The gable escapement, shown in Fig. 166, allows the use of a heavier pendulum, at the same time the anchor embraces within its jaws a greater number of the escape-wheel teeth; an arrangement after this manner leads to the conclusion that with these long levers of the anchor the friction will be considerably increased and the recoil faces will, as a consequence, be quickly worn away. Without doubt, this was invented to permit of opening and closing the contact points of the anchor more easily. Under the name of the English recoil anchor there came into use an escapement with a reduced gable, which embraced fewer teeth between the pallets or inclines; we give a representation of this in Fig. 167. This system seems to have been moderately successful. The anchor recoil escapement in use in Germany to-day is demonstrated in Fig. 168; this arrangement is also found in the American clocks. As we see, the anchor is composed of a single piece of curved steel bent to the desired curves. Clocks provided with this escapement keep reasonably good time; the resistance of the recoils compensate in a measure for the want of isochronism in the oscillations of the pendulum. Ordinary clocks require considerably more power to drive them than finer clocks and, as a consequence, their ticking is very noisy. Several means have been employed to dampen this noise, one of which we show in Fig. 169.
Here the anchor is composed of two pieces, A B, screwed upon a plate H pivoting at V. In their arrangement the two pieces represent, as to distance and curvature, the counterpart of Fig. 168. At the moment of impact their extreme ends recoil or spring back from the shock of the escape teeth, but the resiliency of the metal is calculated to be strong enough to return them immediately to the contact studs e e.
As a termination to this chapter, we shall mention the use made at the present day of the recoil lever escapement in repeating watches. We give a diagram of this construction in Fig. 170. The lever here is intended to restrain and regulate the motion of the small striking work. It is pivoted at V and is capable of a very rapid oscillatory motion, the arc of which may, however, be fixed by the stud or stop D, which limits the swing of the fly C. This fly is of one piece with the lever and, together with the stud D, determines the angular motion of the lever. If the angle be large that means the path of the fly be long, then the striking train will move slowly; but if the teeth of the escape wheel R can just pass by without causing the lever to describe a supplementary or extended arc, the striking work will run off rapidly.