Escapement

In our last episode your local horologist was chewing on the purpose of dog bones in our "butcher" Morbier clock.  That treatise focused much on the transmission of power to the pendulum.  Your essayist had noted in an earlier entry that he was able to get the clock up on Scott Johnson's splendid test stand fairly quickly and that the clock ran fairly well right out of the box. All true. Yet to reveal itself was the fact that during the initial testing on the stand the clock had an extremely subtle but highly problematic break in a key component! What? Regardez. As shown in our last episode the pendulum has a small hook at the top that allows it to connect to hole at the base of the pendulum rod.  The hook and pendulum rod were not the issue. No the problem was further... north. Traveling up the pendulum rod we come to the point where it connects with the suspension spring.  Let's take a quick step back.  What is a suspension spring and what's it for? You see...

Happy New Year! Time for another installment of your local horologist's latest obsession... the  "butcher" Morbier clock . In our  last episode  your correspondent was extolling the history of these Comtoise clocks and the physical qualities of working on them (and how those joys extend to horological work in general). Now we will dive back into just one of the many elements of this Morbier that this horology detective has  never  seen in any other clock before.  On deck today: the dog bone What? This: Let's jump in. As most reasonably awake readers (thank you) will recall, classic elements of mechanical clocks include a wheel train that provides power to an escapement. The escapement is the heartbeat of a clock. A diagrammed example (from Charlene's Ingraham) is  here . The power from a clock's escapement is regulated by the swings of the pendulum AND is transmitted to the pendulum via a crutch.  This is one of most commonly misunderstood elem...