Clocks and watches.

Clocks.

A very, very long time ago when
man only spent
his time hunting and
gathering food, he
didn't specialise
in special
forms of work and he
didn't have the need
to know the exact time.
When the sun was up,
they got up and when it
became dark, they went
to sleep again.
People only started to
need to know the exact
time when the scaling up
of the trades began.
At the end of the 13th
century the first mechanical
clocks were developed in
Europe. Soon after this more
timepiece kept coming,
the most at places such as
churches and marketsquares.
The first clocks that
were invented were the
mechanical clocks.
The very first mechanical
clock did not have hands
or a face as a standard
clock nowadays.
These clocks could only
let a bell chime,
which happened every hour.
These mechanical clocks were
used, for instance, in
churches and convents.
Because of the spreading out of
the cities and the sealing
up of the trade more need came
for precise time measuring
so more people were needed
to make the mechanical clocks.
The first mechanical
clocks were made of iron
for example by locksmiths.
But because there also appeared
a need for watches, a
separate trade was developed.
The first clockmakers originated
from Germany and Italy,
but soon after that also from
Switzerland, a country
in which nowadays
still many good
watches are made.

The first pendulum clock
was developed in 1657
by the Dutchman,
Christiaan Huygens.
At that time,
it was the most
accurate clock and
also the first clock
that showed seconds.
The clock makes a
rhythmical movement,
a pendulum swings
equalably back and
forth, and this makes the
radar drive on and the hands
begin to turn.

The first pocketwatch
was made in Germany in
1504. This watch was
compact enough to fit
in a pocket, for instance in that
of a blouse. Wristwatches
were developed not earlier
than in 1790. For a long
time pocketwatches were
very expensive. A Switsers
company designed in 1868 a
watch that everyone could afford.

The mechanic clockwork.

Every method of time measuring
should start with a regular movement.
In mechanic clockworks the
clockwork itself makes a
regular movement. One needs
a strength for this movement;
this is made by the part
of the mechanic clockwork,
which is called the drive.
Another part of the clockwork,
the escapement, makes the
movement regular and a third
part, the going part, makes the
movement of the drive go
to the escapement.
One must read the clockwork.
Therefor one has made
clock face, which follows
the movement of the drive,
but also can be moved
independently to set the
clockwork right.

The drive.

For the drive of a
clockwork we can use
gravitation ( weight),
elasticity or electricity.
The advantage of the
weightdrive is constantness.
The drive is dependent
on measure of the weight
and the diameter of the
track or the shaft around
which it's walking, the
chain or cord. There's
a disadvantage, there
has to be enough fall
for the weight, and these
clockworks aren't easy
to replace.
Elasticity drive the has the
disadvantage; it isn't
constant. When the spring
is just winded up the power
is bigger than when it's
almost at it's end.
Since this elasticitydrive is
used in clockworks people are
thinking about a solution
for this not constant moving.
At last there has come a
solution of this problem.
People have made an eccentric
disc-wheel on the clockwork,
this disc-wheel goes
during the single running around
of the clockwork.
Against this disc-wheel,
a spring is pushing in
such a manner, that it slows
down the clockwork. When
the clockwork is winded up
and it goes faster,
the spring is
less winded up.
Right after this
solution, they came with
the construction of the "snek".

This is the "snek".

The "going work" exists as a
number of gearing wheels.
In companson with other
machines the gear
from this wheel in
clockworks is very big.
You can calculate the
proportion by the working
middlelines and the
number of teeth of both wheels.
( These must be the same
all the time.)

The escapement

The escapement is without
doubt the most important
part of a clockwork.
It fixes the grade of
exactness on which time
is measured. The task of
the escapement is to make
the movement of the going
part ( the going part
brings over the movement of
the drive to the escapement)
regular. This can only be
done by a movement which is
already regular. Harmonised
movement is the only movement
that fits. One can see this
movement in different
shapes. In clockworks the
harmonised movement had the shape
of a swing or a balance, but
also the trembling sound of a
tuning-fork can be make
subservient to time measuring.
The oldest form of an
escapement is the spindle
or spoonspindle.

The name of the inventor
or the year in which this
was invented remains unknown.
The cogwheel which drives
the escapement and the linkwheel,
runs as all the other
wheels, round the horizontal
spindle but has
specially shaped teeth,
which only
work one way. A vertical bar
with two projected plates,
which are called spoons is standing
next to the linkwheels.
When the upper tooth
pushes away the spoon,
the spindle turns around
until the tooth can shoot
along the spoon. The
lower spoon is turned along,
so it can stop the
coming lower tooth.
Now the spindle is pushed the other side and starts
to turn back. After
the "dead" shooting of the
lower tooth, everything
starts again,
but now with the next tooth.
The turning movement of
the clockwork goes
this way into a to and
fro movement.
Because of the "escape"
of these teeth from
the spoons this part
of the clockwork
is called the escapement,
after the French word
for escape. Galileo Galilei
(1564-1642) discovered
that the pendulum has an
equal running, which is
independent of the pendulum's
weight, and which a little
result also independent
of this result,
but only influenced by
the length.
With different results due to
differences in drive-power
of the pendulum time stays
the same. Christiaan Huygens
has got the idea to couple
the pendulum to a timesaver.

