Clock

Clock

Any instrument other than a watch for measuring or indicating time, especially a mechanical or electronic device having a numbered dial and moving hands or a digital display.

Industry: Chronometry

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Clock

The inverted-bell top for wooden bracket-clock cases appeared about 1715 and is associated with the general introduction of the arch dial. As its name suggest, the shape is that of a bell reversed ...

bell top

Chronometry; Clock

The bracket clock, true bell-top pattern, with ovolo molding surmounting the cavetto or concave shape, is usually associated with the introduction of mahogany. Old bracket or bell top clocks should ...

bell

Chronometry; Clock

The sonorous metal dome on which clocks and alarms strike. Antique clocks have bells cast in bell metal, which is a copper-tin alloy containing approximately four parts copper to one part tin. Modern ...

belfry clock

Chronometry; Clock

One of the earliest uses of clocks was in monasteries, to summon the monks to prayer at the proper time. Originally this was done by a water clock giving an aural indication of the hour, at which a ...

beam-engine clock

Chronometry; Clock

A clock in the form of an old-fashioned beam engine, with moving parts operated by the clock mechanism to give the appearance of a working model.

beat

Chronometry; Clock

Term to describe the tick-tock of a mechanical timepiece. A clock is said to be in beat if the spacing between the tick and the tock are equal. If they are not equally spaced, the clock is out of eat ...

beak iron

Chronometry; Clock

A somewhat archaic term for a steel anvil or stake on which hot or cold metal is hammered or bent to shape. For clockmaking, anvils may be quite small and formed for holding in a bench vice, larger ...