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    Everybody's Clocks - The Design and Working of Usual and Unusual Clocks Described in a Non-Technical Way For the Information of the User
    Everybody's Clocks - The Design and Working of Usual and Unusual Clocks Described in a Non-Technical Way For the Information of the User
    Everybody's Clocks - The Design and Working of Usual and Unusual Clocks Described in a Non-Technical Way For the Information of the User
    Ebook96 pages1 hour

    Everybody's Clocks - The Design and Working of Usual and Unusual Clocks Described in a Non-Technical Way For the Information of the User

    By Arthur Tremayne

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    This antiquarian volume contains a treatise on the design and workings of usual and unusual clocks, described in a non-technical manner, suitable for either novice or expert. Containing a wealth of fascinating and practical information on the machinations of a variety of clocks, as well as being profusely illustrated and easy-to-digest, this volume will be of considerable value to those with an interest in the intricacies of clocks, and it makes for a great addition to collections of clock-related literature. The chapters of this book include: From Guesswork to Science, The Power Behind the Clock, The Gear Train, The Escapement, Striking and Chiming Mechanism, Alarm Clocks, Electric Clocks, Observatory Clocks, Industrial and Sports Clocks, Time Signals... among others. This antiquarian book is being republished now complete with a new introduction on the history of clocks and watches.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateSep 6, 2016
    ISBN9781473353732
    Everybody's Clocks - The Design and Working of Usual and Unusual Clocks Described in a Non-Technical Way For the Information of the User

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      Book preview

      Everybody's Clocks - The Design and Working of Usual and Unusual Clocks Described in a Non-Technical Way For the Information of the User - Arthur Tremayne

      TIMEKEEPING

      CHAPTER I

      FROM GUESSWORK TO SCIENCE

      THE clock is such a familiar feature in everyday life and in the house that it is taken for granted, like the floor or the ceiling. A house would not be a house without a floor or ceiling; it would not become a home without a clock.

      One of the first requirements of man in the dawning days of civilization was the need to measure intervals between events and to establish a scale of duration by which to control his actions. He invented time. Probably this was his first invention of great importance after having made weapons for hunting and defence. When he realized that the sun cast a shadow which moved in some orderly fashion, and that the shadow of a stick would lengthen and shorten to warn him of the passing day, he cut a stick and planted it outside his cave. Thus the first home got its first clock.

      When man reached the stage of intelligent, orderly thought and reasoning he discovered that the length of daylight was a variable quantity. Its variations could be measured and forecast, although they could not be controlled. There was then a demand for a time system which would function at all hours independent of the sunshine. Many devices were made for the purpose. Clocks controlled by dripping water seem to have been the most widely used for many centuries. Lamps of burning oil and burning candles gave some sort of time reckoning. Right until mediaeval times it was the practice to light a candle when a time period was begun and to regard the period as complete when a certain length of candle had burned.

      These methods of time measurement were based on guesswork and were without a standard; many things had to happen and many arts and sciences develop before a standard of timekeeping could be fixed. The greatest approach to a standard was made when the astronomers solved the mystery of the rising and waning moon and discovered the fact of the regularity of the procession of the stars across the sky. Sundials of all shapes and sizes, many constructed for the pocket, were generally in use in the seventeenth century.

      Mechanical clocks began to appear at the end of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth centuries. They were of the monumental type, weight driven, with foliot balance and one hand. Examples of the type still exist in museums. Being made of iron the movements mostly rusted away, even if they were not replaced as improvements came along.

      The invention of the mainspring (generally credited to Peter Henlein (or Hele), of Nuremberg, about 1500) started a flood of domestic clocks of which early specimens exist. Instead of devoting their attention to producing clocks to keep correct time, the clockmakers spent much ingenuity and labour in building clocks remarkable for originality of design, construction and, particularly, decoration. No sort of reliable timekeeping was possible until the invention of the pendulum and the anchor escapement. Both were applied to clocks round about the same time. Galileo is said to have observed a swinging lamp in the Cathedral of Pisa and to have discovered that whether it made a wide swing or a narrow one it took about the same time over it. From this he deduced that a pendulum could be used in some way to control a machine to measure time. The first use of a pendulum was by doctors to count pulse beats. They used a ball on a string, counting the pulsations and making a comparison by lengthening or shortening the string. Galileo never made a clock, but drawings exist showing his ideas. Huygens, a Dutchman, made in 1658 the first clock to be controlled by a pendulum of which certain knowledge exists; although report has it that Richard Harris made a pendulum clock for St. Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, in 1641; there is no definite proof of this. Huygens published the mathematics of the pendulum in 1673 and in 1675 Robert Hooke invented the anchor or recoil escapement. Clockmaking then began to be studied in relation to its true function of accurate timekeeping. The next milestone was the invention in 1725 of the dead beat escapement, which, with a suitable pendulum, would enable a clock to be regulated to within a few seconds a week.

      This invention by George Graham, of London, stood as the greatest advance in horology until 1890, when Riefler, of Munich, produced a special type of observatory clock. The next step, and probably the last for a long time to come, was the erection of the first free pendulum clock by its designer, William Hamilton Shortt, M.Inst.C.E., at Edinburgh Observatory in 1921. This last type of clock, the Synchronome-Shortt free pendulum, enabled time observations to be made to within an accuracy of one part in thirty million, or about one second a year.

      Thus, in a very brief review, is a small and inadequate mention made of the fundamental steps leading up to accurate time determination. As this booklet sets out to review the more familiar of the types of clock in current use, it is regretted that little space can be spared for history, in spite of its absorbing interest to the maker and user of clocks.

      CHAPTER II

      THE POWER BEHIND THE CLOCK

      THE driving power of the mechanical clock (distinct from electrical) falls roughly into two divisions: gravity driven and spring driven. Other devices are invented from time to time, but they are unusual things and are very few and far between.

      The fall of a weight attached by a cord or chain to pull over a barrel provides power to a clock in the best way. It gives a steady pull without variation from the time when it is fully wound until it is completely run down. It is inexpensive and simple to maintain and the only damage that can happen to it is for the cord to break. With domestic clocks this is a small matter. Old turret clocks in church towers have heavy weights. When their cords break on rare occasions they come down with a mighty thump; pits or sandheaps are sometimes provided against this happening. An occasional close examination of the cord, say once in three or four years, and renewal in time, is a certain preventative of accidents. A good steel cable kept greased will last

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