t it seem strange to you that for some reason two monks invented the alphabet for the Slavs and didn’t just take it and give it to them? greek letters"savages"? And why does Lazarus not set his watch like everyone else, but does everything exactly the opposite?

1. It is not the hand that turns, but the dial.
2. The dial rotates the opposite side(that is, counterclockwise as is customary now).
3. Apparently there are still 17 hours in a day and not 24.
4. The clock is astronomical, the hour depending on the time of year and location.

You have to understand that people used these watches, they lived by them, and this is how they perceived the world and time. This is not a joke!

Allow me a little more from the book “The Home Life of the Russian Tsars”:

"By the way, let's give a few details about the tower clock that was absolutely necessary in the palace because of the large number of officials living and working there, large and small, who were obliged to either appear or prepare something on time, at the appointed hour. The use of pocket, or pocket, watches at that time was very insignificant, partly due to their rarity and high cost, because Russian watch production almost did not exist and Russian pocket watch makers were as rare as Russian-made watches themselves; and besides, German watches, which were still easier to get, although expensive, did not correspond to Russian ones in their division of time and, therefore, were inconvenient for use. Russian clocks divided the day into daytime hours and nighttime hours, depending on sunrise and sunset, so that at the minute of sunrise the Russian clock struck the first hour of the day, and at sunset the first hour of the night, so almost every two weeks the number of daytime hours, and also the night ones gradually changed in the following way, as recorded in the calendar of that time."

The watch was not some kind of curiosity. They were necessary and they were used. I just want to ask, why were watches not so necessary outside the palace? And in other cities?

All authors note that the watches were inaccurate; some even say that they were not mechanical at all, but that the watchmakers turned the circle with their hands.
The rudeness of the work is derived from the very idea that the Russians are so stupid that they measured the day by daylight hours and the hour was not fixed.

What if it was a worldview, and not a simple whim? How difficult it is to get used to the daylight saving change winter time now, how low labor productivity is in dark time Everyone knows the day, even when it’s just cloudy, work is no longer the same. Man is a part of nature and not a machine, why do we think that machine counting of time in hours, minutes and seconds, artificially created time zones and legislative transitions to winter-summer time is suitable for us?

Were the supposedly first Russian watches primitive if the mechanism was able to measure time depending on the day and was not manually tightened by watchmakers? Although many people assume that watchmakers wound their watches this way and that by hand every day, is this not nonsense? Why hang a clock at all then?

They themselves repeatedly declare that European watches, even pocket watches, were not such a curiosity, but even in the 17th century they continued to set clocks in the Russian style even in the main square of the country.

They are also very reluctant to talk about the fact that there were a lot of hours around Russia. They talk more about Moscow watches and not Russian ones - Horologium Moscoviticum as some kind of curiosity like a watch in the Soviet toy store "Children's World".

“Indeed, at the end of the 16th century in 1585, tower clocks already stood on three gates of the Kremlin, on three of its sides: on the Frolovsky, or Spassky, on the Rizpolozhensky, now Trinity, and on the Vodyany, which is opposite the Cache, or Tainitsky.
The clocks stood in wooden tents or towers, specially built for this purpose on the gates. Each clock had a special watchmaker, and even two of the Rizpolozhenskys, who monitored the serviceability and repairs of the mechanics. At the beginning of the XVII century. The clock on the Nikolsky Gate is also mentioned. In 1624, the old fighting clock of the Spassky Gate was sold by weight to the Spassky Yaroslavl Monastery, and instead of them new ones were built in 1625 by the Englishman Christopher Galovey, who at the same time built a high stone tent in the Gothic style over the gate instead of a wooden one for this clock, decorating the gate to this day. At the same time, the Russian bell maker Kirilo Samoilov connected 13 bells to the clock. The clock, therefore, had a clock, or music."

There were a lot of Russian watches

The clock on the Spasskaya Tower was not the only one. And the rest of the hours were probably made according to the same principle. European watches were not in demand not because of the price, but because they were different, they were not used in Rus', people, people measured life and understood time differently.

According to the testimony of the Dutch traveler N. Whitson (60s of the 17th century), Russians “have few watches, and where there are such, the dial rotates, and the arrow stands motionless: it is directed upward, pointing to the number of the rotating dial ...».

The fact that the Personal Chronicle says about 12 hours can say a lot about its very reliability as a whole. Here the story with the monks Lazarus can and should be doubted. I can’t imagine how in the 15th century one system was put in place and in the 17th another completely supposedly unprecedented one was invented! And then this other one, as if inconvenient and inaccurate, is replaced again by the old one. This is not just a story about watches, this is serious business!

Every now and then they talk about the clock on the Spasskaya tower so that they get the impression that they were unique and one of a kind. Not with the aim of showing that in Rus' the count of time was different, but that supposedly it turns out the other way around, they were set one day out of stupidity, if only not like everyone else. The clocks themselves are confused, either in the 15th century or in the 17th, or on the Spasskaya Tower, or in the courtyard of the prince, or even on one of the towers of the white stone Kremlin. All this chatter diverts attention from the main thing, makes the very fact of the presence of such a watch seem curious, like an isolated case that says nothing about the real history, about how our ancestors lived.

