They were invented by a watchmaker from the German city of Nuremberg. Peter Henlein.

He replaced weights in his mechanism with a spring. A spring, no matter how you twist it, always tends to unwind. I took advantage of this property Peter Henlein. There is a mechanism inside the pocket watch. It has a flat box - this is a house in which the spring is located. One end of it, the inner one, is motionless. The other - external - is attached to the wall of the house or drum.

When mechanical watches wound up, then the drum is rotated and the spring is twisted, the outer tip describes circles. As soon as the spring is twisted, it begins to unwind and gradually returns to its original place.

Gears transmit rotation to the clock hands. In pocket watches invented Henlein, there was only one arrow. There was no glass at all. And above each number there was a tubercle - so you could determine by touch what time it was. After all, in the old days it was considered extremely impolite to look at the clock while, for example, visiting. Therefore, when the guest was about to leave, he felt for the watch in the pocket of his jacket and determined the time.

The minute hand appeared on clocks around 1700. And the second - after another sixty years. Why? In the old days there was no need for precise measurement time, so they made do with a clock with one hand. But the years passed. Trade developed. The ships set sail. Roads were built between cities. Manufactories opened in cities. Life became more and more hurried and businesslike. People have learned to value their time.

In the 18th century, a minute hand appeared on the clock, and later a second hand.

Watch glass appeared only in the 17th century. The pocket watch was wound with a key.

The first pocket watch were called "Nuremberg eggs", although in fact they looked little like eggs. They had round boxes. Then they began to give the clocks the most bizarre shapes. There were clocks in the form of butterflies, stars, hearts, acorns, crosses and more.

Mechanical watches

Mechanical pocket watch

Later, pocket watches appeared, patented in 1675 by H. Huygens), and then - much later - wristwatches. At the beginning wrist watch there were only women's, richly decorated precious stones jewelry, characterized by low running accuracy. No self-respecting man of that time would have put a watch on his hand. But the wars changed the order of things and in 1880 the Girard-Perregaux company began mass production of wristwatches for the army.

Mechanical watch design

A mechanical watch consists of several main parts:

1. The source of energy is a wound spring or a raised weight.
2. An escapement is a device that converts a continuous rotary motion into an oscillatory or reciprocating motion. The escapement determines the accuracy of the watch.
3. The oscillatory system is a pendulum or balance beam (balance).
4. The mechanism for winding and moving the hands is a remontoire.
5. The gear system connecting the spring and the trigger mechanism is an angrenage.
6. Dial with arrows.

Pendulum

Historically, the first oscillatory system was the pendulum. As is known, with the same amplitude and constant acceleration of free fall, the frequency of oscillation of a pendulum is constant.

The pendulum mechanism includes:

• Pendulum;
• An anchor connected to a pendulum;
• Ratchet wheel (ratchet).

The accuracy of the stroke is adjusted by changing the length of the pendulum.

The classic pendulum mechanism has three disadvantages. Firstly, the frequency of oscillation of a pendulum depends on the amplitude of the oscillations (Huygens overcame this drawback by making the pendulum oscillate along a cycloid, rather than along an arc of a circle). Secondly, pendulum clocks must be stationary; They cannot be used on moving vehicles. Thirdly, the frequency depends on the acceleration of gravity, so a clock calibrated at one latitude will lag behind at lower latitudes and advance at higher latitudes.

Balance

Balance mechanism of a wristwatch

Moon phases

Self-winding has a positive effect on accuracy (the spring is constantly in an almost wound state). In waterproof watches, the threads that tighten the crown wear out more slowly.

Automatic watches are thicker and heavier than manually wound watches. Women's self-winding calibers are quite capricious due to the miniature nature of their parts. Automatic winding is useless for sedentary people (for example, elderly people or office workers), as well as for people who wear watches only from time to time. However, if you have a special device for automatic winding of watches called a “winder,” the watch can be constantly wound. Winders operate from household electricity (220v or 110v) or from rechargeable batteries.

Tourbillon

Tourbillon watch

In the first mechanical watches, the accuracy of the time could depend on the position of the watch in space and temperature environment. To reduce the dependence on temperature, special alloys with low temperature coefficients began to be used.

Power reserve indicator

Shows how many more hours or days the spring will last.

