Technical Marvels, Part 9: Program-Controlled Musical Picture Clocks

Picture clocks were very popular in France, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in the 19th century. Today, they are traded as sought-after collector’s items at auctions. The paintings, which always contain a clock, often depict romantic landscapes. Some also have a striking mechanism or a music playing mechanism. The clockwork, the striking mechanism, and the cylinder musical box are wound up with a key. Particularly astonishing are sophisticated picture clocks, in which people and things move automatically on the surface of the painting. They are reminiscent of automaton figures.

As the name suggests, a working clock is embedded in a painting. The enamel dial is usually located in a church tower, occasionally a wall clock is present. The movement has a pendulum suspended by thread or spring. The pictures usually depict landscapes, lakes, rivers, mountains, cities, bridges, buildings (e.g. castles, cathedrals, windmills), workshops, sailing ships, carriages, railways, or scenes with people and animals. The pictures are painted in oil on canvas, wood, or sheet metal (e.g. iron, copper). The frame with the painting can be opened up so that the clockwork, striking mechanism, and music-playing mechanism are accessible. The multi-day clock movement is spring-driven. The musical mechanism has several airs. The bell strikes every quarter of an hour, half an hour, or hour. Sometimes the paintings have an additional Angelus chime for the Angelus ringing.

In the 19th century, especially in the Biedermeier period (first half of the 19th century), these mechanical paintings were widespread in Central Europe. Today, they can only be found in a few collections. In Germany, picture clocks are called “Bilderuhr.” In French-speaking countries, the technical term is “tableau horloge” or “tableau à surprise.”

Program-controlled paintings with clockwork, musical mechanisms, and moving objects are particularly fascinating. In certain complex picture clocks, parts of the painting move, such as people, animals, vehicles (e.g. cable cars, ships, carriages), and windmills. Flowing water is simulated by rotating glass rods. The creators of the picture clocks (clockmakers, painters) are often unknown. There were animated mechanical pictures as early as the 18th century, but they did not have a built-in clock (in French “tableau animé,” “tableau mouvant,” “tableau à mouvement et à musique,” “tableau mécanique”).

The following images come from Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to the museums for providing high-quality photos.

References

This article is based on the following work:

Bruderer, H.: Meilensteine der Rechentechnik, De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Berlin/Boston, 3^rd edition 2020, volume 1, 970 pages, 577 figures, 114 tables, https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110669664

Bruderer, H.: Meilensteine der Rechentechnik, De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Berlin/Boston, 3^rd edition 2020, volume 2, 1055 pages, 138 figures, 37 tables, https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110669671

Bruderer, H.: Milestones in Analog and Digital Computing, Springer Nature Switzerland AG, Cham, 3^rd edition 2020, 2 volumes, 2113 pages, 715 illustrations, 151 tables, translated from the German by John McMinn, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40974-6

This post is the ninth in a series that presents selected technical marvels from the fields of computing technology, mathematics, astronomy, surveying, time measurement, looms, and automatons. The examples are largely from the 15th to 20th centuries and do not claim to be exhaustive. Most of the objects come from Europe, with a few from Africa, America, Asia, and Australia. Famous names are associated with many of these works. In some cases, however, the inventors are unknown. See Technical Marvels, Part 8: Historical Surveying Instruments – Communications of the ACM.

Herbert Bruderer is a retired lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich and a historian of technology. He recently was added to the Honor Roll of the IT History Society.