The Modern Clock A Study of Time Keeping Mechanism; Its Construction, Regulation and Repair

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The Modern Clock

A Study of Time Keeping Mechanism;
Its Construction, Regulation and Repair.

by

WARD L. GOODRICH

Author of the Watchmaker’s Lathe, Its Use and Abuse.

With Numerous Illustrations and Diagrams






CHICAGO
Hazlitt & Walker, Publishers
1905

Copyrighted
1905
by Hazlitt & Walker.




TABLE OF CONTENTS


     CHAP.                                                         PAGE
        I. THE NECESSITY FOR BETTER SKILL AMONG CLOCKMAKERS.         3
       II. THE NATURAL LAWS GOVERNING PENDULUMS.                    10
      III. COMPENSATING PENDULUMS.                                  23
       IV. THE CONSTRUCTION OF MERCURIAL PENDULUMS.                 53
        V. REGULATIONS, SUSPENSIONS, CRUTCHES AND MINOR POINTS.     79
       VI. TORSION PENDULUMS FOR FOUR-HUNDRED DAY CLOCKS.           91
      VII. PECULIARITIES OF ANGULAR MEASUREMENT—
                                        HOW TO READ DRAWINGS.       98
     VIII. THE GRAHAM OR DEAD BEAT ESCAPEMENT.                     109
       IX. LE PAUTE’S PIN WHEEL ESCAPEMENT.                        135
        X. THE RECOIL OR ANCHOR ESCAPEMENT.                        141
       XI. THE DENNISON OR GRAVITY ESCAPEMENT.                     150
      XII. THE CYLINDER ESCAPEMENT AS APPLIED TO CLOCKS.           163
     XIII. THE DETACHED LEVER ESCAPEMENT AS APPLIED TO CLOCKS.     184
      XIV. PLATES, PIVOTS AND TIME TRAINS.                         198
       XV. SPRINGS, WEIGHTS AND POWER.                             264
      XVI. MOTION WORK AND STRIKING TRAINS.                        293
     XVII. CLEANING AND REPAIRING CUCKOO CLOCKS.                   319
    XVIII. SNAIL STRIKING WORK, ENGLISH, FRENCH AND AMERICAN.      330
      XIX. THE CONSTRUCTION OF SIMPLE AND PERPETUAL CALENDARS.     347
       XX. HAMMERS, GONGS AND BELLS.                               367
      XXI. ELECTRIC CLOCKS AND BATTERIES.                          376
     XXII. THE CONSTRUCTION AND REPAIR OF DIALS.                   426
    XXIII. CLOCK CASING AND CASE REPAIRS.                          446
     XXIV. SOME HINTS ON MAKING A REGULATOR.                       463
           LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS                                   495
           INDEX                                                   497




CHAPTER I.

THE NECESSITY FOR BETTER SKILL AMONG CLOCKMAKERS.


The need for information of an exact and reliable character in regard
to the hard worked and much abused clock has, we presume, been felt by
every one who entered the trade. This information exists, of course,
but it is scattered through such a wide range of publications and is
found in them in such a fragmentary form that by the time a workman
is sufficiently acquainted with the literature of the trade to know
where to look for such information he no longer feels the necessity of
acquiring it.

The continuous decrease in the prices of watches and the consequent
rapid increase in their use has caused the neglect of the pendulum
timekeepers to such an extent that good clock men are very scarce,
while botches are universal. When we reflect that the average ‘life’ of
a worker at the bench is rarely more than twenty years, we can readily
see that information by verbal instruction is rapidly being lost, as
each apprentice rushes through clock work as hastily as possible in
order to do watch work and consequently each “watchmaker” knows less of
clocks than his predecessor and is therefore less fitted to instruct
apprentices in his turn.

The striking clock will always continue to be the timekeeper of the
household and we are still dependent upon the compensating pendulum,
in conjunction with the fixed stars, for the basis of our timekeeping
system, upon which our commercial and legal calendars and the moveme