Every time I hear about quartz clocks I think of the pair of 60mm, cube-format, "Rhythm" alarm clocks we bought probably in the early 1970s. They have run without a moment's hesitation, except for rar

The spring clip in the foreground is/was similar to my own. Used as a wire supporting guide rather than electrical. My own clock has the thinner wire going back to the wire-wound resistor behind the m

Nice clock! Looks completely unspoiled so far. Do leave some well deserved age on it. Don't spoil it yourself with heavy-handed cleaning or amateur restoration. There are specialist case polishes desi

Ian, Thanks. I hadn't thought of using the vertical slide and a milling bit at the time. I suppose I could have silver soldered a new "nose" section onto the original pallet casting and worked the imp

Hello Michael and Welcome to the forum. Let us not forget that the impulse curve is also rotated about radii struck from the center of the rod. Which makes me wonder how the factory shaped the impulse

I fear that all the fun could go out of clock watching if Bepi's entire apartment was evacuated. ;-) Another thought: Entire canal systems could become cyclic or even resonant in nature. Such a hydrau

Never underestimate the power of the wind [and water waves] to produce infrasonics. i.e. Sub-20Hz frequencies. I have experimented for decades with large, audio subwoofers with responses well below 10

I wonder if there is a vertical component to a bob's draught/air drag in a case? The bob is right down near the base, after all. In my youth I used to cast scrap roofing lead into lenticular bobs usin

Agreed. I never really moved on from building "mechanical" free pendulums with synchronized, half second, pendulum slaves. Not my genius, but guided by the published suggestions of some other, very cl

Stephen, I have never cleaned my ca.1920 Synchronome 876 so assume the finish is original. Neither black gloss nor matt. You should be able to see the slight sheen in this image:

My now 10 year old YT video of the Synchronome has a short slow motion section: Where the roller is lifted from the pallet before it falls off the end. https://youtu.be/6-lHTVnVn44 Chris.B

A vibrating pendulum rod is also oscillating the bob vertically. Any bend shortens the rod. Which is the time standard now? The oscillating shortened rod? Somewhere in between? Or the relaxed one? Ima

The standard rod on a Synchronome is very prone to visible vibration at impulse. Presumably this reduces with improved set-up but may still be lurking just below visibility. Adding mass to the center

We take so much for granted that all Synchronomes are almost perfect and built to the same, high standard. The impulse pallet is always taken as a standard. What about its exact length from the center

I have just uploaded the relevant pages on the Aron pendulum meter to a folder of this name on the io. group. Nothing else presented itself in my electrical engineering library. Chris

Jim I have at least 8 more pages on the Aron in the first book I looked at. Rankin-Kennedy C-E: "The Book of Electrical Installations." 1915. Vol 1 of several volumes. I'll take some daylight images o

From my library of early electrical engineering: A couple of flash snaps taken as dinner looms: I have quickly reduced the image file size. If you want better just ask. Regards Chris.B

Isn't the point of all this to reduce variations in energy consumption? The teeth of a perspex wheel would still need to be accurately cut AND the teeth polished. Poly-carbonate might offer some advan

I too found unreliability in the ratchet action as I added counterbalancing brass tube to the free end of the backstop wire. We worry about the half tooth depth of the gathering jewel. So why not chan

Hi Bepi, In addition to the previous, expert advice: Find a good penetrating oil sold in your part of the world. Do an online search for the best available locally. Apply it *sparingly* to all the scr