325 
H O R ( 
feeond to means of prolonging the duration of the fcape- 
ment of common pendulums and balances. 
The new mode of meafuving time confifts in the pro¬ 
portion of fpace which a ball will pafs on a plane inclined 
in a given angle, in a fecond, or other determinate period. 
The machinery by which the patentee propofes to apply 
this principle is of different forts, but all very fimple. 
The firfh method is by a ftraight tube placed on the top 
of an axis inclined a little from the upright, fo as to give 
the tube that degree of hope, which experience deter¬ 
mines will admit a ball to run from its upper to its lower 
extremity in a given time. The axis is connedted with 
the train by a'pinion attached to it; and is prevented 
from revolving by a detent that locks on the lower end 
of the tube, and which is difengaged by the force with 
which a ball, enclofed in the tube, falls againft it in run¬ 
ning down from the upper part. When the tube is un¬ 
locked, it is turned half round by the train, and its other 
extremity defcends to the detent on account of the obli¬ 
quity of its axis, and is held by it, till the ball (which 
has in the mean time been railed to its greateft elevation 
by the afcent of the end of the tube, where it had ar¬ 
rived) falls down to again fet it free. 
The proportion of time in which a ball will pafs through 
a tube fix inches long, Mr. Congreve afferts to be equal 
to that of the vibration of a pendulum 7 feet 4‘038 inches 
in length, and that it will make forty beats in a minute; 
but, as he has not mentioned the angle in which the tube 
is to be inclined to the horizon, farther than Hating to 
be “a little inclined,” no great benefit can be derived 
from this information; this point Hill remaining to be 
decided by experiment. The revolution of the axis re¬ 
gisters the time on dials by wheels, divided in the ufual 
manner, connected with its pinions. The aflion of the 
revolving tube and ball in meafuring time, is partly that 
of a revolving pendulum, where the centre of gravity 
ofcillates, and partly that of a ball rolling down an in¬ 
clined plane. The time is regulated in this machine by a 
finall hand, which increafes or diminifhes the inclination 
of the tube and its axis, according as it is moved. 
In the fecond method, five ftraight tubes, inclined in 
the fame angle, are connected in fucceflion on the face of 
a vertical wheel in alternately reverfed order, fo that a 
ball placed at the upper end of the highelt Ihall run down 
from it into the next, and fucceflively through all, chang¬ 
ing its direction at each tube. When the ball arrives at 
the bottom of the loweft tube, it difengages a catch, and 
the vertical wheel, being then fet free, is inftantly turned 
half round ; the tube which was loweft is, with the ball 
in it, raifed to the top, the other end of the train of tubes 
falls into the detent, and the ball again runs down to 
again difengage the wheel. Six feconds will be confirmed 
In the running down of the ball, and the turning of the 
wheel; fo that fewer wheels will be neceftary in the train 
in this mode than the firft, and the detachment will be 
Garried with it to as great an extent as with a pendulum 
116 feet 8 - 6o8 inches in length in the common method. 
The third method increafes the duration of the detach¬ 
ment ftiil more than the fecond. In it a plane, fourteen 
inches long and eight wide, is balanced on a knife-edge 
fufpenfion, fo that it may be inclined in^a certain fmall 
angle at either fide by a fmall force; along the face of this 
plane thirty grooves are joined in fucceftion to each other 
from fide to fide, fo as to form the fame angles with each 
alternately; by which means a ball placed at the top of 
the plane will run down from fide to fide out of one 
groove into another, till it reaches the bottom, where its 
impetus difcharges a detent that retains the plane in its 
inclination on that fide. The train of the clock is fo 
managed, that by a crank, or fome fimilar movement, on 
the detent being difengaged, the plane is inftantly inclined 
in the contrary direftion, and its lower part locked in 
another detent; the ball, by this movement being at the 
fame time raifed to its firft elevation, defcends through 
the grooves back again till it reaches the fecond detent, 
Vot.. X. No. 664., 
> t O G V. 
which it unlocks in the fame manner as the firft ; the in¬ 
clination of the plane is then reverfed by the train to its 
firft pofition, and the above movements are repeated as 
long as the primary moving force operates on the train. 
