Jens Olsens Verdensur

(See English version below)

Uret viser ikke bare klokken, men også stjernehimlen over Rådhuset og klokkeslættet i andre verdensdele.

Vidste du at Jens Olsens verdensur

• er verdens mest præcise mekaniske ur, og at det kun er atomure, der er mere præcise?
• består af 14.448 dele?
• har fået alle tandhjul forgyldt, og at der i alt er fire kilo guld i uret?
• hvert nytår kl. 00:00 bruger seks minutter på at udregne det kommende års helligdage og fuldmåner?
• har verdens langsomst drejende tandhjul?
• blev sat i gang af Frederik 9. torsdag den 15. december kl. 15.00 1955?
• trækkes op en gang om ugen?
• har fået alle metalskiver belagt med rhodium, der er et af verdens mest sjældne og kostbare ædelmetaller. Det er særdeles slidstærkt - selv syre kan ikke angribe rhodium?
• hovedsageligt består af messingdele fra omsmeltet husgeråd fra 1940’ernes danske husholdninger?

Spørgsmål til samtale 

• Hvilke tanker sætter det i gang hos dig at stå foran et ur, der fortæller om planeternes placering i himmelrummet?
• Hvad er tid? Og hvordan kan det være, at den nogle gange synes at gå hurtigt og andre gange langsomt? Og hvordan kan man i det hele taget måle tid?
• Meget af det messing, som er blevet anvendt til uret, er messingdele fra redskaber, som har været anvendt i danske husholdninger. Hvilke historier gemmer sig i uret?

---

Jens Olsen's World Clock

As you enter the main entrance to Copenhagen City Hall, you will find the special and unique World Clock created by watchmaker Jens Olsen (1872-1945) on your right-hand side. The clock not only shows the time, but also the starry sky above City Hall and the time in other parts of the world.

Did you know that Jens Olsen's world clock

• is the world's most accurate mechanical clock?
• consists of 14,448 parts?
• has had all its gears gold-plated and that there is a total of four kilos of gold in the watch?
• uses six minutes every New Year's Eve at 00:00 to calculate the coming year's public holidays and full moons?
• has the world's slowest turning cogwheel?
• was first started by King Frederik IV on Thursday 15 December at 15:00 in 1955?
• is wound up once a week?
• has had all its metal discs coated with rhodium, one of the world's rarest and most precious metals? It is extremely durable - even acid cannot attack rhodium.
• mainly consists of brass parts from molten household utensils from 1940s Danish households?

Questions for conversation

• What thoughts runs through your head when you stand in front of a clock that tells you the position of the planets in the sky?
• What is time? And how is it that it sometimes seems to move fast and sometimes slow? And how can you measure time at all?
• Most of the brass used in the clock comes from brass parts from Danish household utensils. What stories are hidden in the clock?