Swiss cuckoo clocks

A cuckoo clock is a clock, normally a pendulum clock,which strikes hours using small bellows and whistles imitating the call of the Common Cuckoo bird in addition to striking on a wire gong.

The design of a cuckoo clock is now conventional. Most are made in the shape of a rustic birdhouse or chalet. They hang on the wall, and are housed in wooden cases, frequently decorated with carved leaves; sometimes deer and other animals are added. Most now have an automaton of the bird that appears through a small trap door when the clock is striking, and vanishes behind the door after the clock is done.
The world's largest cuckoo clock.The bird is often made to move while the clock strikes, typically by means of an arm that lifts the back of the carving. Some have musical movements, and play a tune on a music box before striking the hours or half-hours. Musical cuckoo clocks frequently have other automataically that move when the music box plays. The clocks are almost always weight driven; a very few cuckoo clocks are spring driven.

In recent years, fake quartz battery powered cuckoo clocks have been sold; these do not have genuine cuckoo bellows, and typically generate their striking sounds electronically. The weights are conventionally cast in the shape of pine cones. The pendulum bob is often another carved leaf. The dial is small, and typically marked with Roman numerals.

The cuckoo clock was invented in the Black Forest town of Schönwald im Schwarzwald, Germany, by Franz Ketterer in 1738. Ketterer designed the system of small bellows and whistles which imitates the Cuckoo's call, and added them to a standard Dutch clock. Later refinements of the design changed the clock's shape to the familiar birdhouse or chalet. The centre of their production continues to be in the Black Forest region of Germany, in the area of Triberg im Schwarzwald and Neustadt. The cuckoo clock is often wrongly associated with Switzerland, as in the movie The Third Man. In the USA, this error is probably due to a story by Mark Twain in which the hero depicts the Swiss town of Lucerne as the home of cuckoo clocks.

But the story of the clock reaches even further back.

In 1630 a peddler who sold glass from the Black Forest to foreign countries, returned with a clock, perhaps from the land of Böhmen (today's Czech Republic). So the technique and the idea was born somewhere different – but the Cuckoo Clock as we know it today comes form the Black Forest.

It did not take long for the Cuckoo Clock to gain incredible popularity within certain parts of Germany – even some major cities nearby.

With cleverness and dexterity, the clock makers were making cuckoo clocks with richly hand-carved decorations from various woods. In 1808 there were already 688 clockmakers and 582 clock peddlars in the districts of Triberg and Neustadt. It is known for example that in 1808 in Triberg, and the surrounding villages, 790 of 9013 inhabitants were involved in the clock-making. When Spring came around again; they would take their cuckoo clocks to town and display them.
In 1850 the Herzog (Duke) of Baden founded a School for clock-making in Furtwangen, where students learned math and drawing as well as making cases and movements for the clocks.

The so-called "Häuslers" where the people who made clocks at that time. They were not rich farmers, but clock making was a welcome way for them to earn a little money.

In the 17th century Friedrich Dilger from the small village of Urach went to France and brought back new ideas and tools in building clocks.

In 1738 Franz Ketterer from the village of Schönwald was the first to build a cuckoo for his clocks. So the famous bird with the original sound “cuckoo cuckoo” was born.

Switzerland is renowened for cuckoo clocks. Often clocks can be hand crafted.

Most swiss cuckoo clocks are made of Limetree.

Anagrams for cuckoo clocks

'Wooziest crack clunks cold = 'Switzerland cuckoo clocks'

'cuckoo clock Black Forrest' = ''croft's crook, cable luck K Co

Foreign names for cuckoo clock

German = Kuckucksuhr

French = Pendule à coucou

Dutch = Koekoeksklok

External links
http://www.cuckooclockworld.com/

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