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The Encyclopedia of Horology

England · c. 1715 (predates the modern English patent-specification system in general use)

Deadbeat (Graham) Escapement

Historical attribution

The standard escapement of precision regulator clocks for two centuries, and still used in fine reproduction and astronomical regulators.

The deadbeat escapement removes the recoil of the earlier anchor escapement: as the pendulum overswings, the escape-wheel teeth rest dead against a flat locking face rather than pushing the wheel backward, which greatly improves regularity in precision pendulum clocks.

Graham did not patent the mechanism and reportedly shared it freely, which is one reason it spread quickly through English precision clockmaking of the eighteenth century.

How to verify this yourself

No patent to search: verify attribution and mechanism description against clock-history literature (e.g. the Antiquarian Horological Society's published research) rather than assuming a filed specification exists.

Manufacturers known to have used it

  • English regulator-clock makers, 18th–19th century
  • later precision clockmakers worldwide

Photographs

Graham Escapement
Graham Escapement — Frederick J. Britten, Public domain. Wikimedia Commons file page

Photographs are illustrative examples of the type, not necessarily the exact object described. Verify details against the source file page.

Sources & references

  1. Antiquarian Horological Society, published research on George Graham
  2. Britten, F. J., Old Clocks and Watches and Their Makers

Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.