The Grand Turk's Organ Clock Thomas Dallam, the finest organ maker of his time, was commissioned at Queen Elizabeth I’s behest to first create a lavish organ clock and then to sail to Turkey to deliver it to the Ottoman, Grand Sultan Muhammed III. He recruited his ‘mate Harvie, who was the engineer’, to design and build the clockwork. His engineer mate was probably the early clockmaker John Harvey. Dallam and Harvey’s organ clock was a highly complex, bejewelled, automated mechanical marvel, standing at 16 feet. The organ clock was a diplomatic gift to the Sultan from Queen Elizabeth. It took Dallam and Harvey about two full years to complete their task. To learn about their ‘grand adventure’, see ‘Dallam’s Diary’[1] or read about John Harvey on Clocktime. End Note [1] Bent 1892. Reference Bent, T. (editor). 1892. Early Voyages and Travels in the Levant: I. The Diary of Master Thomas Dallam, 1599–1600. II. Extracts from the Diaries of Dr. John Covel, 1670–1679. With Some Account of the Levant Company of Turkey Merchants (Issue 87 of Works issued by the Hakluyt Society). New York, NY: B. Franklin. Image Credits Sultan Mehmet III (1566-1603) by after Cristofano Dell' Altissimo (c.1525 - Florence 1605). CMS_PCF_515689 Collections - Public ©National Trust Elizabethan musical instrument that works as a barrel-organ and as a clock. Engraving after a manuscript drawing in The Illustrated London News, 20th October 1860, p380. © Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans
