Escapement

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...

You know that nagging feeling that something is not quite right?  The one where you come to a conclusion and tell yourself that it was the right one but it did require some convincing... and yet... you still weren't really sure... And then you think about it for a while. Sometimes on and off for days. You can't quite let it go.  It feels like it's still there. Still following you. You know.  When that thing you put behind you is actually creeping up on you... Well that's where this clock fool found himself a while back. Let's rewind. In our last episode your local horologist was rambling on about an intermittent problem with the striking reported by Jane and Paul, the owners of the Peter Green tall case clock .  The kind reader may recall that YLH, after considerable examination and such, noted that after the adjustment of the rack tail spring, our Dutch friend exhibited no further strike misses. While no guarantee that this solved the problem, there was no other c...

In our last episode your local horologist had brought the Peter Green clock back to the shop to (hopefully) remedy some issues that recently presented themselves to Jane and Paul. Those were the intermittent striking (e.g. striking 5 times at 6 o'clock) and the moon dial not turning. YLH had noted that he might discover new areas of concern when examining the clock but would limit that examination to a couple hours of time and then call to share observations, make recommendations and agree on a plan. Copacetic.  Avanti. Yes those are nails acting as anchors for the weight cables on the wooden movement seat. Yipes. Ok, ok.  Once again worth noting that your correspondent is going to limit our review to the principal issues noted and discovered along the way. But horological learnings were bountiful. In a concurrent life YLH dabbles in the world of computers and one of the great challenges in troubleshooting them is intermittent issues. The screen is dead. OK. Let's dig in. Th...