Special types of watches

Alarm

At the moment specified by the user gives sound signal. The signal time is set using an additional arrow. The alarm clock usually rings 2 times a day with a traditional dial divided into 12 hours and 1 time with a rare dial divided into 24 hours

Chronometer

Initially, the chronometer was used at sea to determine geographic longitude. Nowadays, this is the name given to particularly precise mechanical watches (according to the certification of the official Swiss chronometry institute, COSC - Controle Officiel Suisse de Chronometres). The watch receives this status provided that in 5 different positions and at temperatures: +8, +23, + 38 degrees - it goes with an accuracy of -4/+6 seconds per day. Requirements for quartz movements: no more than 0.07 seconds per day.

Stopwatch

A clock that is used to count short periods of time (for example, in sports). The stopwatch allows you to start and stop the time count at any time, as well as quickly reset the readings to zero. Unlike regular watches, stopwatches are not designed to determine the current time, only intervals, from one moment to the next.

Chronograph

A chronograph is a mechanical or quartz watch, which are also a stopwatch

Chess clock

A clock with two mechanisms that serves to control time in chess. Just like stopwatches, they are designed to measure relative time.

Laboratory hours

Timer designed for chemists, photographers

Watch manufacturers

In literature

The hero of Jules Verne’s “Around the World in Eighty Days,” Passepartout, used a very old pocket watch that he inherited from his great-grandfather, of very high accuracy, which, in his words, “is not wrong even by five minutes a year!” There is doubt that the declared accuracy (+/- 5 minutes per year) was actually feasible for the mechanisms of that time, and, most likely, such watches are the imagination of the author.

Notes

see also

Links

• No description of a watch mechanism is complete without mentioning the balance-spring system.

Photo 1 – tower clock in Zimmer, Belgium

When did mechanical watches appear?

Photo 2 – vintage mechanical watch

The first mention of a timekeeping mechanism was found in a Byzantine manuscript from the late 6th century. In China in the 8th century, mechanical structures were invented that increased the accuracy of watches. In Europe, the first mechanical watches appeared in the 9th century in France.

The working principle of a mechanical watch

Photo 3 – On the right - the devices of the first clock mechanisms with a pendulum. On the left is a diagram of the operation of a wooden shaft using the energy of a moving load.

The clock mechanisms of antiquity worked on the principle of uniform rotation of a wooden shaft, on which a gear was mounted and a rope with a load was wound. The rope lowered under the weight of the load, the teeth of the shaft wheel, coupled with the transmission wheel, set the dial hands in motion.

Large mechanical watch.

Photo 4 - the oldest tower clock in Europe - Big Ben is located on the tower of the Palace of Westminster in London.

The energy of a moving weight was the basis of the first tower clocks. The number of teeth on the wheels was calculated so that a full circle of the hour wheel measured one hour of time. A necessary condition for the operation of the mechanism was the continuous lifting of the load upward after unwinding the rope.

Photo 5 - tower clock installed in a palace in Paris.

This is how the tower clock of the royal palace in Paris was built in 1370. The watchmaker de Wit's design had a total height of more than 10 m. A rope with a 200 kg weight was lowered evenly, measuring 24 hours.

Photo 6 – Dutch physicist Huygens with the design of a clock mechanism.

The discovery of the law of constant oscillation of a pendulum by scientist Galileo Galilei in the 16th century was useful for improving the clock mechanism. In 1657, the Dutch physicist Huygens first used a pendulum as a regulator of clock accuracy. He managed to reduce the clock error to 10 seconds.

Photo 7 - tower clock on Old Town Square in Prague.

Photo 8 – fragment of the Old Town Clock.

The tower clock on Old Town Square in Prague is still in use today. The masterpiece of Czech masters amazes with its theatrical performance every hour. Twelve apostles emerge from two windows above the dial. The figures of Death and people come into action, clearly showing the vanity of existence and the fatal inevitability of the end of life. The striking of the clock ends with the crow of a rooster and the final blessing of the figure of Christ.

Photo 9 – Washington Congress clock.

The transition to wristwatches as a symbol of the owner's wealth occurred in 1500.

Photo 10 - antique German pocket watch from 1503.

Invented in Germany spring pendulum made of hardened steel, flexible tape.

Photo 11 – “Rolling Ball” clock, 1808. The English master William Congreve used a ball rolling along the grooves of a plane instead of a pendulum. Reaching the end, the ball outweighs the platform and moves in the opposite direction.

The result was revolutionary change designs, a wide range of functional properties of watches.

Photo 12 – watch by master Thomas Tompion, 1690.

The English watchmaker Thomas Tompion, based on the drawings of Robert Hooke, made a new generation watch for King Charles II.

Photo 13 – pocket watch.

The 17th century brought new round improvement of watchmaking.

