Time Telling through the AgesBrearley, Harry Chase
History
Time Telling through the Ages
Brearley, Harry Chase
Clocks and watches -- History; Time measurements
Having traced out the history of the clock and watch mechanism all
the way from De Vick's first clock and the clumsy old Nuremberg Egg
down to the perfect time-keeping device which we have today, it may
be interesting to look a little more closely at the result of so many
years and so many inventions—to see what its parts are, and how they
are put together, and to observe how the wonderful little machine does
its work.
Modern clocks and watches are nearly enough alike in their structure
and way of working, so that if we understand the one, we shall
easily understand the other also. The differences between them are
few and slight and easy to explain. So let us take for our example a
typical modern watch movement, which is easily the more beautiful and
interesting mechanism of the two.
First of all, as we saw in the days of De Vick and Henlein, a watch,
or a clock, is a _machine for keeping time_. So it must have three
essential parts: first, the power to make it go; second, the regulator
to make it keep time; and third, the hands and face to show plainly the
time it keeps. Each of these three parts is itself made up of several
others.
The power or energy which runs the watch is put in to it by the winding
which coils up the mainspring. The outer end of this spring is attached
to the rim of the main wheel (1) and after the spring is wound this
wheel would whirl round and let the spring run down instantly if
there was nothing to stop it. The teeth on this wheel, however, are
geared into the second or center pinion (as shown in illustration at
"A") which makes it run the entire movement while running down slowly
instead of flying round and uncoiling at once.
As we will see later, the spring-power is transmitted through the
train of wheels and the lever (7) to the balance wheel (8) which lets
the escape wheel (5) turn a little each time it swings, while it
simultaneously receives, by means of the lever from the escape wheel,
the "impulse" or power which keeps it running. Thus the swinging of
the balance lets the mainspring down gradually while drawing its power
from it. The spring is made as thin as it can be and still have power
enough to make the watch go. For a modern watch, this is about one
flea-power. One horse power, which is only a small fraction of the
power of the average automobile, would be enough to drive all the
millions of watches in the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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