Just Like Clockwork: A Clock Project Report

Group Members:

Kevin Yuen - A History of Clocks

Amanda Jones - Gears
Alex Gomez - Pulleys and Weights
Camila Para Ochoa - Pendulum and Calibration of Clock Time
Dahlia Lopez - Escapement Mechanism, Conclusion
 For this project, the group had to make a clock out of paper. In order to this, the group

needed to cut out all the parts in the book called Make Your Own Working Paper Clock and

follow the directions on how to glue them and put them together. The purpose of this project was

to understand how each part of the pendulum clock works and contributes to the whole

mechanism. Through this project, we learned that the gears, pulleys and weights, the pendulum,

and the escapement mechanism are all very important for the clock to function because all the

pieces had to work with each other and if one did not function correctly, the clock would not

keep time.

When one hears the word “clock” today, a common, recognizable image comes to mind:

a circular device with two or three hands pointing towards numbers around the circle. However,

clocks originated way beyond the ones we know today, whether they are powered by batteries or

springs, clocks have been needed ever since the foundation of the idea of time. Before the

development of complex machines, our ancient ancestors discovered that time needed a more

precise way to be measured, rather than simply looking up at the sun. The origin of one of the

first timekeeping devices was found in Egypt, which was the basic sundial. The classic sundial

consisted of a circle with a raised pointer in the center which cast a shadow in different

directions depending where the sun was in the sky. This method was great at the time, however

was rather inaccurate, since as we know today, the Earth’s position changes depending on the

season. In another part of the world, Greek and Roman civilizations experimented with water and

sand, which gave light to the water clock and the hourglass. They were able to implement the

materials in such a way that the flow rate was constant in order to keep track of the smaller

increments of time. Plato was one to experiment with a water clock, however, the flow rates
could never truly be constant by themselves, as both sand and water require a source to flow

from. In 1094, a Buddhist monk named Su Sung built a large clock tower which was powered by

a water wheel, which filled parts of the wheel until the weight was sufficient enough to move the

wheel at intervals of every quarter hour. Sung’s enormous clock tower took six

years in the making, which required basic concepts of mechanical engineering

to procure one of the first techniques of escapement, releasing energy

periodically, pushing machinery at intervals. Mechanical clockwork not

involving water began appearing around the thirteenth and fourteenth century

England when many discovered the need for a reliable timekeeping device,

especially at sea. Many individuals began investigating, expanding off of previous

works and designs, such as Galileo Galilei, who studied the uses of a pendulum

bob for practical use. Although many contributed to designing the clock,

Christiaan Huygens is credited as the father, for he is the one to formally

introduced the pendulums into the design. The first modern mechanical clock was

created by Peter Henlein, who implemented the first spring - powered clock, which

allowed the clock to become smaller, more compact, and sturdy.

The gears in the clock have a very important job. A gear is a toothed

wheel which alters the motion of a machine. They can change the speed of a

machine, by changing the size, the direction of rotation, convert linear motion to

rotational motion, or/and change force. The gears in our clock were primarily to

convert the linear motion of the weight on the string to rotational motion,

however, they also changed the speed of the motion through the ratio of gear
sizes.

There are three main gears in the clock we built: the motor, middle

and escapement. The motor wheel is the largest gear near the bottom of the

clock. This gear is attached to the string and weight which are the driving

force of the clock. It rotates counterclockwise and causes the rotation of the middle

wheel.

The middle wheel is the only gear that turns clockwise. This gear is critical for

the face of the clock, unfortunately our group did not get to that. The middle wheel acts

as an intermediate step between the motor wheel and the escapement. It is the driving

force of the escapement wheel and the second largest gear. The escapement gear is the

smallest of all the gears and therefore rotates the fastest. The escapement piece

however prevents this gear from rotating quite so quickly.

After creating this clock once I think my whole team can agree on a few things that

would improve our gears. The teeth on the gears were slightly flimsy due to the fact that it is

constructed out of paper, so some way to reinforce the teeth would make it run more smoothly.

Also some of our gears weren’t straight due to the warping of glue drying on paper, which

caused problems in running our clock. Another possible change that could be made is the axles

on which the gears lie. All of our axles were bent to some degree, causing periods where the

gears don’t mesh together because they can’t reach each other.

The Pulleys and Weights are needed to provide the power for the clock, they provide

potential energy and transform it into mechanical energy. The weights, as with all objects on
earth, feel a net force due to the earth’s gravitational field. This means that the weights have

gravitational potential energy. This energy is transformed into mechanical energy through the

pulleys and the strings. The weights create a tension on the string, this tension allows for the

transfer of the energy from the weights to the gears. The escapement controls the rate at which

the weights can rotate the gears because the weight alone would fall and accelerate. Time does

not accelerate so the weights can only be allowed to fall in short intervals.

