“A march is, as a rule, played at the odd hours, and the national air at the even, but the bells are silent after 9 p. m. and start again at 8 a. m.
“The motive power is supplied by a weight of 8 cwt., and is controlled by a powerful fly of four fans artistically formed to represent swans. It may be mentioned that the keyboard for hand-playing consists of thirty-five keys of wood and eleven pedals; these, as indeed the whole apparatus of this part, are entirely separate from the automatic carillon; in this instance the keys connect with the clappers of the bells and have no association with the hammers. The pedals are connected with the eleven largest bells and are supplementary to the hour key.”
Tubular Chimes are tubes of bell metal, cut to the proper lengths to secure the desired tones and generally, but not always, nickel plated. As they take up much room in the clock, they are generally suspended from hooks at the top of the back board of the case, being attached to the hooks by loops of silk or gut cords, passed through holes drilled in the wall of the tubes near the top ends. The hour tube, being long and large, generally extends nearly to the bottom of a six-foot case, while the others range upwards, shortening according to the increase of pitch of the notes which they represent.
This makes it necessary to place the movement on a seat board and hang the pendulum from the front plate of the movement, so that such clocks have, as a rule, comparatively light pendulums. On account of the position and the great spread of the tubes, the chiming cylinder and hammers are placed on top of the movement, parallel with the plates, and operated from the striking train by means of bevel gears or a contrate wheel. The hammers are placed vertically on spring hammer stalks and connected with the chiming cylinder levers by silken cords. This gives great freedom of hammer action and results in very perfect tones. The hammers must of course be each opposite its own tube and thus they are rather far apart, which necessitates a long cylinder. This gives room for several sets of chimes on the same cylinder if desired, as a very slight horizontal movement of the cylinder would move the pins out of action with the levers and bring another set into action or cause the chimes to remain silent.
Practically all of the manufacturers of “hall” or chiming clocks import the movements and supply American cases, hammers and bells. The reason is that there is so little sale for them (from a factory standpoint) that one factory could supply the world with movements for this class of clocks without working overtime, and therefore it would be useless to make up the tools for them when they can be bought without incurring that expense.
CHAPTER XXI.
ELECTRIC CLOCKS AND BATTERIES.
Electric clocks may be divided into three kinds, or principal divisions. Of the first-class are those in which the pendulum is driven directly from the armature by electric impulse, or by means of a weight dropping on an arm projecting from the pendulum. In this case the entire train of the clock consists of a ratchet wheel and the dial work.
The second class comprises the regular train from the center to the arbor. This class has a spring on the center arbor, wound more or less frequently by electricity. In this case the aim is to keep the spring constantly wound, so that the tension is almost as evenly divided as with the ordinary weight clock, such as is used in jewelers’ regulators.