A breakthrough in watchmaking in the 17th century was the use of a spiral balancer. This increased the accuracy of the watch and opened up the possibility of combining the hour, minute, and second hands on one dial. The dimensions of the mechanism have been significantly reduced. Easy-to-use pocket watches have appeared.

Photo 14 – wristwatch – bracelet. Austria, 19th century.

The idea to adapt them to the hand came to the master Pierre Jacques Droz in 1790. He attached the case to a leather strap, solving two problems at once:

• quick determination of time because the clock was now in sight;
• an original addition to the owner's costume.

Photo 15 – watch by master Louis Breguet, commissioned by the Queen of Naples. 1810

In 1810, watchmaker Louis Breguet made a miniature ornate wristwatch for the Queen of Naples.

Wristwatches as a decoration and a purely feminine accessory appeared in 1911.

Men paid attention to this accessory thanks to the Brazilian balloonist Alberto Santos-Dumont.

Photo 16 – Cartier’s first men’s wristwatch of the “Santos” series.

In 1901, Louis Cartier created the Santos model for him. And watches received recognition and mass “introduction” into the everyday life of gentlemen after the First World War.

Mechanical watches - gifts

Mechanical watches quickly gained popularity among European royal houses.

They became desirable offerings, objects of admiration, and fascinated people with their miniature mechanism, stunning functionality, and original decoration.

The unique Peacock watch by master James Cox was purchased by Potemkin as a gift to Empress Catherine II.

Photo 17 - “Peacock” watch by master James Cox

Every hour a whole performance was performed, which began with the “awakening” of the owl. She continuously moved her head, paws, and rolled her eyes to the melodic ringing of bells. The royal peacock bowed its head and spread its tail, symbolizing the rays of the sun. The bird slowly turned around its axis. From this angle, the silver surface of the feathers represented the night. The ceremony ended with the crow of a rooster.

Photo 18 - an hour disk with numbers rotated in the slot of the mushroom cap

And the time was counted by the numbers on the slot of the hat itself. big mushroom. What a surprise.

The meter-high mantel clock was made in the workshop of the famous jeweler Carl Faberge, dating back to 1891.

Photo 19 – mantel clock by jeweler Carl Faberge, 1891.

This amazing gift from members royal family was ordered by the age of twenty-five wedding anniversary Emperor Alexander III.

The pocket watch was presented to singer Fyodor Chaliapin by Emperor Nicholas II.

Photo 20 - pocket watch - a gift from Emperor Nicholas II.

The most unusual watches in the world are watches made by Russian craftsmen.

Photo 21 – a watch with a wooden mechanism made by craftsmen from the Bronnikov dynasty.

The operating absolutely unique watches with a wooden mechanism, made by Russian craftsmen from the Bronnikov dynasty, inspire delight. Each structural element is made of different types of wood. The hands and dial are carved from mahogany or boxwood, the axles are made from bamboo, the body and gears are made from birch. The watch has no analogues in the world.

We have to measure, check, count time in life in the most different areas activities - technology, science, everyday life. All sorts of devices help us with this, the common name of which is watches. Time invention of mechanical watches unknown for sure. There is a version that they were invented by the monk Herbert from Auvergne, who later became Pope Sylvester II. And this happened at the end of the 10th century, but nothing specific about the design of the tower clock he created for Magdeburg is known, because This watch has not survived. The first mentions of mechanical watches in Europe come at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries. The appearance of the oldest clock mechanisms in England dates back to the 2nd half of the 13th century; Pierre Pipenard (circa 1300) is considered the inventor of the first clock in Paris, but the continuous production of mechanical watches began in Italy only at the beginning of the 14th century. In Russia, the first tower clock was installed in the Moscow Kremlin in 1404 by the monk Lazar Serbin.

The design of all watches was approximately the same. The main components of the clock mechanism were: the engine; a gear system, which is a transmission mechanism; regulator to create uniform movement; distributor or trigger mechanism; a pointer mechanism, as well as a mechanism designed for winding and setting watches. The first mechanical watches were driven by a descending weight. The drive mechanism was a smooth wooden horizontal shaft with a rope wound around it, to the end of which a stone and later a metal weight was attached. Under the weight of the weight, the rope gradually unwound and began to rotate the shaft on which a large gear was attached. This wheel was in direct engagement with the wheels of the transmission mechanism. The rotation from the shaft through a system of wheels with teeth was transmitted to the main (ratchet) wheel, which was connected to arrows indicating the time. To measure time correctly, the clock hand must rotate at the same frequency. If the weight drops freely, the shaft will begin to rotate faster, which means that the shooter will make each subsequent revolution faster.

