Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1893 — NOVEL CLOCK [ARTICLE]

NOVEL CLOCK

Not Exactly Perpetual Motion, Yet !«. Requires No Winding. The little town of Amedee, in Lassen county, possesses, what it sometimes claims to be the hottest mineral springs in the world. The springs, and there are several of them, are close together, but are divided into groups by the railroad track. In grading the track-bed the workmen closed a vent, or opened one, and a spring that had theretofore been a .wellbehaved spring suddenly became aggressive, forming a geyser that rises to the height of five or six feet every thirtyeight seconds with the regularity of clockwork. This is invariable and a local inventor proposes that it shall in reality become a clock. This novel timepiece will be a large one erected on the piazza near the depot. Its outward appearance will be that of the ordinary town clock. Imbedded in the basin of the geyser will be a small lead box, from which will project a small steel lever, the outer end of which is slightly widened to offer resistance to the water ns it spurts upward. This lever is really the terminus of one of two wires that communicate with the clock. This lever is on a knuckle joint hidden in the box, that will allow it to play upwind but not downward below the level. Behind the face <-f the clock is merely a ratchet wheel coi'ioectirg with the minute. hand a briss dog, wnich is soldered to the armature of a coil magnet, identical with that of the ordinary telegraph instrument, and a jar of gravity battery. The lever in the little lead box bears exactly the same relation to the magnet in the clock as the key of the telegraph instrument does to the s Hinder. When the water bursts from the geyser it carries the little lever up far enough to come in contact with the other terminus and the connection is made. The mag net draws the armature and dog to it, whicii moves the ratchet wheel one notch, or, in time, moves the minute hand forward thirty-eight seconds. When the geyser subsides the current is broken and an opposing coil spring pulls back the dog in readiness for the next move. The hour hand is moved every quarter hour only. The bands are I alanced on the inside and the work is so well done that less than a weightof one ounce is required to move the clock.—[San Francisco Examine!.