354 ELECTRIC PENDULUM CLOCK (673/1) 1874/5
Signed on movement: M. HIPP. NEUCHATEL. SUISSE.
Marked on back of case in pencil: No. 6392
Case 570 x 28Q x 135
The mechanism is contained in a walnut case with a glass door. Normal
clock face, with a sweep seconds hand. The short pendulum is maintained
by the making and breaking of an electric current that energizes
the electro-magnet. This is the master clock for the slave clock described
under 355.M
atthaus Hipp (1813-1893) patented a pendulum drive in
1842, and in 1860 produced a master clock with improved electric contacts.
Energy derives from an electro-magnet which pulls the pendulum
from time to time when the oscillation amplitude is below a set value.
The pendulum not only regulates the going, but transmits motion to
the wheelwork. Purchased in 1874/5.
Hipp was a Swiss clock and iiistrument maker, who took an
early interest in telegraphy, and directed the telegraphic workshop for
the Swiss Federal Government. He invented a chronoscope and a speed-
recording apparatus for the railways. After 1860, his factory was situated
in Neuchatel. Favarger (1924).
355 ELECTRIC SLAVE CLOCK - (673/2) 1874/5
Signed on movement: M. HIPP. NEUCHATEL. SUISSE.
6216.
Diameter of face 260, of casing 430; brass frame for works
100 x 90
This is the slave for the master electric clock, 354. The electro-magnet
is mounted on a brass plate, which bears the maker s cartouche; it is in
a deal box. Through impulses received from the master, the magnet
impels an iron rod which advances a crown wheel by engaging cogs.
The back of the clock case is tinplate, blackened, as is the surround of
the face. Stamped 3609. Purchased in 1874/5.
356 ELECTRIC CLOCK (674) 1857
Signed on dial: FROMENT A PARIS.
Overall height 380; outer diameter of dial 225
Mahogany oval stand; base blackened iron; movement in a brass case.
There is a glass dome, removed in the photograph. A pair of solenoids
wired to a battery activate the mechanism by moving a lever which
turns the wheelwork via a crank. A contact is then broken, and the lever
returns to the first position.
Paul Gustave Froment (1815-1865), a graduate of the École
Polytechnique, founded in 1844 a precision instrument-making firm in
Paris, which produced the first electric clocks in France in 1854. These
employed an electrically-controlled gravity escapement.
Purchased in December 1857 for Dfl. 116.20 from Logeman
en Funckler, Haarlem. Turner (1983), 43-46.