Escapements

[Figure 1: Quartz crystal resonator from a modern quartz watch, formed in the shape of a tuning fork. It vibrates at 32,768 Hz, in the ultrasonic range]

My late elder brother took a very precocious interest in the escapement mechanism of clocks and, perhaps following in his footsteps, I have taken a desultory interest in the interaction between power, perhaps the falling weights of a pendulum, and the regulation of that power by means of the escapement.  An interest which resulted in turning up the paper at reference 1 and the post at reference 2.

Also an echo, of sorts, of my father's preoccupation with the relationship between structure and function, a preoccupation presumably arising in his case from long hours spent in the dissecting room as a first year medical student - this, at least in those days, being part of the training of a dentist.

[Figure 2: The escapement is to be found left and top left right]

Then this morning, inquiring about tuning forks (of which more in due course), I came across the first snap above. With this tuning fork, guessing, being a few millimetres in length. It struck me that the interaction between the vibrations of this fork, the frequency of which was fully determined by its material, size and shape, and the electrical goings-on, were perhaps in some way equivalent to the pendulums and escapements of earlier, mechanical clocks.

Also that the quartz of a watch was essentially a mechanical contrivance, albeit a small one. Without having known anything about it, I suppose I had assumed that it was more thoroughly electrical.

Maybe, I shall get around to poking a bit harder later on.

References

Reference 1: Mathematics of a clock escapement - Dr. Eng. Gianni Petrangeli - 2012 or so. The source of both elements of Figure 2 above.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/07/mourning-form-and-content.html.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuning_fork. The source of the Figure 1 above.