Paul Wilson: This clock won't talk

The big clock that started telling time on James Street North 124 years ago is back in business.

Just last week we wrote that the Hamilton City Centre timepiece at James and York was stuck. It was an observation, not a bulletin. The clock hadn’t been working for months, maybe since Daylight Saving Time began.

In any case, just days after our story, Hamilton’s Big Ben has come to life again.

We’d love to take credit, but it turns out that John Scott had already been on the case for some time. His business is Scotiabell of Waterdown, and the Scotts have been in the clock business since 1922.

Loves our clock

Scott was good enough to return our call yesterday, from Wilno, up past Bancroft, where he was working on a church carillon.

He loves our big clock, the one that was mounted in 1888 atop Hamilton City Hall. That’s the old City Hall, the mighty one made of stone, torn down some 50 years ago.

They saved the clock. And 20 years ago, when developers were building the Hamilton Eaton Centre (now the Hamilton City Centre), they worked the clock into the design.

Scott has been looking after the clock for about 10 years. "It’s delicate and a little bit finicky," he says.

Moving entity

At the same time, he considers it a marvel. He wishes people could see its innards, the 16-foot pendulum marking time like a giant grandfather clock.

'It's like a heart beating up there.' —John Scott, who knows clocks

"It’s not a static piece of art," he says. "It’s a moving entity. It’s like a heart beating up there."

But the heart had gone into arrest. Scott says it had to do with an automatic winder that had been added by someone else years ago. "That was the root of the problem."

He had to create specialty tools to tackle this job. And then, at the end of last week, he spent a couple of days up in the 10-storey tower.

Clock is silent

So look up, way up, and get the right time. But sadly, the clock is silent. A year or so ago, the City Centre asked Scott to disengage the device that causes the big bell to sound every hour.

That’s an awful shame. "I think it’s a tragedy," says Scott.

There is a way to have the bell sound only during daylight hours. "It’s a common adaptation," Scott says, but he’s had no direction to do so.

Mall management says there had been complaints. Perhaps, it says, from shift workers who live in the area.

Doesn’t seem right. On James South, at St. Paul’s Presbyterian, the bells are always ringing. It is a joyful sound. Let the history be heard.

Paul.Wilson@cbc.ca | @PaulWilsonCBC

You can read more CBC Hamilton stories by Paul Wilson here.