This page now demonstrates an abstract one-tooth escapement schedule: a driven toothed wheel is locked, the gate releases, the wheel advances exactly one pitch and the next tooth is locked. It is not a dimensional design for a watch, clock or industrial indexer and does not predict energy transfer or timing accuracy.
One-Tooth Escapement Schedule Explorer
Set escape-wheel tooth count and a declared deviation fraction of one pitch. The animation shows a transparent lock–release–relock schedule; it does not claim that arbitrary pallet geometry will function.
Equation Used
- The escape wheel has N equally spaced teeth.
- One complete illustrated event advances the wheel by exactly one tooth pitch.
- The locking gate is prescribed closed before release and after one pitch, and clear during wheel advance.
- Declared deviation fraction f is limited to 0 through 0.5 pitch and is not a measured accuracy specification.
- Animation phase is normalized and does not represent beat rate or elapsed time.
- Tooth and pallet profiles, centers, clearances, draw, drop, impulse, banking, safety action, drive torque, load, energy, friction, lubrication, wear, oscillator, timing performance, manufacturing tolerances and safe application are excluded.
Replaces unsupported accuracy and energy claims with exact tooth-pitch arithmetic and a transparent one-tooth lock–release–relock schedule.
A locking gate meters one tooth-pitch event
An escapement alternately holds and releases a driven toothed wheel. In the abstract schedule shown here, the gate begins in contact with a tooth, moves clear, permits exactly one pitch of wheel advance and returns to contact the next tooth.
Real escapements use specifically shaped and located tooth, pallet, impulse and safety surfaces. This illustration deliberately does not claim those dimensions.
Use this page to inspect pitch and event sequencing
The worksheet can audit 360/N tooth pitch and express a declared angular deviation as a fraction of that pitch. It cannot design an escapement, predict timing, choose materials or determine whether a physical mechanism will lock, unlock or transmit impulse reliably.
Separate exact pitch from a declared deviation
For N equally spaced teeth, one full revolution contains N identical tooth pitches.
The entered f is a declared normalized fraction, not measured accuracy.
A transparent 60-tooth example
For N=60, one pitch is 6.000 degrees and there are 60 tooth events per revolution. A declared fraction f=0.10 corresponds to 0.600 degrees, or 10.0 percent of one pitch.
No time, rate, energy or reliability result follows from those identities.
A schedule is not a working escapement design
Real operation depends on wheel and pallet profiles, pivot centers, locking depth, draw, drop, impulse faces, clearances, banking, safety action, oscillator dynamics, drive torque, load, inertia, friction, lubrication, wear and manufacturing tolerances.
The former universal angles, preload and energy margins, watch/projector/ammunition deployments, failure diagnoses and maintenance instructions are removed because they were not established for one documented mechanism.
Escapement schedule questions
Does one event always mean one tooth?
It does in this declared abstract schedule and in the cited timer-escapement description; other escapement families may use different event conventions.
Is the declared fraction an accuracy rating?
No. It only converts a chosen fraction of pitch into degrees and percent.
Does the gate drawing define manufacturable contact geometry?
No.
Does the animation predict beat rate?
No. Its phase is normalized.
Power-escapement references
- NIST, From Sundials to Atomic Clocks: escapement metering and one-tooth release in a verge description.
- US Patent 2,431,395: successive-tooth locking and one-tooth advance per full escapement cycle.
- US Patent 3,425,212: driven-wheel locking, release and capture of the next tooth.
- US Patent 7,661,874: distinct lock, unlock, release and impulse contact phases in a specific lever escapement.
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