Also see THIS article for diagrams showing how it works.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. 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.
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. 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.
Movement:
Spherical tourbillon:
- mechanical manually-wound Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 174, crafted, assembled and decorated by hand
- 50-hour power reserve
- 371 parts
- 58 jewels
- 11.25 mm thick
Functions:
- outer carriage: aluminium, 60 seconds for a complete rotation
- inner carriage: 18.75 seconds for a complete rotation
- balance: inertia = 12,5 mg.cm2, 28,800 vibrations per hour
- 100 parts
Dial:
- Front: hour, minute, seconds indication on the carriage of the spherical tourbillon, 24 hours
- Back: power reserve
Hands:
- transparent mineral glass with Reverso numerals
Crowns:
- baton-shaped in blued steel
Case:
- 1 white gold crown for winding and time-setting
Strap:
- 950 platinum
- reversible, comprising over 50 parts
- 36 x 55 mm x 15.8 mm
- security bolt preventing accidental case opening
- transparent glareproofed sapphire crystals front and back
- water-resistant to 30 metres
Reference:
- alligator leather with white gold folding clasp
- 233 64 20, limited series of 75
isn't killing alligators illegal????Strap:
- alligator leather with white gold folding clasp
alligators and crocodileswhats two different reptiles
Big Ben's the bell that tolls the hour I thinkbesides big ben is the name of the tower the clock is called something else
I have no idea.and the largest clock is either in Turkey or Russia most likely Turkey
andThe Clock Tower is the world's biggest four-faced, chiming clock. The structure is situated at the north-eastern end of the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London. It is often colloquially referred to as Big Ben, which is actually the nickname of the main bell housed within the tower (formally known as the Great Bell)
The clock faces are large enough to have once allowed the Clock Tower to be the largest four-faced clock in the world, but have since been outdone by the Allen-Bradley Clock Tower in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The builders of the Allen-Bradley Clock Tower did not add chimes to the clock, so the Great Clock of Westminster still holds the title of the "world's largest four-faced chiming clock". The clock mechanism itself was completed by 1854, but the tower was not fully constructed until four years later, in 1858.