Clocktime: Tompion & Banger Sidereal Regulator 1708, 04 Design

Thomas Tompion & Edward Banger - Sidereal Tompion Regulator No. 483 fixed sidereal hour ring, rotating GMT ring from extended hour hand.
Join Dr John C Taylor OBE from the Clocktime digital museum as he discusses the design of the Tompion & Banger Sidereal Regulator, circa 1708.
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So, to show you the actual engraving and so on we'll just open the dial. So, here you have the signature 'Tho. Tompion London' and it's a plate and you can actually see the rivet heads which have slightly distorted the plate as it's been made quickly when Tompion and Banger fell out, nobody really knows why. Like all accurate clocks Tompion has put a shutter here and a little lever on the outside so that you can cock the shutter to wind the clock and that then gives the maintaining power the extra little spring to keep the movement running once it's wound. The movement is a month going movement, so it only needs winding once a month but while you wind it the maintaining power keeps the pendulum ticking away. The case is a beautiful black Japanned case, very high quality, just what you'd expect from Tompion with Doric columns and wonderful spandrels. So, in the corners of the dial we've got these wonderful Indian, as they called, spandrels and the detail of the spandrels it's a most beautiful casting and then it's been chased to add any detail that might have been lost in their casting. Aren't they beautiful? What more can you say, it's a beautiful Tompion case.