A repeater

This is this afternoon's job which has been stripped down and is currently in the cleaner.  The mechanism comes from a French 19th century high quality carriage clock which is called a repeater because it repeats the hour strike when a button is pushed on the top of the case.  You can see the lever that is depressed sticking out at the top.  It has what is called flirt striking which means that the serrated rack which usually drops with gravity with an audible clunk at five to the hour is replaced by springs that flick the levers into their striking positions dead on the hour.  This means that, even at a couple of minutes to the hour, the last hour will still strike correctly if the button is pushed (handy in a dark bedroom at night.)  You can also see the star wheel and snail which are advanced one notch per hour determining how far the rack will fall and how many of those serrated rack teeth will be gathered up.  The farther the rack falls the more hours will be counted.  The function of the other levers will have to wait for another blip!