Medieval mechanics decided to supplement the mechanism with a regulator for uniform rotation of the ratchet wheel. The bilyanets (yoke) became such a regulator. Since ancient times, the property of the rocker arm has been used in scales. If you place weights of equal weight on each pan of the scale, and then disturb their balance, the rocker arm will begin to make almost equal oscillations, similar to a pendulum. Such an oscillatory system began to be successfully used in watches, although in many ways it was inferior to the pendulum, which began to be used as a regulator only in the 2nd half of the 17th century. If the regulator oscillations are not constantly maintained, it will stop. To direct part of the motor energy from the wheel to the bell or pendulum, a release distributor was invented.

The escapement is the most complex component; the exact movement of the watch depends on it. The connection between the transmission mechanism and the regulator is made through the escapement. It transmits shocks directly from the motor to the governor to constantly maintain its oscillation. At the same time, it subordinates the movement of the transmission mechanism to the laws of movement of the regulator. The first trigger was a spindle with plaques; the trigger mechanism is called a spindle trigger. True, the accuracy of movement with such a regulator was low, and the error was more than 60 minutes per day.

The first watches did not have a special winding mechanism, which made it very difficult to prepare the watch for work. T the heavy weight had to be lifted greater height several times a day. In addition, it was necessary to overcome the strong resistance of the gear wheels of the transmission mechanism. In this regard, they began to fasten the main wheel so that when the shaft rotates counterclockwise (reverse rotation), it remains motionless.

Over time, watch production became more complex. They now have many arrows, additional intermediate wheels in the transmission mechanism, and a varied combat system. In 1657, H. Huygens first assembled a mechanical clock, using a pendulum as a clock regulator. The daily error of such watches did not exceed 10 seconds. Huygens is rightfully considered the creator of modern mechanical watches. Later, the rope with the load will be replaced by a spring, the pendulum will be replaced by a small flywheel, oscillating around the equilibrium position in one direction and the other. This is how pocket watches were invented, and later wristwatches.

One of the first inventions of mankind was the invention of the clock. However, the invention of mechanical clocks showing the current time (regardless of cloudy weather, twilight or night time (sunny), the amount of water or sand (water or sand), the amount of oil in a bowl or wax (fire) ... in 1337 Paris Cathedral Notre Dame de Paris lit a giant candle-column, which was used to measure a whole year of life), appeared the most important invention humanity.

Researchers studying the history of the invention and the time of the appearance of the first mechanical watches have not come to a common opinion about when the first time-keeping mechanisms appeared. Some give the palm in the invention of mechanical watches to a certain monk from the city of Verona. The inventor's name was Pacificus. Other researchers believe that this inventor was a monk named Herbert, who lived in a monastery in the Spanish city of Sala-Manca in the 10th century. For his scientific research, he was accused of witchcraft and expelled from Spain. This, however, did not prevent him from later becoming pope, Sylvester II. (His papacy lasted from 999 to 1003.) It is reliably known that in 996 Herbert designed and built a weight tower clock for Magdeburg. We can conclude that mechanical watches appeared almost simultaneously and independently of each other in different countries- the course of development of human technical thought led to this.

In the first watch movements, six main components could be distinguished:
. Engine;
. Gear transmission mechanism; (the period of rotation of wheels in a gear train depends on the ratio of the diameters of the wheels included in it or, which is the same, the ratio of the number of teeth. When choosing wheels, with different amounts teeth, it was not difficult to select the ratio of the number of teeth on the wheels in mesh, so that one of them rotates in exactly 12 hours. If you “plant” an arrow on the axis of this wheel, then it will also make a revolution in 12 hours. It was also possible to select wheels with such a ratio of the number of teeth that one of them could complete its rotation in one hour or one minute. Accordingly, it was possible to connect the minute or second hand. But such an improvement will be made later. Only in the 18th century. Until then, the clock had only one hand - the hour hand.
. Bilyanets (bilyanets or, in Russian, rocker) is an oscillatory system, a prototype of balance, which does not have its own period of oscillation; it was used in stationary and portable watches until the 19th century. Specialists call the device that ensures the uniform movement of the gears of a clock mechanism BILYANETS;
. Trigger distributor;
. Pointer mechanism;
. Hand translation mechanism.

