What is "escapement"

Escapement \Es*cape"ment\, n. [Cf. F. ['e]chappement. See Escape.]

1. The act of escaping; escape. [R.]

2. Way of escape; vent. [R.]

   An escapement for youthful high spirits.
   --G. Eliot.

3. The contrivance in a timepiece which connects the train of wheel work with the pendulum or balance, giving to the latter the impulse by which it is kept in vibration; -- so called because it allows a tooth to escape from a pallet at each vibration.

   Note: Escapements are of several kinds, as the vertical, or verge, or crown, escapement, formerly used in watches, in which two pallets on the balance arbor engage with a crown wheel; the anchor escapement, in which an anchor-shaped piece carries the pallets; -- used in common clocks (both are called recoil escapements, from the recoil of the escape wheel at each vibration); the cylinder escapement, having an open-sided hollow cylinder on the balance arbor to control the escape wheel; the duplex escapement, having two sets of teeth on the wheel; the lever escapement, which is a kind of detached escapement, because the pallets are on a lever so arranged that the balance which vibrates it is detached during the greater part of its vibration and thus swings more freely; the detent escapement, used in chronometers; the remontoir escapement, in which the escape wheel is driven by an independent spring or weight wound up at intervals by the clock train, -- sometimes used in astronomical clocks. When the shape of an escape-wheel tooth is such that it falls dead on the pallet without recoil, it forms a deadbeat escapement.

in watch- and clock-making, 1779 (from 1755 as scapement), based on French échappement (1716 in this sense); see escape (v.) + -ment.

n. 1 The contrivance in a timepiece (winding wrist watch) which connects the train of wheel work with the pendulum or balance, giving to the latter the impulse by which it is kept in vibration; -- so called because it allows a tooth to escape from a pallet at each vibration. 2 a mechanism found in devices such as a typewriter or printer which controls lateral motion of the carriage 3 an escape or means of escape

n. mechanical device that regulates movement

An escapement is a device in mechanical watches and clocks that transfers energy to the timekeeping element (the "impulse action") and allows the number of its oscillations to be counted (the "locking action"). The impulse action transfers energy to the clock's timekeeping element (usually a pendulum or balance wheel) to replace the energy lost to friction during its cycle and keep the timekeeper oscillating. The escapement is driven by force from a coiled spring or a suspended weight, transmitted through the timepiece's gear train. Each swing of the pendulum or balance wheel releases a tooth of the escapement's escape wheel gear, allowing the clock's gear train to advance or "escape" by a fixed amount. This regular periodic advancement moves the clock's hands forward at a steady rate. At the same time the tooth gives the timekeeping element a push, before another tooth catches on the escapement's pallet, returning the escapement to its "locked" state. The sudden stopping of the escapement's tooth is what generates the characteristic "ticking" sound heard in operating mechanical clocks and watches.

Escapements are used elsewhere as well. Manual typewriters used escapements to step the carriage as each letter (or space) was typed.

An escapement is a mechanism for imparting power to a clock or watch mechanism, with timing controlled by a pendulum or other resonant device.

Escapement may also refer to:

• Escapement (radio control), an obsolete precursor to the servo, used for the control of a radio-controlled model
• Escapement (film), a 1958 British film
• Escapement (fishing), a term used in fisheries science to refer to that portion of the spawning stock surviving fishing pressures over a spawning cycle.

Escapement is a 1958 black and white British science fiction film, known in the U.S. as The Electronic Monster. It was based on the novel Escapement by Charles Eric Maine (London, 1956).