There is something nostalgic, nerdy, and, dare I say, classy about this vacuum tube clock.
For those more committed to the vintage aesthetic, the Steampunk Nixie Tube Clock offers a lot of wood, some brass, and plenty of extraneous rivets, screws, grills and knobs to drive home that special blend of fantasy and uselessness that makes Steampunk such an appealing design phenomenon.
For those unaware of this type of gadget, a Nixie tube clock uses heated cathodes in a glass-encased gaseous mixture to display the time, and there are currently two undergoing crowdfunding campaigns on Kickstarter, both of which launched in the past week.
USB "tube clock" looks cool, sadly not the real thing Stardock jumps into the digital distribution game World's smallest (and portable) Karaoke box unveiled Wii: Tiger Woods '09 finally gets online play, plus better swing mechanics and five new courses Comfort: Thanko cushion lets you type from the floor.
Kickstarter has a fever at the moment, and the only cure is more tube clocks.
Before he began using it, Rios thought Andrew would grow up dependent on a wheelchair, needing round-the-clock care and tube feeding.
And with 150 contractors working three shifts around the clock in both tubes, simultaneously, there is a precise timeline for how this will unfold.
The clock strikes a metal tube suspended by thread, which reverberates like a fading electronic tone for 20 seconds.
STEAMPUNK AT A GLANCE Steampunk artisans turn partly dismantled antiques, Victorian sewing-machine bases and typewriters into laptop stations; they string radio tubes and clock cogs on necklaces.
In these collages, scientific illustrations of cow ankles shoot like clock hands out of test-tubes, while elsewhere a rib cage makes a gruesome apparatus for forceps and a tube of K-Y Jelly.
Released as a single last June, Kickstarts went to No 3. Its engaging and colourful boy-girl video – with a smiling Example in the starring role – has clocked up nearly 11.5m You Tube views in the last 12 months.