The purpose of the pulleys is to control the rate at which the energy is used in our clock,

without pulleys the clock would run too fast or take up too much space. They connect the

weights to the axes on which the gears rotate. The pulleys are also useful because they reduce the

number of gears needed for the clock. Pulleys and gears can be used interchangeably for most

functions, however there are clear times for when one is a better suit. An advantage of the

pulleys is the lack of rigidness to their structure. Due to the flexibility of string, pulleys are great

over longer distances and when parts are not coaxial or coplanar.

Pulleys are always idealized to be frictionless, but our clock is a real clock, not an

idealized one. This means that there is dissipation of energy in the pulleys due to friction. The

string is also not incompressible and therefore some energy is lost in the compression of the

string. The axes on which the pulleys rotate are not perfectly straight so there is a bit of wobble

that hinders the precision of the clock. The weight of the weights could always be more precise.

The clock is a bit stiff in general, the friction is a huge hindrance and could be reduced by using

more precise parts.

The pendulum is a very important part of the clock. A pendulum is a rod that hangs and

might have a weight at the end of it. The pendulum is used to keep a good pace because each

swing of the pendulum is completed in the same amount of time. This means that the speed of
the pendulum depends only on the acceleration due to gravity and the length of the pendulum

itself. In order to know much time it will take a pendulum of a certain length to complete one

swing, the equation below can be used, where T is time, l is length of pendulum, and g is the

acceleration due to gravity. Since we want the pendulum’s period to be one second, then we

would solve for l in order to get the correct length.

As stated before, each swing of a pendulum of a certain length will

take the same amount of time. This is because as the pendulum

swings, it is transferring potential energy into kinetic energy and vice

versa. At the point closest to the ground, the potential energy stored

in the pendulum is converted to kinetic energy and it has the

maximum kinetic energy. At the highest points (when it has swung)

the kinetic energy has been converted into potential energy and the

pendulum reaches its maximum potential energy. There is some

energy lost or “taken” to friction or drag, however, and therefore the pendulum will not keep

swinging forever. Instead, the pendulum will have a swing of a shorter distance but also will take

longer to complete the swing. The isochronism of the pendulum shows that it is ideal for keeping

time. In the clock, each time the pendulum swings the escapement moves, releasing the

escapement gear and therefore causing the rest of the gears to move. When making this clock, we

could have used a sturdier pendulum.

 The escapement mechanism can be considered the heart of the clock because it itself

controls the steady movement of the hands and is the source of the ticking we hear in all clocks.

It works together with the pendulum, weights, and gears to keep a constant and reliable time

using energy transfer. Many think that the escapement is entirely dependent on the pendulum

itself or the weights and pulleys but really it works with both equally to keep the clock

functioning. In the clock, the pulley and weights pull down on the gears and make them turn,

moving the escapement gear with the sharp angled teeth. This gear wants to keep moving with

the force of the weights, but the movement of the oscillating pendulum

controls the movement of the gear. As it moves back and forth, the anchor

on the pendulum (shown in the image to the right) catches the teeth of the

gear and limits it from moving any further, thus maintaining strict control

of how the gear moves. The escapement mechanism contributes to the

clock’s overall operation because it powers all the gears and moves the

hands of the clock. Using the power of the pendulum, the movement of the

gears is determined by the escapement mechanism, which will turn the

hands of the clock in a manner constant enough to keep time.

In terms of improvement on the paper clock we’ve turned in, the escapement mechanism

could work better with thicker paper on the gear itself, since the paper on ours easily tore,

messing up one of the teeth. Granted, the fact that this whole clock was made out of paper

created many issues that could be improved, such as correcting the warp on many parts, or taking

better care when gluing things together. Overall, the escapement mechanism was one of the

easier parts to put together; a benefit since this is such an important mechanism of the clock.
 This clock project was an interesting learning experience that tested patience, time

management, and teamwork among other things. It was fun to see the end product (even though

it wasn’t perfect) after spending so much time cutting out so many parts that didn’t really seem

like they would come together to make an actual clock. While it was very engaging and fun

project in terms of it being a hands on effort, it was also very frustrating to finish since group

members didn’t really pull all their weight, leaving others to work on it alone. Building the clock

had its pros and cons, but gave us the opportunity to truly see and understand how it worked as

we assembled it. In the end, building this paper clock became an unforgettable and extremely

unique learning opportunity, especially as a first group project in a college setting.