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The Brèillie battery clocks were developed around the turn of the century in Europe. Several different forms of the basic pendulette battery clocks were put into production, all with the short, quick pendulum carrying a horseshoe-shaped permanent magnet passing through a coiled copper wire solenoid. The Brilliè is notable, but Frey, LeRoy, LePaute and other makers' battery clocks of very similar design are to be seen. Electrical contacts, usually operated directly by the pendulum, switch current from a dry cell to the solenoid. A ratchet pawl attached to the pendulum rod drives the dial.
Many were designed as secondary or "slave" dials to be part of a master clock system. The upper part of the pendulum rod activated electrical contacts connected in such a manner as to produce alternate polarity electrical impulses. A single master clock could provide half second electrical impulses to maintain several slaves connected in a series string. The use of alternating polarity impulses in master/slave clock systems was widely adopted in many parts of Europe, but rarely seen in the United States. |
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