The Grasshopper Proto-type

Here is the 2nd Clock that I made, which is the first one that I designed...RB1. It is made of Australian Hardwood 5 ply all round. You can also see in the bottom left corner a portion of the first clock that I made for my son. The RB1 has a Grasshopper Escapement!...as you may recognise, but if you don't its the bit up the top with the little legs on the spiny wheel. Its quite a special escapement designed by John Harrison, but that's another story...read it...there's a great book called "Longitude" by Dava Sovel.
Getting my hands of the geometry of the Grasshopper escapement was a bit of a trick too. This clock was the prototype for the RB2. I wanted to see if it would actually work before I committed to designing a whole clock around it. Its a bit hard to see, but it used a lot of gears from the first clock that I made from plans. It also had my design of the Maintaining Power device to see if it would work too. It was quite a trick to work out how to do that as well. Simply put, the Maintaining Power supplies continuous energy to the Grasshopper while the clock is being wound. It stores that energy in 2 springs and delivers power for about a minute or so. I am pleased to say that it worked a treat and it sent me off to design the RB2.