Uploaded March 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Lego verge and pendulum escapement modeled after Christiaan Huygens’ 1673 escapement, with the foliot replaced by a pendulum attached to the verge for better accuracy.
Huygens modified the verge and foliot escapement by turning it 90 degrees so that the crown wheel with sawtooth-shaped teeth faces up. He installed a pendulum which replaced the inertial oscillator, a balance wheel, or in the earliest clocks a foliot, a horizontal rod with weights on either end.
This Lego escapement consists of an escape wheel, shaped like a crown with pins along the perimeter, perpendicular to the wheel itself that is attached to an axle. Yellow pallets at opposite ends of a horizontal rod, or verge, above the crown wheel, engage the pins alternately. The pallets are offset from the verge’s axis so that when one pallet engages one of the pins, the other pallet is between two pins, therefore avoiding jamming the escapement.
The escapement converts rotational energy of the crown wheel into oscillating movement that regulates timing. Also, the escapement restrains the motion of the falling weight where the pallets prevent the crown wheel from spinning uncontrollably in order to let the weight fall in a measured manner.
Watch a series of Lego verge clock escapements:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCbYhDNjOviH38uCdbc6uum38vKZjXGyE
#LegoEscapement #ClockEscapement #SimpleHarmonicMotion #LegoClockMechanism #MechanicalOscillator
Lego verge and pendulum escapement modeled after Christiaan Huygens’ 1673 escapement, with the foliot replaced by a pendulum attached to the verge for better accuracy.
Huygens modified the verge and foliot escapement by turning it 90 degrees so that the crown wheel with sawtooth-shaped teeth faces up. He installed a pendulum which replaced the inertial oscillator, a balance wheel, or in the earliest clocks a foliot, a horizontal rod with weights on either end.
This Lego escapement consists of an escape wheel, shaped like a crown with pins along the perimeter, perpendicular to the wheel itself that is attached to an axle. Yellow pallets at opposite ends of a horizontal rod, or verge, above the crown wheel, engage the pins alternately. The pallets are offset from the verge’s axis so that when one pallet engages one of the pins, the other pallet is between two pins, therefore avoiding jamming the escapement.
The escapement converts rotational energy of the crown wheel into oscillating movement that regulates timing. Also, the escapement restrains the motion of the falling weight where the pallets prevent the crown wheel from spinning uncontrollably in order to let the weight fall in a measured manner.
Watch a series of Lego verge clock escapements:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCbYhDNjOviH38uCdbc6uum38vKZjXGyE
#LegoEscapement #ClockEscapement #SimpleHarmonicMotion #LegoClockMechanism #MechanicalOscillator
