Beschreibung:

An extremely rare late 18th century weight driven walnut-cased floor standing regulatorHenry Ward, Blandford The obelisk-form case with shallow pointed arched top over tapering sides to an upright rectangular base on a plinth with moulded lip, the circular dial aperture set into the front of the full-width hinged door. The 9-inch one-piece engraved silvered dial with curved aperture to show the minutes via a rotating minute ring with Arabic fives read against a tapering blued steel pointer, below the minute aperture sit two engraved subsidiaries, to the left is a 24-hour dial with Roman hours marked in three hour intervals marked to the nearest quarter of an hour (i.e. four divisions per hour) read by a simple blued steel tapering hand; to the right hand side is a twice 0-60 second subsidiary dial, marked in individual seconds and named every ten, again read via a simple blued steel tapering pointer. The weight driven movement with unique inverted truncated pyramid shaped backplate (suggestive of a parallelogon) secured directly on to the back of the dial via three 7cms (2.75ins) long turned pillars, the single going train consisting of two large (c.13cms (5ins)) finely cut wheels with screwed collets and eight-leaf pinions driving a 7.5cms (3ins) 'scape wheel with 60 pins. The steel impulse and exit pallets are set directly on the pendulum rod. The pendulum is set on a substantial brass bracket mounted on the walnut block, and is constructed in three parts - two steel arms centred by a zinc core, of octagonal section, set at the upper end with a pair of steel pallets mounted on a brass block, the lower end terminating in a very heavy spherical brass bob with additional auxiliary timing weight (the largest bob approximately 13cms (5ins) in diameter and weighing approximately 10.5kg (approx 23lbs). 1.78m (5ft 10ins) high. FootnotesHenry Ward was born around 1776; it is unknown where he was born, though he would spend most of his working life in Blandford, Dorset. However, his brother Richard, described as a watchmaker, lived in Middlesex. The details of his early career remain unknown, though, in 1797 a Henry Ward is listed in the Charing Church warden's book as having been involved with the upkeep of the clock for that year. Unlike many of the other listed clockmakers, his place of residence is not recorded. In 1804, Henry Ward of Blandford supplied and installed a turret clock to Milton Abbey, though the actual movement appears to have been manufactured by John Thwaites in London. This, along with his brother's place of residence and the Charing Church records, suggests Ward may have at least been apprenticed in London. In 1805 he received his first of four awards from the Royal Society of Arts, in the form of 15 guineas for a new simplified striking system. This system was noticeably different from other striking systems, as it did away with a separate striking train, instead using the pendulum to power the hammer via front plate levers: The hammer and the pallets are joined together with a rack; a lever is attached to the pallets and once the clock is striking, the pallet lever moves the rack tooth by tooth. Each movement of the rack connects with the hammer tail and causes a blow to be sounded. Ward notes that he uses this system with a deadbeat escapement. Interestingly Edmund Beckett Denison, later Lord Grimthorpe, in his Rudimentary Treatise On Clocks, Watches, & Bells For Public Purposes advocated for a crutch-less escapement. He noted that an escapement which had the pallets on the pendulum would be much more effect, though he did say that this was 'hardly possible [...] to manage behind a clock of regulator size.' Less than two years later Ward had received another award from the society, this time in the form of a silver medal, for his compensation pendulum. This pendulum consisted of two hammered iron rods on either side of a zinc rod, all secured by several screws along the length of the rods. These screws acted a