How not to solve a depthing problem
This 3 weight from Becker’s Braunau factory, is serial numbered 44806. While I was inspecting the pinions under my 10X microscope I saw something that didn’t quite seem right. The tips of the pinion leaves on one of the gears in the strike trains were ground. As in pretty badly mauled. I guess I really noticed this because I had seen something similar just a week ago in another Becker, this one serial numbered 59488. Based on the last version of John Hubby’s Becker dating work that I have seen, these mechanisms were both made in the early 1890’s, perhaps 1890 and 1891 respectively. Given that John shows the factory only had been making these clocks for perhaps 3 years at that point, are we seeing a simplistic approach to resolving depthing problems? It looks like someone mounted the arbors in a lathe and then took a coarse file and “shortened” the pinion leaves.
Funny. On another part of the 44806 mechanism, I find exquisite work – the fans are not the usual pieces of stamped and bent brass – they are machined from thick pieces of brass. Excellently done too. Interestingly, 44806 is a Becker mechanism that has a Viennese makers name on the dial – Eduard Walloschek (shows up in Claterbos – 1876, so he had been making clocks for a while before casing this Becker mechanism). For pictures of the mechanism and the fan, check out http://www.snclocks.com/Fantastic-Clock-Mechanisms/German-Made-Viennas-Style/VR-651-Viennese-3-weight-with/12044167_axmi4#854748947_gfExF . Did Eduard replace the original fans with the nicer ones when he went through the mechanism and cleaned up the pivots? Worth wondering. I do know the pivots were beautifully burnished and needed very little attention, not what I typically find in a Becker. Perhaps he replaced the fans to eliminate the inherent imbalance that the typical Becker fans are challenged with?
None the less, an interesting little mechanism. Have any of you ever noticed such marks on pinion leaves?
Read MoreFunny. On another part of the 44806 mechanism, I find exquisite work – the fans are not the usual pieces of stamped and bent brass – they are machined from thick pieces of brass. Excellently done too. Interestingly, 44806 is a Becker mechanism that has a Viennese makers name on the dial – Eduard Walloschek (shows up in Claterbos – 1876, so he had been making clocks for a while before casing this Becker mechanism). For pictures of the mechanism and the fan, check out http://www.snclocks.com/Fantastic-Clock-Mechanisms/German-Made-Viennas-Style/VR-651-Viennese-3-weight-with/12044167_axmi4#854748947_gfExF . Did Eduard replace the original fans with the nicer ones when he went through the mechanism and cleaned up the pivots? Worth wondering. I do know the pivots were beautifully burnished and needed very little attention, not what I typically find in a Becker. Perhaps he replaced the fans to eliminate the inherent imbalance that the typical Becker fans are challenged with?
None the less, an interesting little mechanism. Have any of you ever noticed such marks on pinion leaves?
