[Illustration:  Fig. 166]

[Illustration:  Fig. 167]

The travel of the pendulum, though greatly reduced, still surpassed in breadth the arc in which it is isochronous, and repeated efforts were made to give such shape to the levers as would compel its oscillation within the arc of equal time; a motion which is, as was recognized even at that epoch, the prime requisite to a precise rating.  Thus, in 1720, Julien Leroy occupied himself working out the proper shapes for the inclines to produce this desired isochronism.  Searching along the same path, Ferd.  Berthoud constructed an escapement represented by the Fig. 165.  In it we see the same inclines A B of the former construction, but the locking is effected against the slides C and D, the curved faces of which produce isochronous oscillations of the pendulum.  The tooth b imparts its lift and the tooth c will lock against the face C; after having passed through its recoil motion this tooth c will butt against the incline A and work out its lift or impulse upon it.

THE GABLE ESCAPEMENT.

[Illustration:  Fig. 168]

[Illustration:  Fig. 169]

The gable escapement, shown in Fig. 166, allows the use of a heavier pendulum, at the same time the anchor embraces within its jaws a greater number of the escape-wheel teeth; an arrangement after this manner leads to the conclusion that with these long levers of the anchor the friction will be considerably increased and the recoil faces will, as a consequence, be quickly worn away.  Without doubt, this was invented to permit of opening and closing the contact points of the anchor more easily.  Under the name of the English recoil anchor there came into use an escapement with a reduced gable, which embraced fewer teeth between the pallets or inclines; we give a representation of this in Fig. 167.  This system seems to have been moderately successful.  The anchor recoil escapement in use in Germany to-day is demonstrated in Fig. 168; this arrangement is also found in the American clocks.  As we see, the anchor is composed of a single piece of curved steel bent to the desired curves.  Clocks provided with this escapement keep reasonably good time; the resistance of the recoils compensate in a measure for the want of isochronism in the oscillations of the pendulum.  Ordinary clocks require considerably more power to drive them than finer clocks and, as a consequence, their ticking is very noisy.  Several means have been employed to dampen this noise, one of which we show in Fig. 169.

[Illustration:  Fig. 170]

Here the anchor is composed of two pieces, A B, screwed upon a plate H pivoting at V.  In their arrangement the two pieces represent, as to distance and curvature, the counterpart of Fig. 168.  At the moment of impact their extreme ends recoil or spring back from the shock of the escape teeth, but the resiliency of the metal is calculated to be strong enough to return them immediately to the contact studs e e.