Verge & Foliot details

Hi

See if you can locate this book, it looks promising.

How to Make a Foliot Clock, by Steven Conover

Keith

Leeds UK

Hi David,

I had a full size picture of a dial (can send you a JPG if you wish).

Made a photocopy; glued this on 1 mm iron sheet with "Bison Tix" (a thixotropic contact adhesive).

Spayed this a few times with clear acryl varnish.

Cut the outside with my bench shear (I was to lazy for the piercing saw!).

Drilled both the 3 mm mounting holes (through the numbers XII and the VI).

Marked the centre of the dial with a centre punch.

I made a "backplate" from MDF and mounted the scale with 2 small screws that fitted tightly in the mounting holes of the dial..

With the backplate in the 4 jaw chuck, I centred the dial.

Turned the outside to shape.

Removed the dial from the backplate (but left the backplate in the chuck).

Cut the large inside hole with a piercing saw.

Mounted the dial again on the backplate and turned the inside.

Smoothed outside and inside with fine sandpaper.

Finally I applied a few more layers of varnish.

Dial ready.

Best regards from The Netherlands,

Hi

QUOTE:

Dutch is not quite good enough to enable me to translate the notes included on the plan

Foreign languages are no longer the problem they used to be. try some of the electronic translators. google Dutch to English.

Regards

keithmart

Leeds UK

Edited By keithmart on 23/07/2009 16:07:50

Edited By Gep Engler on 23/07/2009 16:36:43

 Foreign languages are no longer the problem they used to be. try some of the electronic translators. google Dutch to English.

Hi Martin,

Here, you can find a translation service:

http://babelfish.yahoo.com/

For my work, I occasionally used this service (since a few month I am retired).

But be warned: do not expect really good results. But it is good enough to get an idea.

Regards from the country of windmills, wooden shoes, and tulips,

Gep

Home page: http://home.tiscali.nl/gepengler/index.html (should be updated; pictures are old!)

For the fun, I used this service to translate my original text above from English to Dutch and than back to English. The result is like English manuals of Chinese electronics:

The foliot clock escapement is one of the larger escapements. It has several forms one of which you can find here. This is the most fascinating form of the equipment by God’s Clockmaker one Richard of Wallingford (have often had a drink or two in that town). The best example of is in St Albans Cathedral (it is a replica). It has been added to since I last saw it circa 2002. The Astronomical clock which was not there in 2002 looks fascinating. But it is Big!. There is another one (probably original) in Salisbury Cathedral which is here. It is a bit older. These clocks or Clochers (from the French for bell) rang bells (as in the song Frere Jakquer .. Sonnez la matina etc) so they originally had no dials.

On the later smaller domestic machines these normally had a dial but with one hand. The verge escapement often used hog bristles ti limit the swing of the foliot arm. There is a Foliot watch in the Asmolean Museum Oxford which also contained a Sundial and compass and an alarm. From the inscriptions on it it was made for a ‘Hansea merchant’. It refers to Lubek, Riga etc. It was the super Rolex of its day and would have cost serious money. That would be a beauty to make. I will try and find the photos of it if anyone is serious. To our Dutch friends, if you will promise never again to sail up the Medway and burn our ships in Chatham, I will see if any of my contacts are still alive. They may be able help you.

There is a good article in Britten’s Watch and Clockmakers Dictionary. The verge and foliot were not accurate time keeps

Edited By Richard Parsons on 08/09/2010 16:02:12