Sunday Focus: Fake Time, Fake Chime

      If you were watching the Alabama News Network broadcast of the Inauguration of  Robert Bentley as Governor earlier this month, you may remember hearing bells chime.      
     The sound were coming from the clock that sits on top of the Capitol Building, facing Dexter Avenue. Except they were not coming from the bell on the clock. Like so much these days, the sounds were canned, a recording of bells.

The clock had been broken for many years, but it was fixed in time for the inaugural. Fixed, but not restored. The innards of the clock were torn out and a new digital clock mechanism was installed. So now the clock is right more than twice a day. But the chimes are phony....a "digital" recording of chimes. 

1861, Jefferson Davis sworn in.

     The Capitol is one of the most historic buildings in the state, and as such any changes to it must win approval from historians. In this case, the very people who had the work done are the same people who approved it. 
"Shall we include a recording of chimes with the project?"
"Sure, why not?"
"The vote is unanimous!"
     Watch An Alabama News Network report on the new clock mechanism, and hear the new fake chimes, HERE.
     The state Historical Commission praised the clock workings in an article in the Summer of 2012 issue of Alabama Heritage:

the clock's gear-box armature frame is one of the few still surviving today.

     The clock was a gift from the City of Montgomery to celebrate the moving of the capitol to Montgomery from Tuscaloosa.