The Rolling Ball Web
An Online Compendium of
Rolling Ball Sculptures, Clocks, Etc.
By David M. MacMillan et. al.
In addition to the major ways of arranging a rolling ball's track (rolling down a fixed track, oscillating back and forth or around a fixed track, and rolling back and forth on an oscillating track (Congreve)) it is possible to imagine any number of other track configurations. This page collects the known examples.
As discussed on the page devoted to rolling balls assisting an oscillator, a so-called "free pendulum" clock of the early to mid 20th century consists of a set of paired clocks, master and slave, arranged so that the slave clock impulses the master clock and is in turn synchronized at every impulse to the master clock. The slave clock is in itself a complete clock, although it is not typically run as such.
With this in mind, it becomes clear that each of the proposals of Parriss, Craig, and Turpin involve slave clocks which are themselves rolling ball clocks. Of these three, to the best of my knowledge only Parriss went so far as to suggest in his patent that his slave clock could be used as an independent clock in its own right. He did so in the context of suggesting it as a "time switch," presumably for the control of processes and machinery.
Considered as a rolling ball clock in its own right, Parriss' clock may be considered in two forms. In the first, represented by the clock, P1, described in his patent of 1947, a part of the ball path is fixed, a part tilts, and that same tilting part is also used to throw the ball upward into the stationary path. In the later clocks P2 and P3 (P3 being designed and built in conjunction with Mr. E. O. Chapman), all of the track itself is stationary, and only the cup attached to the gravity arm moves. P1 and P2 are therefore very similar to the unidirectional fixed path rolling ball clocks of the 17th century.
With the exception of any material noted as being in the public domain, the text, images, and encoding of this document are copyright © 1998 by David M. MacMillan.
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Version
1.2, 1998/06/19.
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