[time-nuts] Non electrical time-nuttery

[Bob Camp]

Hi

Yes, that's the idea. 

I suspect there is a good reason why not to use a rotary pendulum. I've always thought they were pretty neat ....

Bob


On Jan 9, 2010, at 4:10 PM, Thomas A. Frank wrote:

> Rather like the Shortt clock, only magnetically coupled.
> 
> Nifty idea.
> 
> Tom Frank, KA2CDK
> 
> 
> On Jan 9, 2010, at 3:36 PM, Bob Camp wrote:
> 
>> Hi
>> 
>> How about a rotary pendulum on a quartz fiber spring with some kind of trick magnets to drive it  / read it out? Put the pendulum and spring inside an evacuated glass envelope to get around the vacuum pump issue. The enclosure could be pretty small.
>> 
>> Drive the magnets with a second external clock, and feedback compensate it. Let the external clock do all the readout via a very normal gear and pointers system. The trick would be getting the feedback loop to work purely mechanically with enough gain to "unload" the master pendulum.
>> 
>> Bob
>> 
>> 
>> On Jan 9, 2010, at 2:07 PM, Lux, Jim (337C) wrote:
>> 
>>> OK.. So we're moving back in electrical technology....
>>> But what about mechanical?  Could modern technology get a substantial (>order of magnitude) improvement over 19th century chronometers (either pendulum or balance wheel or whatever).  I know there's some really good quartz fiber torsional spring schemes, but I think they still need electrical means to keep them moving and to read it out.
>>> 
>>> So how good can one do with a mechanical, hydraulic, (or chemical, I suppose) system?  Let's assume it has to have a "direct" readout that is human readable by a causal bystander.  (this starts to sound like the 10,000 year clock or whatever it is..)
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>> 
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> 
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