POUVILLON RESTORATION PROJECT - August 2011

Reassemble main movement. Strike barrel, time barrel and frame.

Pouvillon-16-000.mp3. Photo 16 001. We have the have the strike barrel assembly. We have the count wheel. The four bosses on the count wheel are apparently, what you might say, parent material with the ring. I can’t see any indication easily of them being detached or pressed in, although I may be wrong here. The barrel itself is of a three piece pressed together or soldered construction. With, of course, the ratchet wheel and the end flange separate. We have, of course, the great wheel. An interesting square boss on the top, left hand spoke which locates the ratchet click spring and, of course, the screwed arbor which clamps the barrel against the flange. You can just see driving pin projecting down in this picture as well as, of course, a nut that screws up against a raised section in the arbor to hold on the count wheel. Also interesting are the obsolete pins on the great wheel. Photo 16 002 is another is another photograph of the same assembly. Note the count wheel, upper left and the main strike wheel to which it is attached that still has the old count wheel pins attached, lower right. Photo 16 003. Another photograph of the same assembly, (not shown). Photo 16 004 shows a sink mark or void in the rim of this gear which I think lets us conclusively state that he used cast blanks for his gears. If this even was out of a cast sheet one wouldn’t have a void in the apparent center of a rim. This is due to metal solidifying on the outside and then continuing to shrink as it solidifies which, of course, makes a long, thin bubble.

Photo 16 005. A slightly better photograph of the same assembly, (not shown). Photo 16 006. Bad reflections on the count ring. Photo 16 007 is the strike governor fly, also I believe of cast construction with a pressed on overrun ratchet. Photo 16 008. A rear view of the governor fly showing the ratchet.

Photo 16 009 is the strike cam wheel or pin wheel. Standard feature for Pouvillon is the nutted collet (the hex nut) . We can see his usual identification center pops. Although in time it seems like this nut has been tightened a further sixth of a turn. Also at about the 4 o’clock position on the rim we can see an orientation center pop. These pins are screwed in from the other side of the rim. Photo 16 010. The opposite side of the strike wheel we can see the screw heads, obviously of the pins. Nice feature is the little scallops or bosses included in the rim. The construction of this lifting cam wheel is nearly identical to those seen in tower clocks.

Pouvillon-17-001.mp3. Photo 17 002 and 003. We have the time barrel assembly and the maintaining power, second photo not shown. Photo 17 004. We have the click clutch that connects the hands to the clock, in other words the time adjustment clutch. You’ll notice the return spring on the clutch actually touches on the gear teeth in this instance. Also it has a fence on the front of the pawl that prevents the gear moving forward on the arbor. Photo 17 005. We have a rear view of the time adjustment clutch. You can see the pawl; the back view actually projects deep down into the teeth. Unless one depresses the lever on the back of this click the time can’t be adjusted. Again this dial setting clutch system is a feature which is often seen in smaller tower clocks but is not used in domestic clocks. Pouvillon used a conventionally toothed wheel for this function. In tower clocks the clutch wheel has specially designed teeth that are straight-sided with a flat tooth tip and root to give the clutch a surer grip due to the greater forces that apply in that environment on the clock dial hands.

Photo 17 006. You can see the retaining fence on the click. Photo 17 007. A photograph of the governor assembly for the strike. Photo 17 008. We have the overrun or free-wheel click for the strike fly. On the screw holding the spring you can see the center punch one the one side to identify its place and the matching center punch on the bevel gear.

Photo 17 009. We have the assembled governor fly. At the upper end of the pillar, that’s to the right of the picture, you can see a screw head which clamps or holds the conical bearing that supports the vertical arbor that drives this fly. Photo 17 010 is another view of the completely assembled governor fly. Photo 17 014 is the total components which fit between the frames all assembled (gathered together).

Photo 17 015. A photo of the eccentric pillar screw for the hammer arbor. It appears this screw can be used to adjust the ‘at risk’ position of the bell hammer (gap between the hammer and the bell when the hammer is at rest). Photo 17 019 is all the frame components before we start assembly. Photo 17 023. This is a frame member. What I’m pointing out here is at the top of the hole through the frame we two dots. One is a location pin hole which looks pentagonal. The other is a center punch mark which is, I believe, a later addition used by some repairer to identify frame positions and pillar positions. I’ll try and verify this as we go along in the next few photographs. But you’ll see in the center punch mark we have a raised ridge around the end which I believe is later as one would normally identify components before one polishes. And this shows that this center punch has been inserted after polishing because we have this raised ridge around it.

Photo 17 024. Here we have another set of five center punches all with raised ridges. Which I believe are a later repairer’s marks. Photo 17 025. Here we have what I believe is an original Pouvillon center punch mark for identification purposes. You can see that it is polished flat, it’s neat, it’s round. Photo 17 026. This is what I believe is an original center punch mark identifying a frame component. As you can see there is no raised metal around the center punch mark (photo not shown). Photo 17 027. Here we have three ‘X’ chisel marks. Not a number punch. Also, I believe, a later addition. As you can see there is clearly a highly raised surface. From the engineering point of view it would also obviously produce misalignment problems. This was later corrected, we did not remove the makings but just made them more flush for better fit.

Pouvillon-17-027.mp3. Photo 17 028. This is a piece of a tap removed from a hole in a pillar that we mentioned in an earlier series. Photo 17 029. Here we have a pillar with an inserted bearing or pivot hole and its corresponding threaded hole in the frame. If you look at the lower left hand side of the pillar, the blurred image, you’ll see there appears to be a facet or flat on the edge of the rim. This is where somebody has actually clamped this pillar in a vise and it’s raised quite a substantial burr. If you look on the frame just to the right of the ‘X’ punch mark you can see the corresponding bruise on the frame.

Photo 17 033. Here we have the complete frame assembly. Photo 17 034. We have the complete frame and pendulum support assembled on the base plate. Photo 17 035. A side view of the same frame assembly.

Photo 17 038. Another view of the assembled bare frames. Photo 17 039. We have the bell support as well as the strike governor fly pillar. Photo 17 040. A front upper view of the assembled frames.