Polytechnic Association Proceedings. 797 



down on your head. This bell was new about a year since. The 

 old one got cracked, and they set a man to boring the crack out. 

 He worked a week or two, or until he nearly froze to death; and 

 when he had done, to their great surprise the crack was larger 

 than before. So they put in a new one. 



Here we are. An old rusty key, with a kink like a pig's tail, 

 lets us in. I have not a particle of sentiment in my composition; 

 yet I invariably greet the old clock with: " Good morning, old 

 fellow! how have you been?" Sometimes I think I hear an answer: 

 " Hale! thanks! For seventy years, in sunshine and in storm, I have 

 faithfully given warning as the hours passed by, but my foot-falls 

 on the pathway of time must soon cease!" 



The inscription reads: " John Thwaites, Clerkinwell,Lond., 1798." 



The frame stands five feet long, two feet three inches wide, and 

 four feet high. The four columns at the corners have coiuiecting 

 bars near top and bottom, tenoned into them, and screwed firmly 

 together. Bolted to these cross-bars are three upright bars on 

 each side, which hold all the working parts; the time train of four 

 wheels on the left, the strike train on the right, and the dial and 

 locking parts in the center. The main time wheel is twenty-four 

 inches, the strike twenty-seven. The scape wheel is eight inches, 

 and toothed. The pallats are dead beat. The pendulum is of 

 wood, thirteen feet, and giving thirty-two beats. The ball weighs 

 about seventy-five pounds. It regulates from the bottom like a 

 common clock. The pinions are lantern, made by driving on the 

 arbor two heavy collets, and cutting in them as many slots as there 

 are to be leaves. Steel bars are laid into these slots, a band driven 

 on to keep them in place, and they are then finished or rounded 

 to suit the fancy of the artist. 



The train wheels are all of brass, the winding wheels of iron. 

 The brass work is well finished, but the iron parts are just as it 

 came from the hammer. The arbors are only turned at the collets 

 and bearings. The arbor bearings are brass bushings. The 

 barrels are fifteen inches diameter. The time weight is wound by 

 a pinion and crank, but the strike has a ship's wheel set so that it 

 can be coupled on to the arbor, and the winding embodies my ideas 

 of hard work. The movement is about six feet above the dials. 

 The dial works are sadly worn; in some parts they hardly mesh at 

 all. The striking has the old rack and snail, lifts the hammer from 

 the second wheel, and at each blow it rattles and jingles as if it 

 were all falling into one confused mass. 



