Atmos clock

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Atmos is the brand name of a mechanical clock manufactured by Jaeger LeCoultre in Switzerland which doesn't need to be wound up. It gets the energy it needs to run from small temperature changes in the environment, and can run for years without human intervention.

Its power source is a hermetically sealed capsule containing a mixture of gas and liquid ethyl chloride, which expands into an expansion chamber as the temperature rises, compressing a spiral spring; with a fall in temperature the gas condenses and the spring slackens.^[1] This motion constantly winds the mainspring. A variation in temperature of only one degree in the range between 15 and 30 degrees Celsius is sufficient for two days' operation.

In order to run the clock on this small amount of energy, everything inside the Atmos has to work in as friction-free a manner as possible. For timekeeping it uses a torsion pendulum, which consumes less energy than an ordinary pendulum. The torsion pendulum executes only two torsional oscillations per minute, which is 60 times slower that the pendulum in a conventional clock.

[edit] History

Experimental clocks powered by atmospheric pressure and temperature changes were invented during the Enlightenment. An early example is Cox's timepiece, a clock developed in the 1760s by James Cox and John Joseph Merlin. The oldest predecessor still running today is the 1864 Beverly Clock.

The first Atmos clock was designed by Jean-Léon Reutter, an engineer in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in 1928.^[2] This noncommercial prototype, which predated the Atmos name but is now known unofficially as Atmos 0, was driven by a mercury-in-glass expansion device. The mechanism operated on temperature changes alone.

On June 1, 1929, Compagnie Générale de Radio (CGR) in France began manufacturing the first commercial model, Atmos 1, which used a mercury and ammonia bellows power source. On July 27, 1935 Jaeger LeCoultre took over production of Atmos 1 while it developed a second design which used the present ethyl chloride power source. This model, later named the Atmos 2, was announced January 15, 1936, but problems delayed full production until mid 1939.

[edit] References

• LeCoultre Atmos Clock History
• Sacks, Adam Michael. How the Atmos works. The Atmos clock page. Retrieved on 2007-12-08. Detailed drawing of movement, gallery of pictures.
• Murray, Michael P. (2004). Mike's Clock Clinic. Retrieved on 2007-12-07. Clock repairer specializes in Atmos, much info on models, part supply, history.

[edit] Notes