Antique and Vintage Mechanical Clocks

This is a cautionary tale for anyone who owns a long-case or tall-case clock, especially a weight-driven example. I make that distinction because I do own a tall-case clock that is spring-driven, which I can assure you is quite unusual. Most, however, are weight-driven.

The other day, I went to investigate an issue with the strike side of an old Scottish clock assembled by a clockmaker named William McLaughlin in Scotland in the late 1840s. I purchased the clock at auction six years ago and spent many hours repairing the movement and restoring the case.

At the time, the clock was running—but just barely. The time side was functioning well, but the strike side needed some work and the addition of new parts to operate correctly. Since then, the clock has been running continuously and reliably for the past six years.

Recently, the strike side began to show a slight problem, which prompted me to remove the hood and carry out a closer inspection. The issue turned out to be that the rack was dropping too far back and was no longer being picked up properly by the gathering pallet. This situation seems to occur when I wind up the strike side weight too quickly, but something else might be amiss.

While investigating that area, I noticed something far more concerning: the strike-side barrel cable was badly frayed. The cable is made up of three groupings of strands, with each grouping consisting of about six wires. In this case, two of those groupings had snapped off completely. That left only one grouping intact—and even that was reduced to perhaps three or four remaining brass wires supporting the cable.

All of this was holding a 13-pound weight. I have enlarged the photo above to better illustrate the problem.

The proper solution is to repair or replace the cable. As a temporary measure, the existing cable may be reused, provided it is still in sound condition. This involves removing the movement from the case, separating the plates, and opening the strike-side drum. The cable can then be fed back into the barrel and secured with a knot on the inside. Although this shortens the cable by an inch or two, it should have no meaningful impact on the clock’s running time.

Since I will have the movement apart, it will be an opportunity to clean the movement, address any wear, and re-oil the mechanism. I checked the time-side drum to determine if there is a similar issue with the cable, and to my surprise, found it to be just fine.

The takeaway here is a simple but important one: weight cables on long-case clocks deserve regular inspection, especially on clocks that run continuously year after year. Fraying often happens slowly and out of sight, and failure can be sudden and dramatic—with potentially serious damage to the movement, the case, or anything beneath the falling weight. In the case of this clock, there is nothing to cushion the blow if the weight were to drop. A loud bang would accompany a dented hardwood floor.

A few moments spent checking cables when servicing or inspecting a clock can prevent a great deal of trouble later on. In this case, I was fortunate to catch the problem before gravity finished the job.