Since the watches themselves have not been preserved and there is no reliable information, the authors make their assumptions based on documents that have preserved instructions on the prices of watches, the number of watchmakers, payments to craftsmen, etc. Based on them, they draw conclusions about the poor quality and inconvenience of the system itself.

Only in 1705, by decree of Peter, the Spassky clock was remade, “against the German custom, at 12 o’clock,” for which purpose, back in 1704, he ordered a combat clock with chimes from Holland for 42,474 rubles. But this is in Moscow, and how many Russian watches were left in Russia?

Peter the Great and the chimes

The story of the replacement of ancient Russian watches sheds some light on this whole leapfrog of guesses and contradictory facts.

In 1705, by decree of Peter the Spassky clock remade, “contrary to German custom, at 12 o’clock,” for which purpose back in 1704 he ordered a combat watch with chimes from Holland for 42,474 rubles.

Let's see again what it looked like before. So it was:

What I want to draw your attention to is the statement that the watch has been “remade” or, as they also say, “replaced”.

Sorry, I either don’t have eyes, or this is just a blatant lie. Not altered or replaced, but torn out, destroyed, erased from memory, and the installation site was blocked with bricks. And the chimes we know today were added to the top. Which, by the way, don’t even fit in size, should be a little smaller, and not in style with the tower itself if you look even a little closer. The dial does not fit into the arch, but closes it, hiding its parts underneath. They got the hang of it quickly and that was it.

Even the columns on the sides of the arch had to be broken, only the stumps remained. All this clearly suggests that the watches were not specially ordered, but the first ones that came across in a hurry were bought. What kind of rush could there be? The clock stood on the tower for several centuries and suddenly!?

True, now, these are not even the same Dutch clocks, but in 1770 they were replaced by English chimes, which, by the way, says a lot about their quality; they lasted less than 70 years, unlike the old system. By the way, in the 17th century, a bull (4 years old) or 40 three-planted logs and 1 large surf nail cost 1 ruble (From the book by Melnikova A.S. “Bulat and Gold”). I have no information on the 18th century, but even using this example you can imagine what 42,474 rubles are.

I’m not a fan of sharp statements, I try to make more assumptions or it’s better to pose only a question to the reader so that he can decide for himself.
But, Christmas tree sticks. What a remake!?

By the way, with reverse side, the same empty arch with the same window. The lower dial of the ancient clock was on two sides, and the upper part, where the chimes are now, was on four sides! All of Russia sees this picture every year on the night of the broadcast of the country's congratulations from the President, few people understand the truth about why, but even fewer think about the emptiness in the arch on the Spasskaya Tower.

While sorting out the “facts,” I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that important information was being erased and all sorts of nonsense was being pushed out. As if on purpose, endless details about who received or spent how many rubles, what kind of cloth, how many watchmakers, and in what year. All these seemingly important statistics at first glance are not worth a damn; not only do the same events jump around in time from author to author and get distorted, but there’s also no point in them.
No one has the slightest idea about the structure of the clock, not about its operating principle, not about the number of similar ones, but only guesses. And all this is abundantly mixed with stories that in such and such a year there was a fire, and in such and such a year the clock was redone, or else a new one was installed and again they took it off and made another one. All this is a distraction, I want to tell you. So that the devil himself breaks his leg. Take away from the main thing. We had our own ancient timekeeping system and our own clocks!

It is clear that Russia has become special and cannot be measured by a common yardstick. But, while everywhere they try to protect ancient heritage, preserve every little thing if possible, wouldn’t it be wise to leave, even an outdated, even a broken watch, they are even very good as a decorative element, decoration! Leave them for posterity rather than break them out, sell them for scrap and install the first squalor that doesn’t even fit in size.

I understand that there are and were more and more important problems, but this whole story with the Russian clock in the example of the Spasskaya Tower is nothing more than a concealment of the truth and obvious malicious sabotage.

I’ll add another drawing of a view of the Kremlin from the works of Tanner (1678) where supposedly there is a tower on the gate with a skillfully made clock, but for some reason there are arrows there! Not to mention the fact that higher up, where the chimes are now, there are no clocks at all.

Although, here you go, Olearius has everything in place.

Well, here it is, the 1800s, and what happened after decree P1:

With that part of the clock that took the place of the current chimes, Old Russian to Dutch, I still don’t understand at all. According to the drawing, I counted 12 divisions and there are some kind of zodiac signs there, apparently these are months. The arrows are not visible there; it is not known whether this part was static, decorative, which is unlikely, but maybe, or had a mechanism.

