Home > Terms > English, UK (UE) > Wandering hour dial

Wandering hour dial

Normally associated with certain watches of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, though a few such dials were made for both longcase and bracket clocks. These were night clocks, the figures occurring as slits behind which the light from a lamp shines through to show the time. In this type of dial the hour appears in a disc which advances from left to right across a segmental slot marked along the edge in minutes and quarters. As one hour completes its journey along the slot the next hour appears on the left, marking the divisions of the following hour. There were two basic methods by which this action was achieved. In one, the hour discs were formed into a twelve-piece chain carried around a ten-sided wheel, bringing the correctly numbered disc into place at each succeeding hour. The other system employed a large revolving disc with two small revolving discs mounted on it opposite each other, one bearing the odd numbers I to XI and the other the even ones II to XII. Each smaller disc rotated one figure at each half-revolution of the main disc, bringing the respective hours into view as they moved along the aperture in the dial.

This is auto-generated content. You can help to improve it.
0
  • Part of Speech: noun
  • Synonym(s):
  • Blossary:
  • Industry/Domain: Chronometry
  • Category: Clock
  • Company:
  • Product:
  • Acronym-Abbreviation:
Collect to Blossary

Member comments

You have to log in to post to discussions.

Terms in the News

Featured Terms

Thuy Do
  • 0

    Terms

  • 0

    Blossaries

  • 0

    Followers

Industry/Domain: Zoology Category: Zoological terms

phylum placozoa

Macroscopic, flattened marine animals, composed of ventral and dorsal epithelial layers enclosing ...

Thuy Do
  • 0

    Terms

  • 0

    Blossaries

  • 0

    Followers

Industry/Domain: Zoology Category: Zoological terms

phylum cnidaria

Cnidarians. Hydras, hydroids, jellyfish, sea anemones, and corals. Free-swimming or sessile, with ...

qys1978
  • 0

    Terms

  • 1

    Blossaries

  • 0

    Followers

Industry/Domain: Accounting Category: Auditing

share a term with millions

Share a term with millions of users around the world and increase your online visibility.Share a ...

Bob
  • 0

    Terms

  • 1

    Blossaries

  • 5

    Followers

Industry/Domain: Plants Category: Trees

oak

Genus native to the Northern Hemisphere with spirally arranged leaves, catkins for flowers and ...

Bagar
  • 0

    Terms

  • 64

    Blossaries

  • 6

    Followers

Industry/Domain: Geography Category: Geography

Everest

The last but not least mount Everest. The Earth's highest mountain, with a peak at 8,848 metres ...

David Parkin
  • 0

    Terms

  • 1

    Blossaries

  • 36

    Followers

Industry/Domain: Plants Category: General plants

aglaonema

Genus of about 20 species of usually rhizomatous, evergreen perennials from tropical forest in Asia. ...

Aidan Teare
  • 0

    Terms

  • 0

    Blossaries

  • 6

    Followers

Industry/Domain: Science Category: General science

Robojelly

Robojelly is a hydrogen-powered robot desgined in the United States that moves through the water ...

  • 0

    Terms

  • 0

    Blossaries

  • 1

    Followers

Industry/Domain: People Category: Entrepreneurs

Ferdinand Porsche

Ferdinand Porsche (3 September 1875 – 30 January 1951) was an Austrian-German automotive engineer ...

  • 0

    Terms

  • 40

    Blossaries

  • 4

    Followers

Industry/Domain: Broadcasting & receiving Category: News

Marzieh Afkham

Marzieh Afkham, who is the country’s first foreign ministry spokeswoman, will head a mission in east ...

  • 0

    Terms

  • 0

    Blossaries

  • 1

    Followers

Industry/Domain: Accounting Category: Auditing

define1

Share a term with millions of users around the world and increase your online visibility.Share a ...

Contributor

Featured blossaries

Top 10 Inventors Of All Time

Category: History   1 10 Terms

Famous Musicians Named John

Category: Entertainment   6 21 Terms

Browers Terms By Category