The engine of the first mechanical watch was driven by the potential kinetic energy of the load due to the influence of the earth's gravitational force on it. A load - a stone or later a weight - was attached to a smooth shaft on a rope. Initially the shaft was made of wood. Later it was replaced by a shaft made of metal. The force of gravity caused the load to fall, the rope or chain to unwind, and in turn caused the shaft to rotate. The power reserve was determined by the length of the cable: the longer the cable, the longer the watch's power reserve. The clock mechanism should have been located perhaps higher. This was a problem for such a mechanism - the load needed to “fall” somewhere. To satisfy the condition, a structure was built, as a rule, in the form of a tower (This is where the first mechanical clock got its name - tower). The height of the tower had to be at least 10 meters, and the weight of the load sometimes reached 200 kilograms. The shaft was connected to the ratchet wheel through intermediate gears. The latter, in turn, set the arrow in motion. The first mechanical clocks had one hand (like “primitive” sundials, in which the gnomon, a single pole, indicated the current time of day). And the direction of movement of the hand of the first mechanical clock was not chosen by chance, but was determined by the direction of movement of the shadow cast by the gnomon. The number of time indexes (divisions on the dial) was also inherited from the sundial.

The very first mechanical watches with an anchor mechanism were made during the Tang Dynasty (June 18, 618 - June 4, 907) in China in 725 AD by masters Yixing and Liang Lingzan.

From China, the secret of the clock mechanism came to the Arabs. And only from them appeared in Europe.

The prototype of the first mechanical watch was the Atnikitera mechanism, discovered by the Greek diver Lycopanthis near the island of Antikythera in the Aegean Sea, at a depth of 43 to 62 meters on a sunken ancient Roman ship.

This event took place on April 4, 1900. The Antikythera mechanism had 37 bronze gears housed in a wooden case. The case housed several dials with arrows.

The Antikythera mechanism was used to calculate the movement of celestial bodies. The dial on the front wall served to display the signs of the zodiac and the days of the year.

Two dials on the back of the case were used to simulate the position of the Sun and Moon relative to the fixed stars.

The first tower clocks in Europe appeared in the 14th century. I wonder what English word clock, Latin - clocca and a number of similar words in other European languages, originally meant not “clock”, but “bell” (very similar to the sound in Russian: bell - clocca - clock). The explanation is trivial - the first tower clock had neither a dial nor hands. They did not show the time at all, but produced signals by ringing a bell. The first such clocks were located on monastery towers, where there was a need to inform the monks about the time for work or prayer.

Visual evidence of the existence in the 14th century of a tradition coming from monastery clocks is the tower clock in England and France - with striking, but without a dial. The first mechanical watch with a dial and a hand (one at the moment) appeared in Europe in the 15th century. And it was not the arrow that rotated in them, but the dial itself. The dial was traditionally divided into 6, 12 and 24 divisions. The only arrow was located vertically.

Tower clocks, which were invented and built in the 14th - 15th centuries, were also called astronomical. Such clocks were built in Norwich, Strasbourg, Paris, and Prague. The tower astronomical clock was the pride of the city.

The cathedral, located in the French city of Strasbourg, is one of the oldest in Europe. The tower clock appeared on it in 1354. The height of the clock reaches 12 meters, and the diameter of the annual calendar wheel is 3 meters.

Every noon, instead of the standard ringing, the clock showed a whole performance: the guards came out to the crowing of a rooster and three wise men prayed before the Mother of God. The clock showed not only the time, but the current year.

They displayed the dates of the main church holidays in the coming year. An astrolabe was built in front of the clock, which showed the movements of the Moon, Sun and stars. At certain times, the solemn anthem was played on special gongs. The clock was subsequently reconstructed several times. So, after the Great French Revolution (1789 - 1794), a large globe appeared in front of them, demonstrating the location of more than 5,000 stars of the Galaxy in the sky above the city.

Higher accuracy was acquired by astronomical clocks with the invention of a pendulum device that ensures the counting of equal periods of time. This invention was made in 1657 by Christian Huygens van Zeilichem (Dutch mechanic, physicist, astronomer, inventor 04/14/1629 - 07/08/1695).

History of watchmaking in Ancient Rus'.

….In the Novgorod Chronicle about the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380 you can find: “Blood was shed between the fighting and the 9th. If we do not know that the time in the chronicle is indicated according to the church account, then the essence of the issue would remain unknown to us. IN ancient Rus' daytime and nighttime were counted separately. And the countdown was made from sunrise to sunset ( daytime hours) and from sunset to sunrise (night hours).

