Duquesne Brewery Clock

Duquesne Brewery Clock

The clock, with AT&T logo on the face
Location Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Coordinates 40°25′33″N 79°58′36″W / 40.425825°N 79.976534°W / 40.425825; -79.976534
Built/founded 1933
The clock with Equitable Gas

Located on the Duquesne Brewing Company building in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the Duquesne Brewery Clock was the largest single-face clock in the world when it was installed in 1933. Over the years its face has been used to advertise numerous brands, beginning with Coca-Cola.[1]

History

The 60-by-60-foot (18 m × 18 m) clock face, with a 35-foot (11 m) minute hand and a 25-foot (7.6 m) hour hand,[2] both of laminated aluminum, is nearly twice the size of London's Big Ben, and was built in Georgia by Audichron for $12,500 and shipped to Pittsburgh.[3] The clock, designed by Audichron founder John L. Franklin, is driven by a 1.25-horsepower (0.93 kW) Janett motor.[4]

Originally located on a Mount Washington hillside,[5] the clock's face was used as advertising for a succession of beverages, including Coca-Cola, and Fort Pitt,[6] Ballantine, Carling, and Schlitz beers. In 1961, the Duquesne Brewing Company bought the clock, painted its "Have A Duke" slogan on the face and installed it atop its building in the South Side where it has been running since.[5] After the brewery closed in 1972, the clock was leased to Stroh's Beer, then WTAE-TV Channel 4. After WTAE's lease ended in 1993, the clock continued to run without an ad. The Pittsburgh Brewing Company paid $44,000 to repair the clock when it took over in 1999, paying $5,000 a month to show its logo on the face. In 2002, Equitable Gas paid to have their name placed on the clock. In October 2009, AT&T took over the rights to advertise on the clock and has redesigned the face to display the traditional blue and white AT&T logo.[7]

In popular culture

The clock is featured prominently in the 1983 movie Flashdance.

Reference List

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Duquesne Brewery Clock.
  1. "Other campuses" (PDF). Armour Tech News (Chicago, Ill.: Armour Institute of Technology). 3 April 1934. p. 2. Retrieved 3 July 2010.
  2. Danver, Charles F (30 October 1962). "The big clock". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. 31. Retrieved 3 July 2010.
  3. Paris, Barry (27 June 1983). "Time is no longer frozen on landmark clock". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. 17. Retrieved 3 July 2010.
  4. "Duquesne Brewery Clock, Pittsburgh". NAWCC Communications Forum. 5 May 2009. Retrieved 3 July 2010.
  5. 1 2 Brashear, Derrick (16 January 2010). "History of Duquesne Brewery clock faces". rusty bridge. Retrieved 4 July 2010.
  6. "Constructing the Power House". Retrieved 16 May 2014.
  7. Nelson Jones, Diana (28 October 2009). "AT&T to sponsor landmark clock on the South Side". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 3 July 2010.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, February 20, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.