To The Clock Tower!!

In the first episode of the New Year, we get as close to the concept of time as possible: by climbing into Chatham’s 1872 clock tower with village timekeeper Stephen Piazza.

Here are some things we learned:

• It's very steep to the top and hard to do with a microphone and really large headphones.
• Don't touch the pendulum.
• Why heat and cold change a pendulum’s pace
• How gravity pulls on the gear train differently from 12 to 6
• And why a tiny turn smaller than a 64th of an inch can mean minutes gained or lost. 
• We talk through the choreography of daylight saving, from stopping the clock to avoid “fall back” confusion to advancing the hands ever so gently in spring so the village sees the new time without phantom bells throwing everything into disarray.
• We also made it into the Village Timekeeper's Logbook for all of time to see!

Here's more on "Selling the True Time," by Ian R. Bartky

Here's more on the Chatham Clock Tower from the Chatham Village Historical Society

Here's my previous "Guide To The Many Chathams" episode

Chapters

• 0:02 A New Year Episode
• 0:48 Enter The 1872 Clock Tower
• 1:52 From Local Time To Standard Time
• 2:42 Meet Stephen Piazza, Chatham Timekeeper
• 4:07 The Climb
• 5:45 We're Winding Now
• 6:33 Winding Routines And Wear
• 7:53 Heat, Cold, And Pendulum Tuning
• 8:55 Keeping It Accurate
• 10:41 Why Keep Winding
• 11:48 Succession And Scheduling
• 12:26 Why Weights Matter
• 14:08 I Made It Into The Logbook
• 15:21 Handling Daylight Saving
• 17:21 Finely Tuning
• 18:48 Pride In Being A Timekeeper
• 20:24 Of Course We Have To Hit The Bell
• 21:37 Closing Out

Transcript

James Cave: 0:02

Hello and welcome to the Jiffy, a podcast about Upstate New York that really takes our places. And since this is the first episode of the new year, I thought we could uh go somewhere a little special, a little secretive, uh mysterious, uh maybe uh even deep into time itself. Because after all, uh when we are often reflecting on the passage of time as the year changes. And so I thought it'd be fun to go take a climb up into this place that's not seen by very many outsiders, and in some ways it connects us directly to the past, even as time marches on into the future.

Stephen Piazza: 0:41

So it used to be the firehouse, you knew that, right?

James Cave: 0:43

It's a place that used to be in the firehouse.

Stephen Piazza: 0:46

This used to be the firehouse, yeah.

James Cave: 0:48

Of course, I'm talking about a clock tower. Not not that one. Um I think we're tired of hearing that sound. Now we're heading up into one that's more than 150 years old. Wipe your feet there. Maintained today by a single timekeeper named Stephen Piazza.

Stephen Piazza: 1:06

Okay, here we go.

James Cave: 1:07

That's him guiding me up.

Stephen Piazza: 1:09

So I go twice a week, Thursdays and Sundays. So start with your right foot, and when you get up there, you'll see why that makes sense. Because we're gonna transition from there to another ladder.

James Cave: 1:26

Okay. You know, when the tower was built in 1872, right in the boom of railroad industrialization, I have to think that it must have been a significant shift for people who lived here in Chatham at the time. I mean, in a rural community, time was perceived much more differently than we perceive it today. It was more personal, it's more local. They had this concept of true time. And this clock tower in Chatham and the clock inside was part of a historic process by which time awareness itself changed in the United States, going from local to regional, and then to a national standard time. Because ten years after the clock was installed in Chatham, Congress passed legislation that would restrict the options that railroad companies would have of choosing their own operating times. And as you know, railroad companies don't really like government restrictions all that much. So they adopted Uniform Time, something called Uniform Time, in 1883. It wasn't because they necessarily needed to, they just wanted to get ahead of federal regulation. I think this is all a really interesting history. I might do a whole separate episode about it. Um and there's a really good book about this era called Selling the True Time by Ian R. Bartke. I link to it in the show notes if you're interested. That's where I got a lot of this information. But this episode isn't about the astronomical history of keeping time. It's a short profile of Chatham's timekeeper, Stephen Piazza, who graciously allowed me to follow him up these steep steps and then up a very skinny ladder that I felt to be a little treacherous.

