February 05, 2006, 12:21
Tom McIntyreDW5 at the Greater Los Angeles Regional
The GLAR wound up yesterday and was very successful as usual. The highlight of the meeting for me was the wonderful exhibit of skeleton clocks put together by Jim Cipra. I am sure the 24 clocks on display were the finest group of skeleton clocks ever displayed together.
The exhibit will be up on the GLAR web site within the next month or so and everyone should have a look at these marvelous clocks.
For me personally, the highlight of the exhibit was a new clock made by David Walter as a new interpretation of Philip Woodward's (My Own Right Time) fully mechanical free pendulum clock.
This clock approaches the performance of the Shortt free pendulum clock in a "home friendly" wall clock. David Walter used Woodward's basic design and re-implemented it in the clock on display.
The mechanism consists of a seconds beating free pendulum with temperature and barometric compensation that is synchronized with half seconds beating slave pendulum. The details of the clock will be reported in the Horological Journal in the near future.
Here are some snapshots of the clock taken at the exhibit. David will be sending me a detailed professional photograph of the clock taken by its owner and I will post that when it is available.
February 05, 2006, 12:24
Tom McIntyreHere is a closeup of the movement.
February 05, 2006, 12:54
Tom SeymourFantastic. I can't wait to see the details.
February 05, 2006, 14:07
Jerry TreimanThe above clock was indeed marvelous - in concept, design and execution. David Walter was there to explain some of the intricacies and challenges involved in this clock -- such as the two pendulums with different periods that must coincide precisely every 30 seconds. DW5 was also accompanied by many other varied and intricate skeleton clocks. It was a delight to be there on the hour and hear the various carillons and chimes.