Saving Time started in 2004 when owner, Mostyn, rediscovered his childhood passion for tinkering with clocks. Since that time he has engaged in extensive study of the history of clocks and has spent many hands on hours including formal training from the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors. He also earned a Certificate in Appraisal Studies from UC Irvine in 2012. Now he is embarking on obtaining a Master's degree in Conservation Studies with a specialty in Clocks from West Dean College in the United Kingdom.
Mostyn Gale
Author's posts
Feb 21
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 …
Feb 15
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 …
Feb 07
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 …
Feb 07
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 …
Dec 25
Merry Christmas – Blessing and Peace to All!
We are so blessed with all that we have – our family and all of you, our friends. Sorry we have not sent out our usual Christmas letter this year – please forgive me, but I hope that our blog partly makes up for it. We just returned from a small holiday trip to the …
Dec 20
First Day of Holiday Break
The first College term has ended – wow, those twelve weeks just flew by! Now we have a two week break for the holidays. This is the first chance that Deb and I have had a real chance to get out a bit further than a few miles from Chichester. So, we have planned a …
Dec 18
My First Clock (Part 2 of ?)
Having completed an initial design and tested it with a little model, it is time to move on to real pieces of metal. Well – not so fast – first, make a metal model of the escapement which wasn’t part of the cardboard model I made earlier. This practice for us who aren’t used to …
Dec 14
My First Clock (Part 1 of ?)
The best way to learn how to repair a clock is to learn how to make one first – if you know how to make one, you will know the fundamentals necessary to repair one. In addition, some repairs require parts to be replaced which would require making them since, in general, replacement parts are not …
Dec 04
The Place Where Time Begins
Does time really have a beginning? This past week the Clocks students from West Dean College went to the Royal Observatory Greenwich, http://www.rmg.co.uk/royal-observatory. In 1884 at the International Meridian Conference in Washington DC, 22 countries voted to adopt Greenwich observatory as zero degrees longitude—a loose interpretation of the place where time begins. The observatory was …
Nov 22
My first project clock
I suppose that many of you, especially the clocky types, have been wondering exactly what I have been doing at school. I have shared a couple of the small projects that we have been assigned to help learn some of the skills of making parts for clocks, but a few weeks ago I got my …
Recent Comments