Among the wedding presents my wife and I received was a square, white, corded electric wall clock with chrome trim around the face. I don't recall the brand, but given the time frame, I am sure it was made in the US. One day, I was in the process of rearranging some things on the wall, when I knocked the clock to the floor. It was still plugged in, but it was no longer running.
This was in the days of wind-up watches. When they quit, sometimes after winding them, you had to restart the mechanism by gently rocking them back and forth. I tried that with the clock, but it didn’t work. I continued with the rocking motion, getting progressively vigorous until I was shaking the clock violently. Whether it was the motion or my look of anger, I don’t know, but the clock started.
As I rehung the clock, I noticed the second hand was running backwards. I unplugged it, waited a few minutes, plugged it back in, and got the same reverse results. The minute and hour hands also followed suit and were running in reverse. The clock still kept perfect time and we learned how to read it in reverse. It drove house guests crazy, but my wife and I thought it was cool.
The clock continued running backwards for more than a year, even after we moved it to another wall and plugged it into a different outlet. One day, I plugged a DC adapter in the same outlet and the clock made a weird grinding noise, stopped, and then started again, only this time it was running in the right direction. I have no idea what caused any of this, but the clock was a good and faithful servant for many years until it was dispatched to the big appliance store in the sky. If there was a monkey involved, I would like to shake his hand.
This entry was submitted by Ralph L. Wirtel and edited by Rob Spiegel
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the quartz analog clocks rely on an inexpensive quartz crystal which is probably+/-100 ppm, typically probably 20 ppm.
The AC synchronous motor clocks rely on the power company. I think most of the major AC power grids litteraly count the number of cycles in an hour and speed up or slow down slightly every hour to make the long term stability way better even than the short term stability. So that there are exactly 5,184,000 cycles in a day (60 Hz US standard).
Yes, Bpark, in the story it was a two-stroke. A dirt bike if I remember right. That would make sense. So the engine doesn't care what direction it turns. That must be quite surprising when it happens.
2 stroke engines with reed valve intakes can run in either direction. One of my friends would start up model airplane engines, and they would sometimes get going the wrong way. He would throw a rag into the propeller to stop the engine so it could be restarted. So the bike engine running backwards is no mystery, if it's 2 stroke.
I assumed the DC adapter was for another appliance plugged into the same outlet as the clock.
I cannot imagine the adapter causing the grinding sound. My first thought is of a poor service connection. Plugging in the adapter caused an intermittant connect-disconnect (sparking) of the 110v service to the outlet. If you caught this motor just right, it could reverse it. You may also hear it as chatter or grinding in the clock. Not a safe condition.
That makes sense, Bpark. We had an entry in the Made by Monkeys section by the owner of a small motorcycle. He told the story of his bike starting backwards. Same concept, I guess.
I had an analog alarm clock that developed a similar tendancy to run the wrong way. What I found is that it had a synchronous motor that was equally comfortable starting and running in either direction, and it used a rachet mechanism to force it to only run in the desired direction. When the grease on the rachet mechanism thickened a bit it kept the rachet dog from engaging the wheel, and so the motor could now rotate in either direction.
There is no mystery at all why the clock ran backwards. There is a type of motor where the rotor is a permanent magnet inside an AC pole structure (like a "standard" synchronous motor). If the rotor is light enough, its vibration amplitude at 60 Hz will exceed a pole pitch. Such a synchronous motor will spontaneously start in a random direction. A ratchet mechanism forces it to reverse if it starts in the wrong direction. The drop damaged this mechanism, allowing the motor to start backwards.
You mean you don't just keep everything on GMT <vbg>? I only have about 6 or 7 "conventional" clocks (microwave, oven, coffe maker, cordless phones, ancient clock radio and an old VCR, etc.) and I just take my cellphone (the Verizon one, the AT&T Blackberry is way off) around with me.
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