Pendulum Clocks and The Role of Escapements

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Pendulum ClocksandThe Role of Escapements

• Maria Veklich

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Pendulum Theory

• Pendulum Theory proven by Galileo in 1580
• -- the idea of a period, the unvarying amount
  of time necessary for the pendulum to swing back
  and forth once
• -- the period only varies when the length of the
  arm is changed
• -- moves because of the constant force of gravity

arm
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Initial Construction of the Pendulum Clock

• Weight acts as an energy storage for potential
  energy
• Chord connects the weight and the drum
• Drum spool type piece upon which the chord is
  wound about
• -- When manually winding up a pendulum clock
  you are pulling the chord around the drum and
  creating potential energy.

drum
weight
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Huygens Improvement

• Christian Huygens was a Dutch mathematician/
  astronomer, who purposed the use of Galileos
  pendulum in clocks.
• His pendulum clock only had an error of less
  than 1minute per day. Later he was able to refine
  his design and reduced the inaccuracies of his
  clocks to 10 seconds per day.

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Escapements

• Escape Gear gear that is directly controlled by
  the movement of the pendulum and the escapement
• Escapement mechanism distinguished by its two
  pallets. It regulates the exact speed at which
  the weight's energy will be released.

Escapement
the alternation of the escaped teeth creates the
tick - tock sound
Escape gear
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Putting it Together

• Gear Train with the addition of more gears the
  drum gear (attached to the weight) does not
  have to make as many revolutions
• Setting Mechanism a gear separates in order to
  reset the clock

Different ratios of teeth in the wheels allows
for the separation of minutes and hours
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End