Traditionally, it was believed that watchmaking in Rus' was not held in high esteem. But the first tower clocks in Rus' appeared almost simultaneously with tower clocks in Europe. With a more careful study of archival documents, it became clear that even the chroniclers of Veliky Novgorod of the 11th century indicated not only the days, but also the hours of the most worthy and noteworthy events.

The first tower clock in Moscow was erected by the monk Lazar in 1404. The clock was built in the courtyard of Grand Duke Vasily, the son of Dmitry Donskoy, whose palace was located exactly in the same place where the Grand Kremlin Palace now stands. Then it was the second watch in Europe.

Lazar Serbin was born in Serbia from here and received this nickname. Lazarus came to Moscow from the “Holy Mountain”. This is Mount Athos, located in the southeastern part Greek island Aion Oros in the Aegean Sea. Monastery near the mountain it was founded back in 963.

How these clocks were constructed is not known for certain. In “Litsevoy”, published in Moscow in the third quarter of the 16th century, chronicle code Ivan the Terrible” or “Tsar-Book”, there is a color miniature depicting the launch of the “clockmaker” (these clocks were also called “hours”).

Monk Lazar tells Grand Duke Vasily I about the structure of his clock. Judging by the drawing, they had three weights, which indicates the complexity of the clock mechanism. It can be assumed that one weight drove the clock mechanism, another - the bell mechanism, and the third - the planetary mechanism. The planetary mechanism showed the phases of the moon.

There are no hands on the clock dial. Most likely, the dial itself was rotating. More likely “bukvoblat” because instead of numbers it had Old Slavonic letters: az-1, buki-2, vedi-3, verb-4, dobro-5 and further according to the alphabet of Cyril and Methodius.
The watch caused genuine delight among the population and was considered a real curiosity. Vasily the First paid Lazar Serbin “half a ruble” for them. (at the exchange rate of the beginning of the 20th century, this amount would have been 20,000 gold rubles).

For decades, this tower clock was not only the only one in Moscow, but throughout Rus'. The installation of the first tower clock in Moscow was mentioned in chronicles as an event of great national importance.

….55.752544 degrees north latitude and 37.621425 degrees east longitude. Geographical coordinates of the location of the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin...

The most famous clocks of Rus' and Russia are the Kremlin chimes, a clock-chimes installed on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin.

Courante (French) - courante (dance, first salon), from dancecourante - (literally) “running dance, from courir - to run< лат.сurrerre - бежать. Музыка этого танца использовалась в старинных настольных часах.

In 1585, clocks were already on three gates of the Moscow Kremlin towers. Spasskaya, Tainitskaya and Troitskaya.

In 1625, the English mechanic and watchmaker Christopher Galloway, together with the Russian blacksmiths and watchmakers who helped him Zhdan, his son Shumila Zhdanov and grandson Alexei Shumilov, installed a tower clock on Spasskaya. 13 bells were cast for them by foundry worker Kirill Samoilov. During a fire in 1626, the clock burned down; in 1668, the same Christopher Galloway restored it again. The clock “played music” and showed the time: day and night, indicated by Slavic letters and numbers. And the dial then was not a “dial”, but a “word indicator circle, a circle of recognition.” The role of the arrow was played by the image of the sun with a long ray, fixed vertically and motionlessly in the upper part of the circle. The disk itself rotated, divided into 17 equal parts. (This was the maximum day length in the summer).

IN different time The chimes played: the march of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, the melody of D.S. Bortnyansky “How Glorious is Our Lord in Zion”, the song “Ah, my dear Augustine”, “Internationale”, “You have fallen a victim”, the works of M.I. Glinka: “Patriotic song" and "Glory". Now the Russian anthem is being played to the music of A.V. Alexandrova.

Such a detailed acquaintance with the structure and operation of the clock mechanism of a tower clock makes it easier to understand the operation of the clock mechanism of a wall clock. The use of a weight (weight), and later a spring, as a motor driving the gears of a clock mechanism (photo of a balance spiral, photo of a balance pendulum), together with the invention and use of a device in a clock mechanism that ensures uniform movement of the gears of a clock mechanism, BILYANTS made it possible to reduce both the dimensions and weight of the watch. The use of a fusee in the design of the watch mechanism also greatly contributed to the reduction in the dimensions of the watch.

