This wheel makes the left end of the lever heavier than the right,
and in sinking it drives the clock for one minute, but at the
sixtieth second it "remounts" by the action of the clock weight;
hence the name, "remontoir." Note here that the big weight does
not directly drive the clock; it only rewinds it every minute. The
minutes are shown on the dial to the right and its hand jumps forward
one minute at each sixtieth second as the lever remounts; so if you
wish to set your watch to this clock the proper way is to set it to
the even minute "on the jump." The hour hand is on the dial to the
left. By this remounting, or rewinding, the clock receives the same
amount of driving force each minute. The complete clock is shown
in Fig. 31, the large weight which does the rewinding each minute
being plainly visible. The pendulum is compensated with steel and
aluminum, so that the rate of the clock may not be influenced by hot
and cold weather. Was built in 1901 and is the only one I can find
room for here. It is fully described in "Machinery," New York, for
Nov., 1901. I have built a considerable number, all for experimental
purposes, several of them much more complicated than this one, but
all differing from clocks for commercial purposes. Pallets like O
O in Fig. 29 are often made of jewels; in one clock I used agates
and in another, running thirteen months with one winding, I used
pallets jeweled with diamonds. This is done to avoid friction and
wear. Those interested in the improvement of clocks are constantly
striving after light action and small driving weights. Conversely,
the inferior clock has a heavy weight and ticks loud. The "gravity
escapement" and others giving a "free" pendulum action would require
too much space here, so we must be satisfied with the few successful
ones shown out of hundreds of inventions, dozens of them patented.
The pendulum stands at the top as a time measurer and was known to
the ancients for measuring short periods of time just as musicians
now use the metronome to get regular beats. Galileo is credited with
noticing its regular beats, but did not apply it to clocks, although
his son made a partially successful attempt. The first mathematical
investigation of the pendulum was made by Huyghens about 1670, and
he is generally credited with applying it to clocks, so there is a
"Huyghens" clock with a pendulum instead of the foliot of De Vick's.
Mathematically, the longer and heavier the pendulum the better is
the time-keeping, but nature does not permit us to carry anything to
the extreme; so the difficulty of finding a tower high enough and
steady enough, the cumbersomeness of weight, the elasticity of the
rod, and many other difficulties render very long and heavy pendulums
impracticable beyond about 13 ft. which beats once in two seconds.
"Big Ben" of Westminster, London, has one of this length weighing 700
lb. and measuring, over all, 15 ft.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account