Escapement

A while back friend Doug forwarded along a Craigslist posting to your local horologist regarding a clock for sale in Pebble Beach.  Truth is, this clock maven had already spied this same posting earlier. Wild looking clock.  Large, colorful, ornate... looks old...  But this clock fool wasn't sure this elaborate looking thing was his... thing. Besides, the guy wanted $1,000 for it. So we moved on. Until perhaps 2 weeks later this Craigslist troll was perusing for new postings and sees the tower of flower is still seeking a buyer.  No takers? Hmm... It is really nothing like this horological historian has ever seen before...  "...over 100 years"? What is a "Mora" clock? Clickety-click. Oh they're named after a small town in Sweden. Where? Way out in the middle of rural Sweden. 180 miles from Stockholm. What!? Itch... Scratch...  Down the rabbit hole we went... Mora clocks were produced in central Sweden starting in the late 1700s until cheaper competing offer...

Excuse the interruption. Life intervened. Despite the storm und drang of recent events your local clock hunter continued to keep an eye out for interesting finds. And here was a photo from a Craigslist yard sale posting a month ago. Not in search of produce, rather things horological, this internet searcher spied something nonetheless. Next to the scale. And here was the other eye-catching photo from the posting. Intrigued. The Del Rey Oaks neighborhood has an annual garage sale event that your local horologist has perused with some success in years past. Hoofing it over there we discovered that the crowds were modest and our quarry was located. A Seth Thomas. The dial is enamel, not paper, so likely late 19th / early 20th century and in very good shape. The minute hand missing from the dial was taped inside the rear door.  The innards looked good too. Quite intact albeit a touch dirty.  The clock appeared to be completely original. Even the key. It had also been bushed . A si...

In our last episode your local horologist was fretting over corrosion on the Peter Green clock . Paul, the owner, had decided to pull us up out of that rabbit hole. There was another issue that presented itself rather early in the examination of our Danish friend that was both more concerning and far more subtle to see. This brass jockey was gaining a richer understanding of what he lovingly referred to as the "snail unit" ie. the whole gizmo that encompasses the inner and outer snails and the wheel behind them.  It was that large wheel at the back of the snail unit and the little pinion gear above it that caught the eye. There was something off... in there. In the photo below the pinion is hard to see as it is covered by a hand cut brass washer with a copper wire to anchor it. But can you see the issue?  Here's a tighter look at another angle. See it now? What we have there is a rather severe depth problem with the meshing of the teeth of the big wheel and the little p...

When your local horologist was called back to take another look at the Peter Green clock  he discussed addressing the problems identified by Paul and Jane (the skipping strike and the non-moving moon dial ) but also pointed out that an examination of the clock may reveal other issues that merit consideration for repair.  This was not meant to be a full service, rather an effort to fix the identified issues and discuss any others revealed. Any such issues would be assessed for risk and estimated for work effort and discussed with Paul and Jane in advance of any action such that they can assess and decide yea or nay. The clock is about 270 years old so unsurprisingly this clock fool saw a number of problems that warranted consideration. Many of them would be ranked by this horological calibrator as "perhaps one day" or "worth considering but not essential."  Two areas of concern pushed the horological worry meter above the yellow mark. The first issue was corrosion....

In our last episode your local horologist was offering a surmiseus reversus mea culpa regarding the mystery of the skipping strike on the 18th century Peter Green tall case . But now we know. So let us unfold the far less complex (but still wonderful) mystery of the moon dial that "stopped turning." Moon dials or lunar dials on clocks go back as far as the late 16th century in Germany, becoming more common on English clocks in the late 17th century. In short the dial, when properly set, will indicate the current phase of the moon (e.g. full moon, crescent moon, "new" moon, etc.).  Some astronomical trivia: A single full cycle/phase of the moon is not the same as the time as it takes the moon to make a single cycle around the earth. It takes the moon 27 days, 7 hours and 43 minutes to make one complete cycle around the earth. This is called the "sidereal" month. But how long is a moon phase?  Well over the course of a year it averages almost precisely 29...