This is the clock mechanism is the tower at Wigton. One issue that had always concerned me was that a pendulum always loses energy as it swings and yet pendulum clocks just keep going. I know that you wind up a clock to give it energy - I have wound up this clock; it's hard going! But I wasn't clear how this happens. It's the toothed gear wheels that do it. The mechanism is called an escapement. I'll do a future post to explain how our clock is given energy by winding up weights. However, as far as I can see, the force from the springs pushes on the pendulum by means of the gear wheels of the escapement.
Here is the lever from the clock mechanism to the pendulum.
Then the swing of the pendulum regulates the speed at which the gear wheel can rotate, thus fixing the speed at which the clock ticks.
