Pinto clock ticks again

I refer to the letter Pinto’s Clock Not Fully Functional (November 25). Joseph Borg is correct to say that the hour hand of the clock was not working for a very short period of time on November 20. As Mr Borg might be aware, after six years of silence, works to restore the Pinto clock to its full glory were only completed earlier in November after 19 months of restoration work, involving an investment of €120,000.

In fact, a setting exercise was carried out on the clock mechanism that forms part of the time train. The time chosen to carry out this exercise was specifically selected because of an event organised by the National Youth Orchestra that afternoon, whereby the clock chiming would still have had to be stopped so as not to interfere with the musical event taking place.

Unfortunately, Mr Borg’s letter might have given the impression that the clock is still not functioning or was not running for long hours when this was in fact just a coordinated exercise in the appropriate time.