[time-nuts] 1903 Railroad self-Winding / Self-setting Clock

Brooke Clarke brooke at pacific.net
Sat Nov 1 19:09:43 EDT 2014


Hi Hal:

I think there were a number of slave clock systems and some of them could do DST/ST changes and/or catch up from a power 
failure.
That very well might have been what you heard.

To me the winding sounds like a muffled air compressor.
The setting sounds like  Thunk.
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Have Fun,

Brooke Clarke
http://www.PRC68.com
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Hal Murray wrote:
> brooke at pacific.net said:
>> The click-click-click... is the self winding.  A solenoid vibrates back and
>> forth and a pawl and ratchet winds the main  spring.
> I don't think that's what I was referring to.  It was a long time ago so my
> memory may be buggy.
>
> The click-click-click... that I remember was loud enough to distract the
> class.  It only happened occasionally, ballpark of once per month or less.
> The minute hand was making a step with each click.
>
> I assumed there was some mechanism to remotely set the clock.  I think it
> ended up roughly correct.  (I didn't even have a watch back then.)
>
> Was there any alternative to SWCC technology in the 1950s time frame?
>
>
>> There's a heart shaped cam that forces the hour, minute and if the clock has
>> one the second hand to 12:00 and holds them  there until the sync pulse goes
>> away. Note the second hand only was used on clocks in radio stations so they
>> could join the network.  For that 1 second was  close enough.
> Is that one cam that gets all the hands or a separate cam for each hand?
>
>
>



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