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Turning the handle rotates the winding shaft of the
clock. This movement is conveyed to the weight drum, around which
the steel cable winds, like on a huge metal reel, lifting the weight.
A ratchet makes it possible to wind the clock without it stopping.
To raise all the weights, you have to turn all three winding mechanisms.
At one time the depth of the shaft was about 16.5 metres, or roughly
half the height of the Winter Palace, while the clock had to be wound
every day! It is easy to imagine how exhausting such work must have
been. Now a complicated system of pulleys is used to raise the weights
and that made it possible to increase the length of time the clock
runs on a single winding and shorten the shaft to 4.6 metres. |
