In my effort to make the clock as period as possible, I have been in contact with various museums in England. Perhaps the best move I made was to contact the British Museum several years ago. As a result of that contact, I received a photo copy of articles by Jeremy Evans of the British Museum. These articles have been one of my primary sources of information.
I started emailing Mr. Evans about 2 years ago. During conversations with him, I came to the realization that I needed to learn more smithing. I fell out of contact with Mr. Evans and when I attempted to contact him earlier this year, I found out that he had retired.
Well, I decided to try and track Mr. Evans down as I thought he might be interested. Once again I sent a note to the British Museum and I just got a reply back. Mr. Evans is interested in conversing more with me. He is probably the number one person to ask questions about this clock. This comes at an opportune moment as I am kind of stuck in understanding a few small issues with the clock. They include:
* The arbor of the going train (timekeeping side of the clock). It has several parts that slide on (main gear, a few washers and the winding drum) and I cannot figure out how all of these are properly fitted.
* There is a tension spring on the count wheel (used to control striking of the bells) and I'm not sure I understand the purpose. Could just be to make sure the wheel stays vertical.
* There is a spring on the main arbor of the striking train (bell ringing side of the clock) that acts as a clutch during the winding process and I'm not quite sure of its construction.
A chronicle of my attempts to create an early clock using only traditional techniques.
2 comments:
I hope you are taking your own notes on the project for an article when it's complete. You might even be able to get some grants for this project, or a grant to visit the museum.
Part of the reason I started this blog was specifically to have some notes on the project. I am also keep other notes, pictures, etc... that I find. I only post about 10-20% of the photos I take while I'm working. That's partly because some are out of focus but also because a lot of the pictures are just duplicates or just show the same thing from a different angle. I do hope to put together a length article or journal when I am complete.
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