Clock escapement
Recoil (anchor) escapement
VerifiedAn anchor-shaped pallet engages the escape wheel so that, at each half-vibration, the wheel is briefly driven backwards ('recoils') before locking again, which allows the pendulum to swing through a wide arc while remaining connected to the train.
Schematic arrangement
How it is laid out
Outline schematic only, drawn to show the characteristic arrangement of wheel, locking member and oscillator. It is not a dimensioned working drawing and should not be used for setting up or repairing a movement.
Advantages
- Simple and inexpensive to make
- Tolerant of a wide pendulum arc
- Long service life in domestic clocks
Drawbacks
- Recoil disturbs the pendulum's free swing
- Less accurate than a deadbeat escapement
Attribution and period
c. 1670s, generally attributed to Robert Hooke and associated with William Clement's clocks
Horological firsts are frequently contested. Where an invention is attributed to a named maker, that attribution is recorded as such rather than treated as settled fact.
How to recognise it
- An anchor-shaped pallet with flat, non-concentric faces.
- The seconds hand, or the escape wheel itself, visibly kicks backwards at each beat.
- The standard escapement of domestic longcase, bracket and dial clocks.
Servicing and conservation
Wear shows as grooves cut into the pallet faces; these can often be re-dressed or the pallets rotated by a clockmaker, but the depthing must then be reset. A recoil clock that will not keep going usually has worn pivot holes in the plates rather than an escapement fault.
Work on an antique escapement by a qualified watchmaker or clockmaker. Conservation of original parts is preferred to replacement wherever the object will still run.
Bibliography
- Rawlings, A. L., The Science of Clocks and Watches
- Britten, F. J., Old Clocks and Watches and Their Makers
Photographs
Photographs are matched automatically from freely licensed Wikimedia Commons material. Each caption states the actual subject of the image and credits its author; where a close match for this escapement does not exist, a related mechanism may be shown instead.