Flying Pendulum Clock

The Ignatz Flying Pendulum Clock can only be described as a horological oddity. It  was invented and patented in 1883 by Adler Christian Clausen and J. C. Slafter in Minneapolis.It was sold by the New Haven Clock Company (under the Jerome & Co. name) for about a year (1884-1885).

The clock was later called the Ignatz Flying pendulum clock after a character in the Krazy Kat comic. 
A reproduction was manufactured by the Horolovar Company between 1965 and 1975. The
movement was made in Germany and was cased at Horolovar in Bronxville, NY.

The clock was notoriously inaccurate and could not be expected to keep time to better than 5 o 10 minutes per day.

It is however a very eye-catching device and is reputed to have therapeutic properties and a soothing influence.

This is my interpretation of this strange clock and mine is no less strange.

The structure and the gears are mainly made from wood. The gear train was designed in Coreldraw and cut with a laser cutter from 3.2mm plywood. The contrate gear which drives  a lantern pinion and turns the drive through 90 degrees up to the flying pendulum, was constructed by inserting laser cut teeth into holes cut in a circular disc.

The arbors are 4mm steel rod and run in 5mm brass tube inserted in the wooden main structure.

The clock is driven by a gravity system consisting of a weight rotating round a gear which is connected to the gear train. The weight is a actually a small electric motor, seen on the right. As the weight descends clockwise at a certain angle, sensed by the electronics, the motor is started and drives up counterclockwise until it has moved through the required angle. The motor is a modified RC servo and the system runs on 5v DC. The use of this type of rewinder also acts as maintaining power as the clock continues to receive driving force during the rewind cycle.

The dials are also laser cut and the motion work, rather than being 'folded' as in clocks with concentric hands, carries the hour drive across the clock just behind the faces.

A YouTube video of the clock in action can be viewed below.