Escapement

The DUFA has been running for a while now.  It keeps good time and the Largo gong strikes beautifully. That said, our German friend is in great need of an overhaul and not just a simple cleaning. A visual inspection shows some dirt and grime but also dramatic wear of the movement that must be repaired. This will require a complete disassembly. Here's the movement. What we have here is a classic "rack and snail" striking movement. Striking meaning, counting the hours, vs. chiming where you'll have a melody play (like Westminster chimes. Think Big Ben.). The rack is the toothy steel bit on the upper left and the snail is in the center. The rack and snail is an ingenious mechanism that basically took over most other forms of striking in mechanical clocks.  Here's a drawing with some details of a rack and snail striking movement. This one also has a chiming function so it's a bit more complex than our patient today. I get how the rack and snail works conceptually ...