574 
yet been applied to the measurement of 
time, is as immutable in its operations as 
the oscillations of a pendulum, and is in 
fact governed by the same law. The ex- 
treme detachment of which it is capable, 
and certain specific advantages, which 
_ the pendulum does not possess, have 
pointed it out as an important agent in 
the measurement of time. ‘Thus we are 
told, that in the space of a moderatéty- 
sized table clock a time-piece is con- 
structed, the vibrations of the regulating 
organ of which are as slow as those of a 
pendulum 11,738 feet 4.800 inches in 
' length, by which the first power is so re- 
served, that the weight or spring of a 
common eight-day clock may be made to 
Carry it 480 days; neither is there any fric- 
tion or motion in its train for one hundred 
and nineteen hundred and twentieths of 
the whole time of its going, while the train 
itself is also considerably more simple 
than that ofthe coznmon seconds clock, 
Tt is evident there are innumerable va- 
rieties of configuration in the application 
of this principle, which it is impossible to 
specify or even to anticipate, but which 
must, nevertheless, be integral parts of 
this invention, if they in any shape ac- 
complish the mode of measuring time by 
means of the extreme detachment here 
specified. And it is assumed by the pa- 
tentee that to obtain this, it cannot be 
lawful for any one to make use of any 
body, whether spherical, cylindrical, or 
conical, moving on any inclined plane, 
however the same may be combined with 
any machiuery or-clock-work whatsoever; 
whether the plane be simple or complex ; 
curvilinear or rectilinear ;/ whether it vi- 
brate or revolve ; whether the body moy- 
ing down it be a simple or a compound 
substance, consisting of one or more 
patts ; whether it be a fluid or a solid, or 
a combination of both. Various modes 
also may be introduced for the compen- 
sation of the expansions and contractions 
of temperature, either in the detent or in 
the rod, which it isnot necessary here to 
specity; but it should be observed, that 
an inherent pewer of compensation is 
combined in the very principle itself, for 
asthe plane expands so also does the 
ball and wice versa; the ball, therefore, 
moves guicker as its course is lengthened, 
and slower as it isshortened; because the 
vertical distance of the points of contact 
form the centre of gravity the ball 
encreases with the expansion, and de- 
creases with the contraction of this ball 
aid plane, so as to accelerate the motion 
New Patents lately enrolled. 
4 ee = 7 
4 q 
i 
[Jan. 15. 
of the ball in the first case, and retard it 
in the second. It appears, therefore, that 
this inherent property may, by a due pro- 
portioning of the diameter of the ball, and 
the matter of which itis formed, to the 
mean length of the plane and its compo- 
nent materials, be so adjusted as of itself 
to produce a perfect compensation. And 
lastly, with respect to the workmanship 
of clocks made on this principle, it ap- 
pears that less attention to it 1s required 
than in common clocks; for as to the 
train, it has so little comparatively to per= 
form, and so little of the measure of time 
has been shewn to depend upon it, that 
any want of superior workmanship must 
be little felt ; and for ordinary purposes, 
therefore, even Jess than ordinary accu- 
racy must be sufficient. The advantages 
are thus enumerated :—in the first place, 
the description of its action shews how 
much more the detachment is extended, 
and, how much more the pendulum, as 
the regulating organ is in this case left to 
the pure and unmixed action of gravity. 
In no escapement hitherto constructed 
has the pendulum a perfect freedom of 
oscillation, even for a single second, with- 
out having at some given point or other 
to unlock some detent, or perform some 
similar operation, which immediately 
brings upon it a controulmg power ina 
direction contrary to its spontaneous ef= 
fort, or an accelerating power to urge it 
forward; and which, from the infinite 
nicety of application required must, from 
its constant interference, continually tend 
to affect the isochronism of the pendu- 
lum. Here, on the contrary, for fifty~ 
nine seconds the gravity of the pendulum 
is the sole and uncentrouled cause of its 
motion, having its arcs of vibration nei- 
ther Jengthened nor shortened by ang 
urging or opposite cause, for the. mere 
driving of the light and perfectly free se- 
conds hand, constant, uniform, equally 
poised, and opposing no limit to the ares 
of vibration, can be considered as nothing 
but a small increase of friction on the 
point of suspension, until the sixtieth se- 
cond, wher it has to unlock the detent, 
and when at the same instant it receives 
a fresh supply of force, left, however, to 
operate as freely as before in the produc- 
tion of its effect upon fifty-nine out of 
sixty of the subsequent oscillations of the 
pendulum. In the second place, it will 
be found that considerably less first power 
is required to keep the same pendulem in 
action for a given time by this mode; be- 
cause one great impulse will be found to 
1 
be 
