Foliot made of wood
I refer to the article 'A foliot made of plastic' in the May 2005 issue of your excellent magazine.
I do my bit for charity by attempting to get going the many watches and clocks which are donated to the Thame Branch of the Shaw Trust. This mainly consists of cleaning and fitting new batteries. A year ago, however, I was handed a carrier bag which the manageress thought ‘might be a funny sort of clock’.
On inspection, it was a semi-completed kit similar to the Lindberg you illustrated. The difference is that all parts, including gear trains, are made from wood, the exception being the vertical shafts and pallets and the pins projecting from the crown wheel acting as the escapement.
It is rope driven and among the bits were two cuckoo clock weights of different size, but the clock refused to go with these so I replaced the smaller tensioning weight with a much lighter weight (a brass curtain ring). The foliot oscillates at about 40 ticks a minute, which gives reasonable timekeeping when reading the single hand against the chapter which has Roman numerals and quarter hour divisions. With a drop of 70in, the weight gives 10.5 hours going time. The words ‘buco Swiss’ are printed on the dial in Gothic script either side of the VI (six) numerals.
Kenneth Lawton, UK
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