The degree of inclination of the plane is fuch, that the 
ball traverfes the thirty grooves along its lurface, and its 
inclination is reverfed, exactly in one minute. A bridge' 
is placed along the plane, under the arches of which the 
ball pafi'es, and (hows the feconds by the figures placed 
over them, which are contrived fo as to be fhifted in the 
turning of the plane, in fitch a manner as always to have 
the numerical order in the direction in which the ball is 
moving. A fpring is mentioned to be fo placed at each 
extremity of the plane, that, when the ball touches the 
detent, it gives it an impulie in the contrary direftion to 
its former motion, to prevent lofs of time during the fhift- 
ing of the plane; but the machine would perform better 
without this addition. Small brafs reflectors are alfo to 
be fixed at each angle where the grooves meet, which, the 
patentee erroneoufly Hates, will deftroy the whole of the 
momentum of the ball acquired in each traverfe. The 
detachment in this machine will be continued as long as 
could be effected in the common method, by a pendulum 
of the vaft length of 11,788 feet 4’8oo inches ; and by its 
great duration, the weight or fpring of a common eight- 
day clock, with a train of no more teeth, will continue 
its motion for 480 days : or a proportionally lefs power, 
and Ampler train, may be ufed for the firft period. 
A fourth method of regulating the fcapement is de- 
fcribed, in which two balls move in three troughs or tubes, 
arranged in an equilateral triangle on the face of a vertical 
wheel; but it poifefles no property fufficiently remarkable 
to merit farther defcription, and feems only inferted to 
guard againll unjuft imitations of the principle, which the 
patentee intends fhould include “ every poflible applica¬ 
tion of the defcent of l’olid bodies or fluids, down inclined 
planes, to the increafe of the duration of detachment be¬ 
tween the regulating organ of clocks and their maintain¬ 
ing powers.” 
The patentee after this defcribes the fecond chief part 
of his inventions for protradted detachments, in which 
the time is regulated by the pendulums or balances in 
common ufe. To increafe the detachments of a pendu¬ 
lum, two pallets are connected with it of the Ufual form ; 
which act on a very light vertical fwing-wheel of thirty 
teeth, and turn it round by their motion, when the pen¬ 
dulum is made to olcillate; a pin projedts from the face 
of this fwing-wheel, which at each revolution raifes a 
detent, that unlocks another fwing-wheel of fixty teeth, 
connedted with the train, which immediately gives a frefli 
impulfe to the pendulum by a third pallet attached to ifi 
for this purpole. The pendulum advances the fmall 
fwing-wheel one tooth every fecond, fo that it only comes 
into contadl with the train once in a minute, and will of 
courfe be detached from it fifty-nine parts out of fixty of 
the whole time. The operation of turning the light 
lwing-wheel will have fo much lefs effeft on the regula¬ 
rity of the pendulum, than that of railing detents every 
fecond in the ufual mode, that this method is evidently 
much fuperior to it; and will have befides the advantage* 
of not requiring a train by many degrees fo complicated, 
or formed by fuch nice workmanfhip, in common with 
the various other methods firft defcribed. One of the 
lwing-wheels revolves in a minute, and the other in an 
hour, and they may carry hands to Ihow' the ufual divi- 
ftons of thefe periods. With thefe wheels only one pi¬ 
nion and a very fmall weight will be neceftary for an 
eight-day clock; and a year-clock may be made, with 
only two pinions and the ordinary train of an eight-day 
clock, to go with a very little more weight. 
It is evident that the method defcribed for pendulums, 
will alfo anfwer for the fpring-balance wheels of chrono¬ 
meters and w'atches. A pendulum, the patentee thinks, 
may be detached for a minute ; but a balance-wheel he 
does not fuppofe can be made to move independent of the 
4 Q train 
