Advice on getting chimes to chime please.

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 6:03 pm     Post subject: Advice on getting chimes to chime please.

Hi.

I recently inherited my Grandparents wall clock. I paid to have it serviced and it now works, but the chimes don't. On the hour and the half hour, there's a whirring noise that suggests to me that the clock is doing something. I am most likely to return it to the person who serviced it, but wondered if there was anything simple that I could do.

There are 2 keyholes, both of which feel wound up fairly tightly - I'm wary about over winding if I wind any more. I've spent the last 2-3 hours looking on the web for any relevant info and couldn't find anything unfortunately.

The only thing I did find was this almost identical clock on e-bay - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=150191950186&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=005#ebayphotohosting
The only apparent difference with my clock is different colouring to the face. I have managed to find out that the "R A" on the pendulum bob stands for Retard Advance, but that's all.

Any advice or suggestions on where else I could get advice from would be very much appreciated.

Also, if anyone has any info about the clock, or know where I might be able to find some, I'd be very grateful.

Thanks for your time, Martin.

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 11:28 pm     Post subject: Advice on chimes

From your description as well as the listing of a similar clock on eBay, your clock is apparently a spring wound Vienna regulator.

Vienna regulator has come to be a term for a style of wall clock manufactured in Germany and Austria from the mid 19th century to early in the 20th century. It includes weight driven and spring wound clocks. Some were hour/half hour strike on a gong (like yours) and some were quarter striking on two gongs. Movements could be simple two spring or very elaborate two or three weight wound models. Size of these clocks varied also from under two feet to as much as five feet in length. Case styles were always somewhat similar to yours, although some could have elaborate carvings and case decoration on them too.

To return to your particular problem. The gong in these clock is usually attached to the back of the case. From your description the movement may have shifted slightly after being serviced and the gong hammer is not hitting the gong (whirring noise but no gong sound). By trial and error the movement or the hammer will have to be adjusted until the hammer once again strikes the gong. It may be possible to view the hammer action through a side glass panel as it goes through a strike sequence to see what adjustment is necessary.

Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:43 pm     Post subject:

Hi Clkwrx.

Thanks very much for your useful reply. I've managed to loosen the movement and take it all the way out. The hammer was working, it just wasn't aligned with the chimes at all. I've had to reposition the chimes by loosening the screw that holds them in place and move them round a bit so that the hammer could hit them, then position the movement in the right place relative to the chimes and success! I then had to reset the chimes by pushing a little rod so that the clock chimes the right number at the right time.

I'm now at the stage of adjusting the pendulum bob to get reasonable accuracy in time keeping.

The historical info you gave me is great. There's a 'DR Patent 147023' on the back of the mechanism, which according to www.antiqueclockspriceguide.com means the movement is an "older German item".

So I now know that the clock is a Vienna Regulator and that it, or at least it's movement, was made in Germany, around about 100 years ago. It then somehow ended up at a jumble sale in Barrow-in-Furness, England, where my Grandfather bought it for a few shillings. It then hung on his kitchen wall until a few months ago, when my Grandmother died, my Grandfather having died a couple of months earlier. It now hangs very proudly on my living room wall.

Thanks for your time and effort clkwrx - much appreciated.

Martin