Uploaded January 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This is one of many novelty, or what are also called 'industrial' clocks made in France around the turn of the century. This example is of an overshot waterwheel. A spring drive moves the bucket chain forward to deposit a ball onto the waterwheel and is synchronized with the clock through a cam lever. The weight of the balls on the right-hand perimeter of the water wheel drives the clock. This arrangement produces a fairly accurate gravity driven power source for the clock. At the 4 o'clock position of the waterwheel a ball is released just after one is deposited at the top from the bucket chain and rolls down a set of three inclined ramps to be deposited into the bucket chain at its base.
To be honest, the reliability of this clock can be problematic. There are many moving parts, and the balls can sometime be thrown off the bucket chain. It looks great though when it's working! See more detail on this at: my-time-machines.net/waterwheel_novelty.htm.
This is one of many novelty, or what are also called 'industrial' clocks made in France around the turn of the century. This example is of an overshot waterwheel. A spring drive moves the bucket chain forward to deposit a ball onto the waterwheel and is synchronized with the clock through a cam lever. The weight of the balls on the right-hand perimeter of the water wheel drives the clock. This arrangement produces a fairly accurate gravity driven power source for the clock. At the 4 o'clock position of the waterwheel a ball is released just after one is deposited at the top from the bucket chain and rolls down a set of three inclined ramps to be deposited into the bucket chain at its base.
To be honest, the reliability of this clock can be problematic. There are many moving parts, and the balls can sometime be thrown off the bucket chain. It looks great though when it's working! See more detail on this at: my-time-machines.net/waterwheel_novelty.htm.
