Never two the same

One of the pleasures of repairing old mechanisms is to spot all the individual differences between makers, the introduction of new features and the development of the technology.  It is not far fetched to say that nearly all technological development can be traced back to horology. The development of cams in striking systems led to actions being delayed and programmed to occur.  This reached its nadir in the manufacture of 18th and 18th century automata.  The concept of programmability was later used in the development of vinyl recordings and ultimately in electronics and computing.

This particular mechanism came from a longcase sold to a customer by a cowboy.  The hour hand had been glued on with araldite, the fly (fast rotating governor on the strike train) had been soldered solid resulting in a smashed detent pin and continuous striking.  The seller's solution had been to stop the striking with a clothes peg and abandon his customer.  The clock is now back in good order.  It has a strange peculiarity in that one of the wheels on the going train is not on an arbor between the two plates but on a shortened post attached to the front plate (pictured).  This is the first time I have ever seen this arrangement.