The machinery of wind-up clocks provides an engine for one of the most accurate and durable technologies of the pre-computer age, as well as representing the uncanny human desire to measure time down to the smallest increments. Early sundials and sand hourglasses measured time in precision, but could not give a constant metric, and by the invention of mechanized clocks in the Middle Ages, clocks became so useful that they changed the fields of business, mathematics, and transportation. Although there are many different types of mechanized timepieces today, most clock parts share similarities, especially in the wind-up apparatus and the hands and face.
Mechanical wind-up antique clocks require manual power to operate. A weight attached to a cord or a spring provides the force required to adjust the hands of the timepiece. This force is first set into motion by the swinging of a pendulum, as a grandfather clock, or a teethed wheel in smaller clocks. In the application of either a pendulum or a wheel, the force oscillates back and forth to the engineered intervals. Clocks are designed with minimal friction for the oscillation pieces, yet both pendulums and wheels will eventually slow down and require adjusting.
Electric clocks, powered by battery or outlet, do not have a complex system of tension and torque. Instead, a simple electric burst fires for power. There are four different types of electric clocks. The one is a type that uses electricity to power the oscillation. One uses electricity to directly move the hands on the clock face, one uses electromagnetism to drive a pendulum, and one drives the faces of the clock with an internal motor, often relying upon the specific frequency of the clock’s own power source for accuracy. In each of these electric clocks, the clock parts themselves do not change; only the mechanism for propelling the pendulum and hands varies.
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