How well do you know your grandfather clock? Knowing how your tall clock works will make it easier for you. It’s like having your husband around all the time.

How well do you know your grandfather clock?

Everyday you glance admiringly at your new 7-foot tall clock. It has brightened up your living room, making the room homier. It was the perfect touch. You never had this so good when doing your own interior decorating.

But do you know everything about your clock? If you can point out the pendulum bob and the cable pulleys, then you know something. If you can’t tell the difference, it’s time to skim through the manual of your grandfather clock.

The swing of the pendulum

If you think your time counter is just an accessory to be admired, you’re dead wrong. This type of clock tells the time accurately and keeps time within a minute per month. The gears inside the clock are controlled by the swinging pendulum year in and year out – and of course will wear and tear without proper care.

The pendulum (made from brass and steel) of your clock is suspended from secure cables, and moves back and forth – influenced by gravity. This regulates the clock and alerts the system to release the power of the right rate. The longer or shorter the pendulum is, the slower or faster the swing.

The swinging pendulum is counting time. This is complemented by mechanical systems of gears, levers, spring, and catches. The movement of the mechanical levers, wheels and gears are controlled to calculate the accurate tick of the second, minute, and hour hands. You can adjust the swing of the pendulum slower or faster by just adjusting the ball of the pendulum slightly.

Chimes

At the hour, the spring driven hammers will strike the tubular bells. Some grandfather clocks will allow for the selection of melodies. If your clock has three melodies, you can change the melody when the minute hand is set in the safe time area.

When the chimes stop, you can move the minute hand counterclockwise. If there is some resistance, better call the supplier to do the job for you. Never attempt to touch the chime lever when the clock is chiming or you will damage the chime system. You can follow the illustrated manual that came with your grandfather clock.

Weights

Observe that there are three weights in the case of your grandfather clock. The left powers the hour strike, the center is for time, and the right weight is for the melody.

These weights, attached to a chain or a cable, should be raised every 7 days or the clock will stop. For cable driven weights, a crank will be available. For chain driven weights, the loose end of the chain is pulled down.

There are more things to learn to appreciate how the system inside works. In time, you’ll be comfortable with your clock. In the meantime, don’t mess with your grandfather clock, just let the pendulum swing.

Time waits for no man … or woman. The grandfather clock in my parent’s house stood in the corner of the dining room from the time of their marriage. This antique clock was a bargain at the purchase price of £5 at an auction when they first set up home and nearly 60 years later the grandfather clock is still a much loved part of the family. When they bought it, it was a pile of pieces on the floor of the auction house but my father did some clock repair on it and managed to get it working. I remember using the gap behind the grandfather clock for hide and seek (until I grew too big) and hiding my grandmother’s handbag in the case so she couldn’t go home one day! The gentle tick tock has been a comfort on many occasions, particularly on sleepless nights, the unmistakable grandfather clock chime letting me know the time without having to disturb anyone else. Children and grandchildren have all peeked inside to watch the pendulum swing or to watch Grandad going through the ceremony of winding the weights up each week at precisely 7:25 am on a Sunday. This was the only time in the morning he could fit the key into both the keyholes on the face because only then were the grandfather clock hands in the right place!

The grandfather clock has had its moments though! The mechanism has become temperamental with age and has undergone clock repair a number of times. When my parents moved 20 years’ ago, the grandfather clock went with them and they decided to have it cleaned and refurbished. The specialist who came to see it was intrigued because the case was a ‘modern’ one (remember this is an antique clock and probably means early 20th century). He was interested enough to take a photograph of the movement and send it to the British Museum. The response from the British Museum was a real surprise. Our much loved grandfather clock really wasn’t a grandfather clock at all! It had started off life as a wall clock, but it must have been a very large one.

The maker of our grandfather clock was a Dutchman called A. Fromanteel although we are not sure which one, the father Ahasuerus who came to England in 1620 and developed the pendulum clock in 1658 or Abraham, it certainly has a much finer pedigree than we do! From very scanty research on the internet we have found out that the Fromanteel family were innovators and were the first to produce a clock that was accurate and not affected by the weather. Each clock that they built had some new feature on it. Our own grandfather clock has a pillar movement although I know that the date feature no longer works.

Has this information made a difference to us? No. To us it is still the grandfather clock of our childhood, a comforting reminder of happy memories and life and time moving on.

Every child in high school learns that a pendulum’s rate of swing (its period) is proportional to its length. This is the only factor that affects the period. Galileo discovered this in 1582.

Today’s grandfather clocks are descendants of William Clement’s clock from 1670. He had discovered that a longer pendulum meant more accurate time-keeping. The long pendulum had to be enclosed to prevent children (and adults) playing with it. Hence the long-case clock was invented. The name Grandfather Clock comes from Henry Work’s 1875 song, “My Grandfather’s Clock.”

If your parents or grandparents had a grandfather clock you are certain to remember it well. Its sounding of every hour with a tremendously resonant goooooonnnngg, the way it kept you awake all night until you were used to it, the daily winding ritual, its sheer presence. How many times did you stand and watch the pendulum swinging in front of your face, safely enclosed behind a glass panel? How many times did you ask to be allowed to pull on the chains that wound it up?

These fantastic historical clocks are held in the memories of more than one generation.

Modern homes are generally too small to accommodate a grandfather clock easily. Some people buy one to remind them of their youth, or perhaps, to give their children similar fantastic memories of the sight, sound and presence of this amazing timepiece.

You can now buy plans or kits to make your own grandfather, or long case, clock. These clocks will obviously come at a lower cost than an antique, or any other ready made grandfather clock.

The kits come in a variety of finishes, from palest pine to darkest rosewood.

The most important thing to check out before you buy is the sound of the chime. You are going to live with this for a long time; you have to like the sound of your clock.

You look outside the window and you realize it is raining. The wind is blowing hard against the oak tree out in your backyard and the tree dances with the tune of the wind. You pour yourself a cup of coffee and sit behind the desk of your study and find yourself staring at your grandfather clock, which stands across the room. You cast a glance at the keyboard of the computer in front of you and your mind wanders off into another place and another time.

Get in the Mood for Writing

Many people love to write and that is not just a mere fact. However, to write is no easy task. You need to know what you write and you need to feel what you write. Most of the time, there are just certain circumstances and moods that draw you to start scribbling or tapping those keys on the keyboard. Stories can just pop out of your head from the things you see everyday, things that when put together with the right setting and mood, could inspire you to write.

A grandfather clock exudes an aura of elegance, grace, and a certain ambient mood to any room it is situated in. With a grandfather clock and the right literary catalyst, you will find yourself transported in a world vivid with color and life, a world only your imagination can create and bring to life.

Give It Its History

When you stare at an object, you sometimes find your imagination starting to run wild with questions and small scenarios of things that you think relate to it, scenarios that you think might have happened well in the past that a thing had definitely bore witness to. Or it could also bring to mind memories that you had buried somewhere in your subconscious which only manifests itself when you let your imagination run loose.

Writers often write from memories, experiences of others, or from things. Many of the best writers have written stories about events and people that revolved around a certain thing. Nicholas Sparks wrote “Message in a Bottle” and “The Notebook”, and those two were worldwide bestsellers. There is a big chance that he was inspired to write such stories because he saw a story, some kind of life behind those ordinary things. Maybe you can do that too with the things that you see in your very own home like your grandfather clock.

Maybe the sound of the blowing wind and the oak tree dancing outside your window starts the ball rolling. Maybe those inspire you to write how your protagonist is, what his or her life is about, and what brought about this memory. Maybe you, as the writer, are looking through your character’s eyes as he stares out of his window and sees the event unfold before him. Maybe you, as you think like your character, remember a memory that happened, a memory triggered by the weather outside, the wonderful smell of steaming hot coffee, and the steady ticking of the pendulum in the grandfather clock. Maybe the steady ticking allows you to start a mental pace of the story as it unfolds in your head, a story that might be your very own bestseller.