Thursday 17 March 2011

Thursday.

This morning we motored about fifteen miles or so to have lunch with our friend Penny. Before lunch I had to attend to the clock below, whose strike had got out of kilter with the clock hand (note single hand). Took about three minutes to restore it to its proper duties. Generally speaking it's a very good and reliable clock. The movement is dated 1711, which, come to think of it, makes it exactly three hundred years old.


For lunch Penny gave us fricaseed chicken on a bed of rice, and opened a bottle of a very good Tokay (or tokai, or tokaje, etc.) to go with it. It also went well with the cheese board. Penny then made a pot of coffee, and we lingered for a while, until I thought I really ought to get stuck into the long case clock illustrated above, which needed reroping. I put a new rope on this clock about three years ago, but this is now slipping, so I replaced it with a very slightly thicker rope, which seemed to do the trick. The problem is that there are now only three sizes of clock rope obtainable, and one of these three has to be made to fit all sizes of rope driven clocks, which can be frustrating at times, especially as (if the rope is tight in the pulleys) it is advisable to make as fine a splice as is compatable with the strength of the join. I've told Penny that she'll probably have to ask us to lunch again in eighteen months or so, if and when the splice starts to weaken. She seemed to view this dread prospect with equanimity, so that's alright. Bedtime looms once again, so I bid you all a very goodnight.
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5 comments:

Crowbard said...

Would a little rosin/resin help if applied to the pulley groove or to the undersized rope, Mike? Perhaps in some cases it would be possible to replace the entire rope rather than splicing in a section?

Unknown said...

Hello Crowbard. Interesting idea, but I don't think rosin would (generally speaking do much good to a clock's innards).
And I haven't made yesterday's procedure clear. I did replace the whole rope with a rather thicker rope. When I talk of splicing a rope, I'm not splicing in a section (as in wood), but splicing together the two ends of the same rope to give Huygen's endless rope system of maintaining power. The winding is done on a ratchet on the crossings of the strike side great wheel, so that there is always weight on the great wheel of the going train. The splice has to be no thicker than the rope (in section)so that when passing over the two pulleys it doesdn't ride up over the pulley shrouds. I hope I've made that clearer. It would be much more easy to show you, than tell you.

Crowbard said...

You are as Gamaliel unto me Mike, the epitome of clarity in the elucidation of horological gizzmobobs. I sit at your feet as the eternal student, delighting in your deliverance from my dark and lamentable ignorance of Mienheer Huygens endless rope system.
However, I do not believe that the judicious application of a little violin rosin would disquiet a well-bred clock, which was why I refrained from suggesting the black strap molasses which sprang first to mind.

Crowbard said...

As a fiddly alternative procedure, which you can perform prior to positioning the new rope - open each end to the required splicing length and carefully remove about a third of the threads from each strand. This should make splicing the joint easier and the join less bulky. If you then put a fine cord whipping tightly over the new splice for 48 hours it should compress the diameter sufficiently to match the rest of the rope.

Unknown said...

Reply to comment 3:- AAAAARRRRGH!!!Reply to comment 4:- You have about half the procedure correct; but what a shame we no longer have a grandmother living, so that you could teach her to suck eggs.
Now I must regain calmness, as I have a pair of toecaps to bull before church, and calm is of the essence.