The disadvantage of the
fusee at those times was,
that the construction didn't
allow the spindle to give a
small result and therefor
also couldn't be put
into practice.
Only much later one succeeded
with the spindle.
At the end of the 17th century,
in England, one has invented the
anchorshaft.
This is called that way because
a piece of steel has a
shape of an anchor, which has
taken the place of the
spoonspindle.

Huygens is also the inventor of
the coil-spring at the balance.

The to and fro movement of
the balance is now arranged
by the coil-spring.
The balance is to be
compared with the weight
of the pendulum, and the
coil-spring with the
gravitation which pulls
the pendulum to the lowest
position. In the picture
below you can see the
escapement of an anchorwatch.

The transmission.

Below there's a
picture of a anchorwatch

The balance can be seen
clearly. The anchor is
hidden under the balance
and the anchorgap and
balancegap. The anchorwheel
is clearly seen to the left
of the balance. The secondwheel
gears into the anchorwheel
pinion. One can only see
a small part of this wheel.
The spindle of the
secondwheel is on the other
side of the clockwork,
where's the clock face,
the second hand is placed.
This wheel turns one time per
minute.
The secondwheel pinion
gears into the third
wheel. This wheel can be
clearly seen. In the
third wheel pinion the
minute wheel gears in.
The minute wheel is in the middle
of the clockwork and that
is why it's called the
middle wheel or center wheel.
The minute wheel turns once
around every hour: At the
front of the clockwork
there is the anchor
of this wheel which mades the
indicatorwork. The
minute wheel pinion gears
into the springbox.
In the picture it's under
the great 'palrad' , which is
pictured to the right.
In the following picture you
can see a clockwork, which is
similarity with the
former picture.

The winding-shaft, pointed
in the picture to the left,
has turned the clockwork a quarter.
All parts
have been pictured
separately.

Electric clockworks.

Electric clockworks can be
divided in different groups:
- Clockworks which must
be winded up electrically.
- Clockworks where the escapement
works opposite, and is driven
electrically.
- Clockworks driven by an
electromotor.
It's possible to connect
an electrical winddirection
with an ordinary mechanic
clockwork. A weight driving
clockwork can make this work
easily, so the weight can make
contact in the lowest stand,
so an electromotor
which pulls up the
weight, is going to work, while the weight
breaks the contact again in
its highest stand. In the
clockworks with an
electromagnetic driven
escapement, the going work,
is driven by the escapement.
In place where the
anchorwheel drives the
anchor, the anchorwheel is
driven by the anchor. This
demands of course other claims
of the construction of the
escapement. The escapament
will be driven by
an impulse stimulated
by electric way.

Watches.

30 years ago new
type of watch, the digital
quartz watch, appeared
A few physical
principles have been compound,
so the people could come
to a timepiece without moving
parts. That could give the
time in hours, minutes
and seconds very accurately.
Those weren't the only things
this new type of watch could do.
It could also give the day
of the week and the month of
the year. The type of
digital quartz watch
that we are talking about
is the quartz watch with
dial plate. The digital
quartz watch didn't exist
at the time. A couple of
years later,
the first digital
watches of the LED-type
already appeared and
another few years later
the LCD watches
appeared. Nowadays almost
everyone has his or her
own quartz watch.
In these days you can buy
quartz watches in many
places for a very
low price.

Let's take a look at
the name; digital quartz watch.
It says that the time is
measured in very small steps,
which you can see
most of the times.
LCD is literally the
shorthand of Liquid Crystal
Display, which
is shown by liquid crystals.
These liquid crystals form
a slim fleece that's locked
up between two
glass plates; this is
the display that you can
see on the front of
the watch, and where
the numbers appear on.
When the fleece lets
light through, it is light
grey, but the places where
the fleece doesn't let light
through ( the places where
you can see the numbers) are
black. The term "quartz watch"
shows that the seconds,
or parts of the seconds are
repistrated precisely through
a vibrating piece of
quartzcrystal. The name
doesn't really mean anything.
In this type of watch there
are another ten thousand
electronic parts been
recruited into a surface
of a few square millimetres
only. When one of those many
parts doesn't sit right or
when it gets broken the watch
doesn't work anymore. This
type of watch uses very
little energy.