Stephen Piazza: 2:59

There's no height thing, it's not like you're dangling. This door is not a it's not a handle, don't rely on that for a to uh hang on to. Okay, goodness. Up through the floorboards. So you're comfortable climbing. You've got one hand now because you got that thing in your hand. Yeah. You can do it any way you want. You can sit on that.

James Cave: 3:28

I was disoriented at times. I almost touched something. Sounds like I shouldn't have.

Stephen Piazza: 3:32

Don't don't don't touch, don't touch that. Don't touch that. Not touching anything. Don't worry. Don't don't touch this is the pendulum. And so this becomes a floor.

James Cave: 3:40

So and then finally into the tower itself with the bell.

Stephen Piazza: 3:44

I usually just get on my hands and knees. So you're crawling under the bell. You gotta crawl under the yeah. So this is where the clock is.

James Cave: 3:54

So it's three levels. So that I could see just what it takes for Stephen to keep time marching for the people of Chatham, New York.

Stephen Piazza: 4:01

And I have to go where you are to wind it. So there's two, there's two spools. So I wind Sundays and Thursdays. Thursdays is usually more winding, but um, because it's one Saturday, Sunday, Saturday, when Sunday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, so Thursday morning from Thursday, it's all day Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and then I wine on Sunday, so it's less to wine. The reason I do it twice a week is because it's it can be a lot of work. And when I'm now see, we just we had the clock clean, we cleaned the clock on Tuesday, so it's not going to be a lot of winding today. But I do like to get it twice a week because if I wait, it's you know 130 cranks, uh and then like 80 or 90 on a on a Sunday morning. So and this is the this spool here does the does the the bell, rings the bell, and this spool here does the does the uh the time. It's like a cuckoo clock, it's a pendulum, you know, the weights, just weights on either side, and the pendulum in the middle. So behind you you can see the the weight that's pulling I'm pulling the weight up out of this box, which goes down to close to the first floor. Some thirty feet or so. It's you know takes a and it's not so hot up here now, but I can see how it can get out of here for sure. And wicket cold in the winter time. And the temperature, hot and cold, because the pendulum is wood, it will absorb and gain, it changes. So the the changing of the pendulum, sometimes when you need to move the when you have to set the time slow or fast. Clock runs really good right now, so don't touch this much. But when you do, you're moving it not even a 64th of an inch, just the tiniest, tiniest little crack, and that will mean that could mean the difference of minutes. So right now I have the clock running. If anybody's paying attention, the clock runs, I try to get it to run between 30 seconds to the hour and 30 seconds after the hour. The clock will always, it gains time just by the nature of it being as old as it is, and just by I don't know on day one whether this clock was how accurate it was compared to now. My guess is that it's less accurate now because of its age, but I have it running, you know, I'm not a I don't look at it as I'm not necessarily a technician, I know this clock pretty well, but um to take it apart and put it back together is something probably out of my league, but I know the clock, I know the clock by feel and by you know its heartbeat and it's kind of what it does. So I can predict, I can predict to you. I just sit on the porch, my porch, and I sit there and I look at the clock, and I can turn to my wife and go and point out to the clock, and it rings right when I tell you. But it rings, it's never consistent. So I have to calibrate it each time I come up and wind it, which is basically slow it down. And I've tried to do that with the pendulum, um, and everybody who's a clock person would say, Well, you just move the pendulum. And I say, when I do that, it still gains time. So right now I have it within my tolerances. I'm happy if I can get it within 30 seconds to and 30 seconds after, I feel like I'm doing really well. Usually I by the time I ring, it's never gonna hit what is it, nine o'clock, eight o'clock, it's never gonna hit 801 or 802. That would be unacceptable for me. Other clock people hear that and go, What? That's pretty good. So I I do pat myself on the back because I right now I have it running really well. If somebody else started whining the clock, I could tell them that, but they would have to figure it out for themselves. Within those, within within that instruction and guidelines, they would still need to get a feel for it and get a feel for.

James Cave: 9:57

How did you get to be so in sync with this clock?

