My own right time : an exploration of clockwork design / Philip Woodward.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 158-160) and index.

Machine derived contents note: Foreword -- Author's preface -- 1. A horologist in the making -- 2. Theory and practice -- 3. Choosing an escapement -- 4. Echoes of Hope-Jones -- 5. Harrison and Congreve -- 6. Silence for a cellist -- 7. Going without gears -- 8. Disturbed harmonic motion -- 9. The phase circle -- 10. The Shortt free pendulum -- 11. Aiming too high -- 12. W5 -- 13. Error correction -- 14. Noise modulation -- 15. The enigma of flicker noise -- 16. Wallman's conjecture -- 17. Clockwork with a difference -- Bibliography -- Glossary -- Appendix.

The pendulum is a constant source of interest to scientists. Great and well-known inventors such as Galileo, Huygens, and Kelvin all devised mechanisms to maintain its even oscillations. Others such as John Harrison, Lord Grimthorpe, and William Shortt are known only in horological circles but contributed as much or more over three centuries. By writing a personal account of his own inventions and achievements in horology the author involves the reader in the history of precision time-keeping before the advent of quartz crystals and atomic clocks. Escapements, the mechanisms that drive pendulums, are a delight to the geometrical mind as well as a delicate and subtle challenge to the mechanical engineer. In their most refined form pendulum clocks not only keep astonishingly accurate time but are also sensitive enough to detect the ebb and flow of tides and even the ceaseless quivering of the Earth itself.

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Description of quest for the perfect mechanical timekeeeper, Mr. Woodward describes his design of five clocks ; this copy is autographed by the author.