Chasing—A form of ornament for metals which is made by punching or pressing from behind to present the pattern in relief instead of by cutting away the material.
Chops—In a pendulum clock the blocks, usually of brass, between which the top of the pendulum suspension spring is clipped to prevent its twisting as it swings.
Chronograph—In general, a recording clock or watch. Specifically, a watch with a center-seconds hand which may be stopped, started or returned to zero at will by pressing a button. Used for timing races, or measuring other short spaces of time with great exactness.
Chronometer—Any very accurate time-keeper. Usually understood to mean a time-keeper fitted with a spring detent escapement. They usually have a fusee and a cylindrical balance spring.
Chronometer, Marine—Probably the most exact form of time-keeper, especially for use on shipboard. The driving power is a mainspring acting by a chain on a fusee, and governed by what is known as the Chronometer or Detent Escapement, with, as a rule, the cylindrical balance spring. The movement is mounted on gimbals in an air and water-tight brass case, maintaining the dial constantly in a horizontal position.
Chronoscope—A clock or watch in which the time is shown by figures presented at openings in the dial.
Church, Duane H.—Credited with having contributed more to the automatic features of watch machinery than any other man. He was born in Madison County, N. Y., in 1849. At 16 he was apprenticed to a watchmaker of St. Paul, Minn., and after working at the trade for 17 years, he became in 1882 the master watchmaker for the Waltham Watch Company. Besides his invaluable contributions to automatic machinery, he improved the general design of watch movements and invented a form of pendant setting which enables stem-winding movements to be set in cases not especially adapted to them. He died in 1905.
Circular Error—The difference in time arising from the swinging of a pendulum in a circular arc instead of its true theoretical path which is a cycloidal arc. This caused much trouble in the early clocks. Huyghens attempted to correct it (see [Huyghens' Checks]) but found that his device caused greater error. With the heavier pendulum and shorter arcs of vibration this error becomes negligible. The suspension of the pendulum by a flat flexible spring instead of a cord, attributed to Dr. Hooke, served to make the path practically cycloidal.
Cleopatra's Needle—An Egyptian obelisk at whose base a dial was marked. Now in London. Another similar obelisk from Egypt is in Central Park, New York City.