Carriage clock, Armand Couaillet Matthew Norman carriage clock with winding key
A carriage clock is a small, spring-driven clock, designed for travelling, developed in the early 19th century in France, where they were also known as "Officers' Clocks". The first carriage clock was invented by Abraham-Louis Breguet for the Emperor Napoleon in 1812. The case, usually plain or gilt-brass, is rectangular with a carrying handle and often set with glass or more rarely enamel or porcelain panels. A feature of carriage clocks is the platform escapement, sometimes visible through a glazed aperture on the top of the case. Carriage clocks use a balance and balance spring for timekeeping and replaced the larger pendulum bracket clock. The factory of Armand Couaillet, in Saint-Nicolas d'Aliermont (France) made thousands of carriage clocks between 1880 and 1920.
A carriage clock has in the past been a traditional gift from employers to retiring or long-serving staff. However, in modern times, with changing work patterns and changing desires, this is much less the case.[1][2]
Sources and references
Charles Allix and Peter Bonnert, Carriage Clocks. Their history and development, Antique Collector's club, 1974
Emmanuelle Cournarie, La mécanique du geste, trois siècles d'histoire horlogère à Saint-Nicolas d'Aliermont, Édition PTC-Les Falaises, 2011 (French)
Lolita Delesque and Marianne Lombardi, Armand Couaillet, horloger et inventeur de génie, Musée de l'horlogerie, juin 2013, 44p (French)
A torsion spring is a spring that works by twisting its end along its axis; that is, a flexible elastic object that stores mechanical energy when it is twisted. When it is twisted, it exerts a torque in the opposite direction, proportional to the amount (angle) it is twisted. There are various types:
An escapement is a mechanical linkage in mechanical watches and clocks that gives impulses to the timekeeping element and periodically releases the gear train to move forward, advancing the clock's hands. The impulse action transfers energy to the clock's timekeeping element to replace the energy lost to friction during its cycle and keep the timekeeper oscillating. The escapement is driven by force from a coiled spring or a suspended weight, transmitted through the timepiece's gear train. Each swing of the pendulum or balance wheel releases a tooth of the escapement's escape wheel, allowing the clock's gear train to advance or "escape" by a fixed amount. This regular periodic advancement moves the clock's hands forward at a steady rate. At the same time the tooth gives the timekeeping element a push, before another tooth catches on the escapement's pallet, returning the escapement to its "locked" state. The sudden stopping of the escapement's tooth is what generates the characteristic "ticking" sound heard in operating mechanical clocks and watches. The first mechanical escapement, the verge escapement, was invented in medieval Europe during the 13th century, and was the crucial innovation which led to the development of the mechanical clock. The design of the escapement has a large effect on a timepiece's accuracy, and improvements in escapement design drove improvements in time measurement during the era of mechanical timekeeping from the 13th through the 19th century.
A pocket watch is a watch that is made to be carried in a pocket, as opposed to a wristwatch, which is strapped to the wrist.
Saint Nicolas may refer to:
A balance wheel, or balance, is the timekeeping device used in mechanical watches and some clocks, analogous to the pendulum in a pendulum clock. It is a weighted wheel that rotates back and forth, being returned toward its center position by a spiral torsion spring, the balance spring or hairspring. It is driven by the escapement, which transforms the rotating motion of the watch gear train into impulses delivered to the balance wheel. Each swing of the wheel allows the gear train to advance a set amount, moving the hands forward. The balance wheel and hairspring together form a harmonic oscillator, which due to resonance oscillates preferentially at a certain rate, its resonant frequency or 'beat', and resists oscillating at other rates. The combination of the mass of the balance wheel and the elasticity of the spring keep the time between each oscillation or ‘tick’ very constant, accounting for its nearly universal use as the timekeeper in mechanical watches to the present. From its invention in the 14th century until tuning fork and quartz movements became available in the 1960s, virtually every portable timekeeping device used some form of balance wheel.
Saint-Amand-les-Eaux is a commune in the Nord department in northern France on the Scarpe river. The town people are named Amandinois (men), Amandinoise (Women).
The arrondissement of Dieppe is an arrondissement of France in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy région. It has 343 communes. Its population is 237,203 (2016), and its area is 3,120.3 km2 (1,204.8 sq mi).
A marine chronometer is a timepiece that is precise and accurate enough to be used as a portable time standard; it can therefore be used to determine longitude by means of accurately measuring the time of a known fixed location, for example Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and the time at the current location. When first developed in the 18th century, it was a major technical achievement, as accurate knowledge of the time over a long sea voyage is necessary for navigation, lacking electronic or communications aids. The first true chronometer was the life work of one man, John Harrison, spanning 31 years of persistent experimentation and testing that revolutionized naval navigation and enabling the Age of Discovery and Colonialism to accelerate.
For thousands of years, devices have been used to measure and keep track of time. The current sexagesimal system of time measurement dates to approximately 2000 BC from the Sumerians.
Saint-Nicolas-d’Aliermont is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in north-western France.
Saint-Jacques-d’Aliermont is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France.
Sainte-Agathe-d’Aliermont is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France.
Greubel Forsey is a watchmaking company specializing in complicated, high-end timepieces. It was launched in 2004 by Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey and is based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.
The Communauté de communes Falaises du Talou is a federation of 24 municipalities located in the Seine-Maritime département of the Normandy region of north-western France. It was created on 1 January 2002, consisting of 16 communes. On 1 January 2017 it was expanded with 8 communes, and it was renamed Communauté de communes Falaises du Talou.
The Canon de 155 C modèle 1915 Saint-Chamond was a French howitzer used during World War I. It was based on a private prototype of a 150 millimetres (5.9 in) howitzer presented to the Mexican government in 1911. The French government ordered 400 Saint-Chamond howitzers in 1915, these being delivered starting in late 1916. Small numbers of Saint-Chamond howitzers were given to the Serbian and Romanian armies towards the end of World War I. The Saint-Chamond howitzer served in the French Army after World War I and were mobilised at the outbreak of World War II. Finland bought 24 Saint-Chamond howitzers during the Winter War and these served until the 1960s. The German Army captured 200 Saint-Chamond howitzers after the fall of France and used these as field guns and coastal defence guns until the end of World War II.
Armand Couaillet (1865–1954) was a French clock maker from Saint-Nicolas-d'Aliermont in Normandy.
The 2016–17 Coupe de France was the 100th season of the most prestigious football cup competition of France. The competition was organised by the French Football Federation (FFF) and was opened to all clubs in French football, as well as clubs from the overseas departments and territories.
The canton of Dieppe-2 is an administrative division of the Seine-Maritime department, in northern France. It was created at the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015. Its seat is in Dieppe.
Jean-Eugène Decorde was a French priest and historian.
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