Having thoroughly sifted the many varieties at hand, it has been finally determined that the only means known to provide the most regular flow of power consists in intermittently interrupting the procession of the wheel-work, and thereby gaining a periodically uniform movement.  Whatever may be the system or kind of escapement employed, the functioning of the mechanism is characterized by the suspension, at regular intervals, of the rotation of the last wheel of the train and in transmitting to a regulator, be it a balance or a pendulum, the power sent into that wheel.

ESCAPEMENT THE MOST ESSENTIAL PART.

Of all the parts of the timepiece the escapement is then the most essential; it is the part which assures regularity in the running of the watch or clock, and that part of parts that endows the piece with real value.  The most perfect escapement would be that one which should perform its duty with the least influence upon the time of oscillation or vibration of the regulating organ.  The stoppage of the train by the escapement is brought about in different ways, which may be gathered under three heads or categories.  In the two which we shall mention first, the stop is effected directly upon the axis of the regulator, or against a piece which forms a part of that axis; the tooth of the escape wheel at the moment of its disengagement remains supported upon or against that stop.

In the first escapement invented and, indeed, in some actually employed to-day for certain kinds of timekeepers, we notice during the locking a retrograde movement of the escape wheel; to this kind of movement has been given the name of recoil escapement.  It was recognized by the fraternity that this recoil was prejudicial to the regularity of the running of the mechanism and, after the invention of the pendulum and the spiral, inventive makers succeeded in replacing this sort of escapement with one which we now call the dead-beat escapement.  In this latter the wheel, stopped by the axis of the regulator, remains immovable up to the instant of its disengagement or unlocking.

In the third category have been collected all those forms of escapement wherein the escape wheel is locked by an intermediate piece, independent of the regulating organ.  This latter performs its vibrations of oscillation quite without interference, and it is only in contact with the train during the very brief moment of impulse which is needful to keep the regulating organ in motion.  This category constitutes what is known as the detached escapement class.

Of the recoil escapement the principal types are:  the verge escapement or crown-wheel escapement for both watches and clocks, and the recoil anchor escapement for clocks.  The cylinder and duplex escapements for watches and the Graham anchor escapement for clocks are styles of the dead-beat escapement most often employed.  Among the detached escapements we have the lever and detent or chronometer escapements for watches; for clocks there is no fixed type of detached lever and it finds no application to-day.