There’s no automatic adjustment for the clock at Philadelphia’s City Hall when it comes time to Daylight Saving Time, writes Michaela Winberg for Billy Penn.

Instead, the clock is manually adjusted by City Hill maintenance man Joseph Brasky.

Known as the Philadelphia clock guy, Brasky has to come to the City Hall tower on the night of the change to manually crank forward the 15-foot, 235-pound minute hands at 2 AM sharp.

According to City Hall’s Director of Building Services, Richard Mariano, it’s not a difficult process, but a tedious one. After Brasky cuts the power, he has to crank each minute hand for the four clocks forward individually. Accuracy is crucial in the process.

“The challenge is lining all four clocks up,” said Mariano.

In order to properly wind each of the four timepieces, Brasky was trained by Lancaster clockmaker Bob Desrochers.

Desrochers believes that, even with everyone having a clock on their phone these days, ensuring the City Hall clock displays the correct time is still useful.

“It’s important to maintain that timekeeping,” he said.

Read more about the clock at City Hall from Billy Penn by clicking here.
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Top photo credit: joseph a Philadelphia City Hall via photopin (license)