Stephen Piazza: 10:01

Just timing. I've been doing it for years. I've been I'm not the only. There's a lot of clockwinders that are still in the village that have wound the clock before. Some of them are inscribed on the on the walls. But um, you know, there's probably about half a dozen or so people that are still with us that have wound the clock over the years. So it's just time, just time, you know. Um, I wound the clock back in the 90s for a time, and then I stopped because I had left the village and I came back. Um, and I've been doing it now since 2000. This time, no, 2019, I think, this stint. But I was doing it for a couple of years. What happens if you need to take time off? Well, if I take time off, I had an assistant, um, Serafin, who's in the logbook, but he he grew up and went off to college. So uh right now I have another fellow that is interested in, and he probably I've shown him of how to do it, and he probably would take over if I needed to, but I basically work my schedule around the thing. I I can let it go. I've let it go. Apparently, it's like a 13-14-day clock, and that all has to do with how much cable we have. If this was, if the weights were on a bottomless pit, the thing would run until it would just never stop. The only reason it would stop is at the pendulum, the weights bottom out, and then there's no more weight to to drive the clock. So um I I I I've let it wait a couple of more days. I've been 13 days and it's a lot of work to get it back, but um, but uh I just make sure I'm here, you know. I have to go a few more. So I don't know how much those weigh, but you know, there's 14 of them, so that's a lot of weight to pull up, you know.

James Cave: 12:12

Why do you need to pull them up and wind it like this?

Stephen Piazza: 12:15

Well, if you don't, it's like a cuckoo clock. If you if you don't, the weights are the weights are high and the weight that weight pulling down on the clock is what runs the mechanism and keeps the pendulum going. It's just the way it is, it's just the mechanics of how clocks work. You know, there's pendulum clocks and there's other clocks. The clock on your your your wrist works, you know, electronics, you know, computer, you know, but old clocks have a have a time a mechanism. You know, they have to move a movement, so they speak, so they say. So this one's a little bit louder, and this is gonna do the time, and it comes up shorter, comes up faster. And because it probably is gonna be like three or four crack. And see how I I don't bring it up. If I brought that higher than the box, the weight. Somebody came in here and went on the clock and had the weights all the way up to the ceiling. Well, when the when the weight started dropping, it missed the box and it stopped because that bottomed out. So you just have to always have that weight to run the to run to run the clock. And then I have my log that I say what I did, and when I did it. And I'm the first person to have kept a a log. Over these years, many years, umbody had a lock. Um let's see. Clock overhaul is great shape. No adjustments to the pendulum. Great. So today's 8. What is today? The 13th? It's 14th. 14th. And then I just put my name and uh and I can put your name in here so you're in the logbook.

James Cave: 14:35

So I uh I made it into the log book?

Stephen Piazza: 14:38

Yeah. So in a hundred years when no one looks at this, I have pages of, you know, basically I just put down who was I that I was here, you know, this date. But sometimes I'll do like today it was sunny 57. Two inches high 57, then it was two inches of snow. And I'm a Met fan, so if the Mets win, I LT or or the Knicks, and then I make sure I put oil, Mother's Day. So somebody might look at this, and I don't like to get too political, but um I could say March 9th looks like an important day. Yeah, spring's coming. So so on daylight saving time, a lot of people ask me what happened. So clocks knew the idea that you would turn a clock back was kind of like what? You know, so it won't go backwards. The clock, you can turn it back a few minutes, but it won't go backwards. So and when I have to fall back, I come up and I'll stop the pendulum, stop the clock, just by putting my foot here, and that'll stop. And then I sweep up, I oil and I clean and I do all that kind of stuff. In the springtime, when you spring ahead, I can simply pull the pin, which I'll do now, and because I have to calibrate this, um, and just move it, move it up. I disconnect the bell so say it's 8 15. I'll disconnect the bell and move it up so someone doesn't hear the 9 bell. They just look up the clock and they say it's 9 15. Now I could let it go through its cycle, but I don't do that. So I'm gonna fall back soon. What do you do? I'm just gonna stop the clock. I'll come back and I'll just stop the pendulum and then I clean.

James Cave: 16:29

Um here?

Stephen Piazza: 16:31

I spend an hour up here. Yeah, I'll have a coffee, or I there's a lot to do. I can, you know, I sweep up, you can see a lot of bugs and flies and stuff and mortar that's. No bats, but a lot of flies. I have to go right where you are.

James Cave: 16:47

It's tight in here.

Stephen Piazza: 16:48

Yeah. So my the deal is that our our um uh, you know, this is we walk around with these little clocks in these computers. So my clock to your clock, even though we have a different carrier, it would only be, it might not be the same, but it would be so minuscule the time between your clock saying 826 and mine saying 826. It might be a little off, but it's close enough. So I wait till 26 or at 27, and I pull this pin, and that's one, two, so I'm gonna move it up. See how that's at 25, 26, and that little number is 27. So I'm gonna move it to 27 at 15 seconds to the hour, and that's that. So this yoke, this goes up, and then the the four yokes go to the to the different to the times. The clock phases to the faces, yeah. And the faces are because there's a lot of wear in the clock, so at noon, at 12 to 6, your gravity is working against the the mechanism that wearing of the gear, and so it might run fast. From 6 to 12, it's it's gravity's working as well, so it might run slow because it's pulling down on the on the weight. Um scratched into the clock. I don't know who that is. I wouldn't do oh I don't know who it was. But uh some of these some of these other names uh in 1977.

James Cave: 18:37

Is there on here anymore?

Stephen Piazza: 18:38

Yeah, I'm here, but that's should be 2019. Because I was 2019 when I started this stench. But this stench.

James Cave: 18:46

Is there a what is can you describe the the clock winding group? Do you have a name? How does it is there a per like do y'all have a name for the clock winding group?

Stephen Piazza: 18:54

No, but I would think that there is somewhere out in the world. There's gotta be geeks like me that wanna, you know, clock winding association. There's a clock group, but as far as winders go, I refer to myself as a timekeeper, so that's good enough for me. I don't think anybody else has. I don't know if any I think people are into it, but I don't know if people are into it as much as I'm into it. I love being a timekeeper. It's a great. I've done what a lot in the village and have done a lot in the village. But when people say, What are you doing? I say, Well, I'm a village timekeeper, so it's kind of cool.

James Cave: 19:29

Why is it important to you?

Stephen Piazza: 19:30

Huh?

James Cave: 19:31

Why is this important to you? What do you get out of it?

Stephen Piazza: 19:33

Well, what what I've been explaining, it's kind of cool mechanically. If you're mechanically at all inclined or interested, it's a it's cool as hell, that whole deal. But the but the just the village, the history of the village, you know, this has been up here. This is the oldest running clock of its kind and original pieces working. So that's pretty cool. So for 150, I think it's 52 years, 53. Um This has been going back and forth. As we go do our business, this has been doing its business. And it's, you know, historically, I mean, the dust up here is 150 years old, you know. So anyway, the building's been through a lot, the village has been through a lot. Um, I think if this clock stopped and didn't work, uh we'd hear about it. You know, it would be, well, we wouldn't hear about it because it wouldn't ring. But it's pretty cool, you know. So anyway, you ready? Yep, let's go. So uh so you gotta go back over there where you started, and then you'll you can go down anywhere you want, just don't grab that belt here. So here, this is pretty cool.

James Cave: 20:53

Oh, under here.

Stephen Piazza: 20:56

So this here, I'll give you see what time it is. It's uh 8 30. We can ring the bell at 8 30, right? So this is just a hammer that's coming, so I'll gonna do the ready? Yeah. So that's pretty cool. So people will people will look up and go, wait a minute.

James Cave: 21:27

That was just Stephen saying hi.

Stephen Piazza: 21:29

Yeah. So why don't you uh go down first and you know, like I said, just be careful. Don't you got one hand there, so don't you have it?

James Cave: 21:37

A rare look into this extremely interesting place. According to the Chatham Village Historical Society, this clock is the only known pendulum clock of its kind still in original condition. They say it's been in continuous use since Ulysses S. Grant's second presidential term. So I want to thank Stephen for taking me up through those trapdoors along with him. I even made it into his logbook, if you could believe it. It was a highlight of the year for me, 2025. And I have to say, uh, as the bell rang twelve gongs at midnight when 2025 moved it to 26, uh I appreciated that Stephen made sure that the bell in Chatham rang in the new year, right on time. Happy New Year from all of me here at the James Gave Instagram feed audio newsletter podcast. If you like this episode, it would be so helpful if you shared it with a friend, because uh word of mouth really helps this show grow. I also want to thank you for listening all the way to the end. Okay, until next time, I'll see you over on the Instagram feed.