ESCAPEMENT, SIX-LEGGED GRAVITY—A modification of the three-legged gravity escapement. The locking wheel has six teeth. One of the pallet arms is neutral and gives no impulse, hence impulse is given only at each alternate vibration. A much lighter driving weight than for the Double Three-legged Gravity escapement will suffice for this, since the rotations of the escape wheel required are only half as many. ESCAPEMENT, STRAIGHT-LINE—An escapement of the lever type in which the escape wheel, pallets and balance are all in a straight line; an arrangement favored by the Swiss. [Illustration] ESCAPEMENT, VERGE—Also called "Crown-wheel," or Vertical escapement. The earliest form of escapement on record. The inventor is not known, but the escapement was used on de Vick's clock. (1364.) It was used almost exclusively up to 1750 in spite of its manifest inaccuracy. The verge is a frictional recoil escapement. It consists of a crown-wheel, with eleven, thirteen, or fifteen teeth, shaped like those of a rip saw, and with its axis set at right angles to the pallets axis, or verge, which carries the balance. The verge is a slender cylinder as small as compatible with the required strength, from which project the pallets, two flat steel "flags"—at an angle to each other varying from 90° to 115°. The wheel runs in a watch in a plane at right angles to the face. Any variation in the motive power causes a variation in the arc of the balance swing. Therefore, since the time of oscillation depends on the arc of the swing, the time-keeping qualities were directly affected. This gave rise to the invention of the stack-freed and fusee, both contrivances to equalize the power of the mainspring. In spite of the many defects the verge escapement was one of the great inventions because the first escapement, and was used for centuries before superior kinds were devised. It necessitated thick and bulky watches. [Illustration] ESCAPEMENT, VIRGULE—An early form of escapement invented about 1660 by Abbe Hautefeuille. Its action can be readily understood from the diagram. ESCAPE PINION—The pinion on the escape-wheel arbor. ESCAPE WHEEL—The last wheel of a train: it gives impulse to the balance, indirectly. Also called scape wheel. Easily identified by teeth resembling those of a circular saw. FACE—1. Of a watch or clock is the dial. 2. Of the tooth of a wheel, that portion beyond the pitch line. FACIO, NICOLAS—A Geneva watchmaker who invented the art of piercing jewels for use in watches, and in May, 1705, obtained a patent therefor in London. In December of the same year when he petitioned for a more extended patent he was opposed by the Clockmakers' Company, who produced in evidence proof that Facio was not first in this use of jewels, in an old watch of Ignatius Huggeford's with an amethyst mounted on the cock of the balance wheel. Facio's petition was denied. It was later discovered that Huggeford's jewel had nothing to do with the mechanism of the watch.