Precision pendulum regulator clock · Germany
Riefler Precision Regulator Clocks
Partially verifiedSigmund Riefler's knife-edge pendulum suspension, in which the pendulum swings on a rigid spring-steel blade bearing rather than a conventional flexible spring suspension, greatly reduced suspension-related timing errors and made Riefler regulators the leading observatory time standard of their era, before being superseded by the Shortt-Synchronome system and later quartz clocks.
Technical facts
- Suspension
- Riefler knife-edge (rigid spring-steel blade) pendulum suspension
- Typical use
- Observatory and scientific time-standard service prior to the free-pendulum and quartz eras
Historical significance
- Sigmund Riefler's knife-edge pendulum suspension, in which the pendulum swings on a rigid spring-steel blade bearing rather than a conventional flexible spring suspension, greatly reduced suspension-related timing errors and made Riefler regulators the leading observatory time standard of their era, before being superseded by the Shortt-Synchronome system and later quartz clocks.
- As with other precision-regulator entries in this dataset, individual surviving examples vary in configuration and should each be catalogued against the holding institution's own record rather than assumed identical.
Related photographs
No confidently matched photograph of this subject has been found yet. These photographs show a closely related record, and are not examples of the type described on this page.
Sources & references
- Deutsches Museum, Munich, published collection materials on precision regulator clocks
- Britten, F. J., Old Clocks and Watches and Their Makers
Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.