Escapements are fascinating. Escapements add interest and movement to a clockworks since the escapement is the most active part of any clock. And there are such a variety of ways that people have invented to allow the catch-and-release of the power that is being transmitted through a clock's train of gears. But sometimes we don't need to build an entire clock to appreciate the movement of an escapement. Escapements can be kinetic sculptures in themselves, and especially fun when they are anthropomorphized, or made to represent some beast. Here are a couple of examples.
In this first short video, called "Tasty Fingers", the creature, with its teeth bared, is trying to take a bite from each of the fingers as they come around. But the creature misses every time, which causes his hat to raise in surprise. He is thinking, "Maybe the next finger will be the tasty one."
This is a video of the "Sipping Flowers" escapement in which a bird is sitting balanced atop a flower that is rocking with the pendulum. And each time the flower rocks, the bird sticks his beak into the other flower (the escape wheel) to take a sip.
A wide variety of interesting escapements can be seen throughout the clock and kinetic sculpture plans shown on my main page. Compare the escapement of Solaris with that of Simplicity or Bird of Paradise or Harmonic Oscillator. They are all so different and wonderful.
Not all clock plans make it for sale on my website. This is the story of Pi.
Above: Monotonous Pi 3D Renderings made from my dxfs
by my friend, Oleg in Russia
Below: Pi, actually built by me, in motion below:
The Monotonous Pi is a kinetic sculpture posing as a clock. It has all the parts of both a clock and a kinetic sculpture. That huge circular pendulum has a very slow forward and back oscillation of approximately 38 beats a minute.
Monotonous Pi has its roots in the Medieval 1300’s when the verge and foliot clocks were the techie’s state of the art timepieces. They weren’t very accurate. They could be off twenty minutes a day…plus or minus. That’s a pretty huge possible error spread, and that error rate in timekeeping, with only slight improvements, continued until the late 1600’s when the seconds pendulum was introduced by Galileo and others - like Christiaan Huygens (who, in my opinion, never gets enough credit).
But not all verge and folio clocks had such problems with accuracy. Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) had a suggestion that I’ve incorporated into all of my verge and folio clock designs (except Monotonous Pi), and they are actually quite accurate timekeepers.
Huygens recommended a return spring on the verge to increase the clock’s accuracy. My designs, other than Pi, have just such a return spring which is created by the spread of the cord from which the verge and foliot is suspended. Most verge and foliots in those early days were suspended by a single strand of silk. By changing over to a loop of cord we can add that return spring advantage to our verge and foliot clocks that Huygens suggested, and this simple improvement increases their accuracy dramatically. You can see that loop of cord suspending the verge and foliot in my Medieval Rack, Holologium, and Wee Willie designs.
But…Monotonous Pi is not one with a looped suspension cord or return spring, so its accuracy is very similar to the workings of those early Medieval clocks - which is not very good…but sometimes it’s right! However, on the other hand, as a kinetic sculpture the Monotonous Pi is excellent! Pi is a visual delight.
It is lovely to watch Pi’s slow oscillating movement forward and back. And it does try so hard to keep good time, even though it’s not very good at it. Still…Monotonous Pi is one of my favorite sculptures. Pi is truly a delight to watch.
Mantis has a large, slow, two second beat compound balance pendulum. The pendulum on Mantis is about 46" (117cm) making it actually longer than a regular straight, hanging seconds pendulum, which are usually around 42" (107cm). However to get a straight, hanging pendulum to tick at a two second beat, that pendulum would have to be over thirteen feet long. Because Mantis uses a compound balance pendulum, we were able to create not only a dramatically shorter pendulum, but one with an artistic flare that beautifully accents this clock.
Mantis has a special escapement that allows for a very large and dramatic pendulum arc. With its pendulum swinging with about forty degrees of arc, it makes Mantis as much a kinetic sculpture as it is a clock. The way the Mantis escapement is designed helps modulate its tone and creates a slow, gentle "tick" with each contact with an escape wheel tooth. The slow swing and gentle sound of the pendulum is relaxing and mesmerizing, and the movement is a delight to view.
Mantis by Clayton Boyer
Hiding behind the mobile crescent at the right side of the dial ring is a motorized remontoir making daily rewinding of this beautiful sculpture unnecessary. The clock is powered by a weighted motor arm that automatically rewinds the clock. The amount of drive weight is adjustable by simply changing the amount hanging from the cord on the right of the clock. The difficult part for me was determining what to hang there. There are so many beautiful options. I tried various rocks (which looked pretty nice), glass spheres, a painted fishing weight, and finally settled on the clean look of copper tube. That tube weighs 3.6oz (102gm), and to avoid over stressing the motor, the amount of added weight drive should be 8oz (227gm) or less. The rewinding of the remontoir motor arm is powered by an onboard nine volt battery which will keep the clock running for about three to four months.
Mantis has movement throughout its design - from the massive swing of the pendulum, to the remontoir motor arm actuating the bobblehead and crescent that accent Mantis' "broken" dial ring. The Organic clock design also has a "broken" dial, however that design is mainly aesthetic. The dial ring of the Mantis is "broken" for a different reason - which is to allow the viewer a better view of the internal workings of this sculpture.
Mantis was named because of the similarities between the antennae of a praying mantis and the upper part of the Mantis' double split pendulum. As it happened, the day before the Mantis was completed we were surprised to see that the Mantis clock had been visited by its namesake, a praying mantis. Shown going for a ride on the bobblehead in the picture below. The praying mantis spent the night hanging out on the bobblehead, however I still needed to add the decorative brass screws, so I moved him/her to the nearest rosebush. Obviously, such serendipity must equate, in some way, to a celebrity endorsement!