The engine, driven by the kinetic energy of the load due to the gravitational force, where the rotation of the gear wheel mechanism was almost uniform (the weight of the changing length of the rope or chain can be neglected) was replaced by a clock with a spring. But a spring motor has its own “nuance”. The steel spring, as it “unfolds,” transmits a “subsiding” force to the gear mechanism. It “weaken” and the torque changes. This drawback was eliminated by the use of a device in the design of the clock mechanism to preserve and maintain uniform spring force. This device is called a fusee (emphasis on the “e”).

The invention of the fusee was attributed to the Prague watchmaker Jacob Zech. Researchers date the first use of this device to the beginning of the 16th century (around 1525).

Until drawings were found in the archives of Leonardo da Vinci describing the same device, and their author was “a genius of all times and peoples.” The drawings are dated 1485. Historical justice has triumphed. The authorship of the invention was assigned to Leonardo di Ser Piero da Vinci.

LeonardodiserPierodaVinci (April 15, 1452 - May 5, 1519), painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, writer, inventor. A striking example of a “universal person” (lat. homouniversalis).

The fusée is a truncated cone that is connected to the mainspring barrel using a special chain.

Among experts, the chain is known as the Gaal chain. On the side surface of the fusée, a groove is machined in the form of a conical helical spiral, into which the Gaal chain fits when the latter is wound around the fusée. The chain is attached to the cone at its lower part (at the point of greatest radius) and is wound around the cone from bottom to top. At the base of the cone there is a gear that transmits torque to the main wheel system of the watch. As the spring winds down, the fusee compensates for the drop in torque by increasing the gear ratio, thus increasing the evenness of the watch over the entire period of operation of the mechanism from one winding to the next. (photo 300px-Construction_fusei). After the invention of the free anchor movement by the English watchmaker Thomas Muidge in 1755, the need to use a fusee in the watch mechanism disappeared.

The introduction of these inventions contributed to the reduction in the size of watches. The clocks were able to “live” with people in their homes. This is how the room clock appeared.

FIRST ROOM CLOCK. ALLFALFA CLOCK.

The first clocks, indoor ones, which could be used indoors, began to appear in the 14th century in Britain. They were so huge and heavy that it never occurred to me to hang them on the wall. For this reason they stood on the floor - a grandfather clock. In their design and structural elements, they were not much different from large tower clocks. The wheel system with weights and bells was located in a housing made of iron or brass.
The so-called "alfalfa" (modern) appeared in English watchmakers around 1600. Initially, the cases of these watches were made of iron. Later, bronze or brass was used as a material for the manufacture of wall clock cases. The name “alfalfa” supposedly arose because of the shape of their body (they resembled old candle lanterns). According to another version, their name arose from the word “lacten”, which meant “brass”.

Both versions are quite elegant:
. From Latin lucerna - candle, lamp;
. Lactten - brass.
. Lucerne (German: Luzern)

Lucerne is a city in Switzerland on the shores of Lake Lucerne, at the foot of Mount Pilatus. The city was founded during the Roman Empire; some researchers place the date of its foundation even earlier early date. The official year of foundation of the city is 1178.

During religious wars in France in the second half of the 16th century, Huguenots, fleeing massacre, were forced to emigrate to Switzerland. Among them were many talented craftsmen and watchmakers, among others.

Today, the Swiss watch industry ranks third among its own exporting industries. The watch industry in Switzerland is in a special place. (This variant of the origin of the name “alfalfa wall clock” has not yet been taken into account by anyone and has not been considered as a possible explanation for the origin of the definition “alfalfa”).

As for the first household or pocket watches in Rus', here, until the beginning of the 20th century, the first creaks were played by foreign watchmakers. The first watches were very expensive and looked more like a piece of jewelry. They began to be imported to Russia under Ivan III at the beginning of the 16th century. They were either ambassadorial gifts to the king and his court or expensive goods for the rich. At the beginning of the 17th century, the first wall clocks appeared in Rus'. English watchmakers started making them.

THE FIRST ROOM AND WALL CLOCKS OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE.

The “Window to Europe, opened” by Peter I, gave Russia the opportunity to get acquainted with watchmaking in the West. Catherine I, Elizaveta Petrovna and Catherine II were given pendulum and pocket watches from the best European watchmakers of that time.

In Russia, Catherine II the Great even made attempts to create a watch industry.

In 1774, watchmakers Basilier and Sando, thanks to financial assistance and material support from Catherine, organized the first watch manufactory in Russia in Moscow. In 1796, two watch factories were founded. One is in St. Petersburg, and the other is in Moscow. However, the factory in Moscow closed after operating for less than 10 years. The factory in St. Petersburg existed a little longer, but it also closed.

