Ahasuerus Fromanteel - The Denton Hall Fromanteel square pillared, earliest pendulum-with-fusee and maintaining-power architectural table clock.
Join Dr John C Taylor OBE from the Clocktime digital museum as he discusses the movement of the Denton Hall Fromanteel, circa 1657.
Discover more about early and antique clocks and watches...
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So, the clock is now revealed. You can see the engraving on the back, 'Ahasuerus Fromanteel Londini fecit', Ahasuerus Fromanteel of London made it. And then, the pendulum ticking away with the verge escapement behind. You can see the verge escapement now releasing one tooth after the other, as each pallet releases and then catches the next tooth as it comes up. And you can see the little impulse that the pallet receives to keep the pendulum swinging each time the tooth goes by. It gives it a little flick to keep the pendulum swinging against the air resistance. I find it fascinating to see a verge operating in slow motion, how it catches and then releases each tooth, the pallet catching and releasing. But watch, the pendulum actually moves the whole of the escapement back recoil, there see. And then, as it moves forward, the tooth gives a little push-flick to keep the pendulum swinging and overcome the air resistance. It's all driven by the spring inside the drum here. And the change in tension, as the spring runs down is taken in by the fusee. So, you can see the fusee with the small diameter at this side and the large diameter at this side to compensate for the spring. As the spring runs down, then the gut moves up to the bigger diameter of the fusee to make a constant pull, as the spring runs down. And even on this very early clock, there's maintaining power. So, when you wind the clock, the lever here cocks and you can hear it click and that maintaining power gives power to the pendulum, so the pendulum doesn't stop ticking and driving the fingers forward, even though the tension is off the spring as it's being wound. There we go. Fully wound. So, you can see the shutter starting to close after the clock has been wound and it's already now running on the main spring as well. And any moment, it'll flick shut and it just looks better than just having a gaping hole. The plates are held with square pillars, which were easier to make than complex, turned, round pillars because Ahasuerus Fromanteel was a blacksmith and they could be hammered square. Top pillar here is screwed into place. It may have been damaged and a screw added later, whereas the bottom pillar is so well disguised, you can't even see it, the rivet place onto the backplate.