162 CHRONOMETRT. 



•»but it is not Thiout; and it may be farther observed, that the sort of 

 Thiout's, and mechanism represented by Mr. Reid is incomplete, and 

 as a^^free ^es- could never have been executed in that form, there being 

 capcment. no provision to keep the detent, by a spring or otherwise, 



in its proper place, and prevent its getting disengaged in 



consequence of external motion. 



Thiout himself Thiout was SO far from attributing to his escapement 



did not set ^^^ merit which, after making it suffer a complete meta- 

 much value on ^ ° , . . 



this contriv- morphosis, is now claimed in its favour, that, m a section 



ancc. of his work where he gives very particular rules for the 



construction of many escapements, he rests satisfied, re- 

 specting this, with the short explanation we have already 

 copied. With regard to the property in question, he 

 says, not that it is, but that it seems detached ; and this 

 expression is, if possible, more conclusive, when the arti- 

 cles of the same chapter are read in their natural order. 

 The passage above extracted comes after the description 

 of an escapement (pp. 105 and 106) for pendulum 

 clocks, acting with a single pallet and a detent, which 

 was invented by Sully, and formerly published in the 

 Regie Artificielle du Temps, Thiout's escapement is an 



He made it in imitation of the above mechanism, adapted to watches 



imitation of with a balance: and the opinion he entertained of the 

 one of Sully. .... . . , ,.,<.„ . , * 



original, is positively expressed in the following words of 



his description : " It seems that half of the vibrations are 



independent of the train of wheels; but this is what ex» 



perience does not prove*." 



Mr. Rejd sup- There are no bounds to Mr. Reid*s predilections in fa- 



poscd to be your of Thiout's escapement, and he reminds us of a 



es^cap^mciit he ^^^^^ making the picture of his mistress, who cannot draw 



has drawn. a feature without embellishing it, and, after all, produces 



a figure from which no one can form the least idea of the 



original. Not satisfied with placing the mechanism in 



question at the head of that most honourable branch of 



By making the the family of escapements called detached; he represents 



pallet curved, ^^i^ pallet under such a form as authorises him to conclude 



though straight r r y 



in the original, that Mr. Ihiout's escapement is also the origin of the 



he considers it ^cA«per///e/z^ it virgule. But Mr. Thiout has as little 

 as the origin of ^ 



tJie virgule es- 

 capement. « a jj parolt que la moitie dcs vibrations sont independantes du 

 rouage ; mais c 'cat ce que I'cxpericnce nc prouvc point." P. io6. 

 1 right 