It turns out that Tanner’s work is either not the Spasskaya Tower or an obvious forgery, since it is not even possible to classify the drawing as a later one. All the same, the clock is not in the right place. One can assume that under the guise of the Frolovskaya (Spasskaya) tower, perhaps they are slipping us the Trinity, but comparing Tanner with Olearius it is clear that this is the same tower. Even the angle in the picture is the same and the domes of the churches inside the Kremlin are completely identical.

By the way, on Troitskaya, as it’s easy to see, there used to be the same clock, but now, like on Spasskaya, it’s empty, bare bricks and a window. Moreover, like on Spasskaya, there are two arches for a clock and it wouldn’t be out of place to assume that they were decorated like this same pair of Russian watches like Spasskaya.

Quickie

At the presentation of the 2011 State Prize, V. Molotkov, restorer and watchmaker of the Hermitage Museum said:

"In Russia, it turned out that Russian people were throwing away watches. Then the Germans arrived. You see, the Germans are neat people, they made signs in Moscow, in St. Petersburg, “We are repairing watches” and also wrote in German, because maybe foreigners were in these cities. In German, an old clock is “alte Uhren”. When the master’s clock stopped, he called the butler and said: the clock has stopped, take it to the hack. The fact is that “alte Uhren” sounds like "hackwork." [Transcript] [Video]

We are still enjoying the results of the German repairs to this day. This is what it is - hack work.

Bottom line

Still not clear? Confused? If you put everything back on its head, everything will become clear. This clock and its structure clearly corresponds to the ancient counting system - the Hexadecimal number system. After all, the number “16” came to us from the depths of history as the main, basic number.

1 arshin is equal to 16 vershok (71.12 cm). This is a length measure, as you understand.
1 octagon is equal to 1/8 of a dessiatine (a measure of area), and 1/8 is just part of an integer equal to 16.
1 pood is equal to 16 kilograms, but here we need to talk about some more features of the Russian scale of scales. The fact is that a pound is divided into pounds, and there are 32 of them! (2x16). The pound consists of lots, where a lot is equal to six spools of 32 shares each. And one share (the smallest unit of measurement for Slavs) is equal to 0.0444 modern grams!

The entire system of measures, counting, time is a single system. Looking ahead, I will say, in relation to clocks, clocks were not just on the towers, but they were on EVERY tower, on the buildings that we call temples, or rather, belfries. And the word hour is not from the church service, but on the contrary, the church service is from the hour. I will tell you everything in detail and show you.

To be continued...

The chapels at the Nikolsky Gate are also mentioned. At the Frolov Gate in 1614, Nikiforka Nikitin was the watchmaker. In September 1624, the old combat watches were sold by weight to the Spassky Yaroslavl Monastery. Instead, in 1625, a clock was installed on the Spasskaya Tower under the guidance of the English mechanic and watchmaker Christopher Galovey by Russian blacksmiths and watchmakers Zhdan, his son Shumilo Zhdanov and grandson Alexei Shumilov. 13 bells were cast for them by foundry worker Kirill Samoilov. During a fire in 1626, the clock burned down and was restored by Galovey. In 1668 the clock was repaired. By using special mechanisms they “played music” and also measured the time of day and night, indicated by letters and numbers. The dial was called index word circle, distinguished circle. The numbers were denoted by Slavic letters - the letters were copper, covered with gold, the size of an arshin. The role of the arrow was played by an image of the sun with a long ray, fixedly fixed in the upper part of the dial. His disk was divided into 17 equal parts. This was due to the maximum length of the day in the summer.

“Russian clocks divided the day into daytime hours and night hours, monitoring the rise and course of the sun, so that at the minute of rising the Russian clock struck the first hour of the day, and at sunset - the first hour of the night, so almost every two weeks the number of daytime hours , as well as night ones, gradually changed"…

The middle of the dial was covered with blue azure; gold and silver stars, images of the sun and moon were scattered across the blue field. There were two dials: one towards the Kremlin, the other towards Kitay-Gorod.

XVIII - XIX centuries

On August 18, 1918, in the “Bulletin” of the press bureau of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, it was reported that Kremlin chimes renovated and now they play revolutionary anthems. The “Internationale” sounded first at 6 a.m., at 9 a.m. and at 3 p.m. the funeral march “You have fallen a victim...” (in honor of those buried on Red Square).

After some time, they reconfigured and the chimes began to play the “Internationale” melody at 12 o’clock, and “You have fallen a victim...” at 24 o’clock.

The last major restoration was carried out in 1999. The work was planned for six months. The hands and numbers were again gilded. The historical appearance of the upper tiers was restored. By the end of the year, the final adjustment of the chimes was carried out. Instead of the “Patriotic Song,” the chimes began to play the national anthem of the Russian Federation, officially approved in 2000.

Technical data

Musical device of chimes

The chimes perform “Glory” at 15:00 (the rhythm is accelerated).

see also

Notes

Literature

• Ivan Zabelin"Home life of Russian tsars in the 16th and 17th centuries." Publishing house Transitbook. Moscow. 2005 (about watches pp. 90-94)