His Serene Highness Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin-Tavrichesky (09/13/1739 - 10/05/1791) organized a factory-school on his estate Dubrovna (Belarus) in 1781.

The Swede Peter Nordsteen (1742-1807, Ruotsi, Sweden) was invited to transfer knowledge in watchmaking. In this factory-school, 33 serf students studied watchmaking. After his death, Catherine II bought the factory-school from the heirs of G.A. Potemkin. The Empress issued a Decree according to which the factory was transferred to Moscow. A special building was built for the factory in Kupavna, Moscow province. Clocks of “every kind” produced at the factory: wall clocks, striking clocks, pocket clocks, were not inferior in quality to the watches of European masters. But only a small part of them was sold, and the bulk was provided to the royal court.

In Russia, indoor wall and table and pocket clocks began to spread widely in the 18th century. On Myasnitskaya in Moscow a “Clock Yard” was formed, where many watchmakers worked. Watch workshops continued to open on this street. Among them was the watch workshop of brothers Nikolai and Ivan Bunetop. IN mid-19th century, their “mastery” gained fame, and the brothers were called to restore the Kremlin chimes on the Spasskaya Tower. On Tverskaya there were famous watch workshops of D.I. Tolstoy and I.P. Nosov. At the beginning of Nikolsky Lane in house No. 1/12 there was a watch shop of the merchant Kalashnikov. Mikhail Alekseevich Moskvin served as its clerk. From childhood he became interested in mechanics and the design of watches. In his father's house there was a family heirloom - a clock from the late 18th century. Mikhail Moskvin learned his skills from the best watchmakers in Austria. So already in 1882, watches with the “MM” stamp appeared in Russia. And the first clocks branded “MM” were floor and wall clocks.

Pavel (Pavel-Eduard) Karlovich Bure (P.Bure1810 - 1882) watchmaker, St. Petersburg merchant, founder of the famous watch brand “Pavel Bure”. PC. Bure founded his business in Russia in 1815. The quality of the watches made was recognized, and he became a supplier to the “Court of His Imperial Majesty.” However, these were mainly pocket, table and mantel clocks. They were mainly used wealthy people.
The mechanisms of pocket and wall watches were made by the watch company “V. Gaby”.

WALL CLOCK OF ROYAL RUSSIA. (End of the 19th century - beginning of the 20th century).

In our country (Russia), cheap and rough wall clocks (the so-called “walkers” or “yokal-shchiki”) are made by artisans in the village of Sharapova, Zvenigorod district, Moscow province.
Walkers are small mechanical wall clocks with a simplified device with weights.
Walkers are a very cheap (from 50 kopecks) wall clock, with one weight, without a strike.

Here is what you can read in the Proceedings of the Saratov Scientific Archival Commission: (Published by the printing house of the Shchetinin brothers of the Serdob district, Saratov province. Serdobsk - 1913):
“...the production of walkers and wall clocks in the village of Sharapovo, which began in the 60s of the 19th century, continued to develop at the beginning of the 20th century... ...the production of wall clocks in Moscow was no higher than in the village of Sharapovo... ... In Moscow, the technology for producing wall clocks is still at a low level...”

WALL CLOCK IN SOVIET RUSSIA.

In Soviet Russia, the production of wall clocks was mastered at the Second Moscow Watch Factory, where household alarm clocks and industrial and outdoor electric clock systems were also produced.
The decision to create our own watch industry was made by the Council of People's Commissars in 1927. In September 1930, the 1st State Watch Factory opened its doors in Moscow, and in 1931 - the 2nd State Watch Factory.

Walkers is the affectionate name for a simple home kitchen wall clock. They were so simple, cheap and unpretentious that their production continued for many years. And it all started with artisans from the village of Sharapovo - “Switzerland near Moscow”...

WALL CLOCK OF MODERN RUSSIA.

Modern mechanical wall clocks also use a weight or spring power source. The accuracy of such a mechanism is: + 40 -20 sec/day (first class accuracy).

Wall clocks with a quartz clock mechanism and a battery power source are also widely used. They use a quartz crystal as an oscillating system. The first quartz watch was released by HAMILTON in 1957. High-quality household quartz watches have an accuracy of +/- 15 seconds per month.

IN modern life Wall clocks are used not only as instruments for measuring time, but also function as interior details and room decoration. Wall clocks often reflect the tastes of the homeowners.

Designers come up with wall clocks that amaze and amaze with their originality.

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The most accurate clocks are atomic ones. The most accurate atomic clocks are located in Germany.
In a million years they will only “sin” for ONE second.