The 1956 Restoration
Messrs. John Smith & Sons of Derby received the clock in February 1956. It was taken apart for the transport. They reassembled the clock in their workshop and compared it to existing clocks in the Science Museum before deciding how to restore it.
The help of Rolls Royce was enlisted to have X-ray photographs of two of the wheel arbors taken. This confirmed that the two arbors of the going train had been lengthened when the clock had been converted to pendulum operation. Subsequent investigations revealed that the clock had actually been converted twice, as remains of an earlier pendulum escapement were discovered.
| Train | Part | Previous work | 1956 Restoration |
|---|---|---|---|
| going train | great wheel | disc with two pins attached to great wheel as it only turned once every two hours due to conversion to pendulum | after removing the disc, the original hole for the pin was discovered and a new pin was fitted |
| going train | escape wheel | replaced with anchor escape wheel | new escape wheel forged, teeth marked out by hand, riveted onto existing second wheel |
| going train | winding barrel | new wooden winding barrel fitted | |
| going train | foliot support bracket | new foliot support bracket forged and fitted | |
| going train | foliot | new foliot forged and fitted | |
| striking train | hoop wheel | flange of hoop wheel reversed | flange of hoop wheel replaced correctly |
| going train | turning direction, strike release | strike release moved to front of frame, rotation of going train reversed to clock-wise to fit clock dial (1613) | strike release moved to back of frame, rotation of going train reversed to anti clock-wise as it was originally |
Read more about this topic: Salisbury Cathedral Clock
Famous quotes containing the word restoration:
“I claim that in losing the spinning wheel we lost our left lung. We are, therefore, suffering from galloping consumption. The restoration of the wheel arrests the progress of the fell disease.”
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948)