I just got a broken Verge & Foliot clock...

[BenBurch]

I'm busy fixing it.

What an interesting thing.

Some of the wood isn't in great shape and I had to go to the doll house shop to find hardwood doweling as thin as I needed.

The roots simultaneously of all modern machines pass through this sort of mechanism, and it is amazing how crude they can be and still function.

This sort of clock isn't in vogue in the least few centuries for a good reason, though, the verge escapement, because it is a backlash escapement cannot be all that accurate, and the foliot changes length due to temperature variations and even humidity, being wooden, and these can gain or lose an hour in the day.

When I compare this to a ship's chronometer of only 500 years later it is like going from the Kitty Hawk Flyer to a 777. One wonders at the number of ideas that each had to take root to go from one to the other, and at the adaptability of we humans to be able to accomplish this; Our evolution fitted us to hunting and gathering - we learned to do these things against our nature, not because of it I feel.

And I wonder if it is only because man is the only animal to know discontent? Because you can really only have that if you can imagine something better.

[BenBurch]

Who would have thought that the really frustrating part of this would be tying the knots on the thread that suspends the foliot?

[Zep]

Pics?

[BenBurch]

Pics?

Good idea. I've almost got it set up and when I do I'll shoot a short movie of it working.

[Myriad]

As pending complete repair you've had the clock in a broken condition for some amount of time, have you attempted to test the popular conjecture that it is right twice a day? If so, with what result?

Respectfully,
Myriad

[BenBurch]

It is indeed right twice a day! This is much more accurate than its running state which can be expected to only be exactly right once every 20 days or so, but ON AVERAGE, the running clock is closer to the correct time than the stopped state.

I hope to have it running today... How do surgeons tie those knots? I am so ham-handed when it comes to manipulating threads that I can not get the knots tied with the thread still the right length! I am going to try winding the attachment on the suspending twig (3/16" hardwood - its a twig) and then fixing it with a drop of wax...

[BenBurch]

...google video seems to take forever to put these online once you upload them;

-791254412189333231

[wahrheit]

Thanks for the video! Clock seems to work, but the tick tock sounds a bit irregular...

PS: I'm quite an idiot. :mgbanghead At the beginning of the video I thought you were holding the camera at 45 degrees, the clock lying on a table...

[bruto]

Ben, that is a pretty cool clock. A few questions arise:

What is its actual age?

How precise do the pins on the escapement have to be?

Are plans available?

[BenBurch]

Ben, that is a pretty cool clock. A few questions arise:

What is its actual age?

How precise do the pins on the escapement have to be?

Are plans available?

Well, this one likely is one of many similar items sold in the 1970s. The pins only need to be correct in number, and approximately in spacing, the actual position can be a bit sloppy. There are no fine tolerances anywhere here.

Plans for a number of wooden clocks can be found here; http://www.woodenclocks.co.uk/index.htm

[BenBurch]

wahrheit,

Yes, the beat is irregular, these pretty much always are, and the "dead" part of the cycle is almost non-existent, hence they are very sensitive to changes in force and any other defect in the mechanism. In a more modern clock, the dead part of the beat is the vast majority of the cycle and the impulse to the oscillating element is only momentary.

[bruto]

Well, this one likely is one of many similar items sold in the 1970s. The pins only need to be correct in number, and approximately in spacing, the actual position can be a bit sloppy. There are no fine tolerances anywhere here.

Plans for a number of wooden clocks can be found here; http://www.woodenclocks.co.uk/index.htm

Thanks. Looks like potential fun.

[BenBurch]

Thanks. Looks like potential fun.

You're most welcome.

[BenBurch]

Here is a complete kit, bit it isn't exactly a verge and foliot clock of the traditional sort; This has an added escapement that makes it more accurate or so the maker claims; http://www.clockplans.com/PAGE26.htm