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February 2015 archive

What’s a Potence?

This week I made a potence–actually I made both a top and a bottom potence.  What’s a potence you say?  Well, you know that I am working on old clocks–the origin of this word goes back to the Medieval Latin word for a crutch–basically a device used for holding something up.  The top and bottom …

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The Main Thing is the Mainspring

The reason I came to West Dean College was to get a Masters Degree in Clock Restoration.  Of course, in addition to learning about making and restoring clocks I have to do some research and write a paper for the Masters Degree.  Through the year so far, I have been preparing to do the research …

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Holiday Break; Phase 2

It has been quite a time since I posted something on the blog – I apologize, but things have gotten quite busy at school.  Next week is our mid-term assessments, meaning we get a mid-term grade.  We had writing assignments  for science class and I have been trying get make some progress on my Masters …

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A Precision Operation

One of my practical work assignments of late is to do what we call a verge re-conversion on a nice old bracket clock from about the mid 1700s, made by James Snelling.  These old clocks, before the anchor-recoil escapement was invented, used what we call a verge escapement.  Later, after the pendulum was invented, many clock …

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