GENTS MASTER CLOCK TYPE C7, 1950's

Gledhill and Brook put their name on it, and Gents of Leicester supplied it, Parsons and Ball Manufacturing made it. Using the 'Pulsynetic' principle which swings and impulses the pendulum with a gravity arm every 30 seconds. The gravity arm is then raised and reset using a magnetic solenoid. It is different from the GPO clock Item A0073 which uses a simpler 'Hipp Toggle' principal.
Removed from The Whippendell Electric Works in Watford.

This item can be demonstrated.


SEE http://west-penwith.org.uk/misc/gent.htm

Your comments:

• I have one of these clocks in my study. Its serial number 11729 and dated 13 September 1961. It is in working order but unused due to the loud klonk every 30 seconds. The clock also contains the original instruction manual for the impulse clock system.
  .......... Derek Thomas , Warmington , 1st of May 2023
  
  
• Worked for Gent of Leicester for many years; Servicing C7's, (C6's and Others, XC406 / 7 / 8, all Chronophers):.. Loved the very simple, tho precise, C7 Movement. (using the provided gram weights, for time adjustment, placed on top of the pendulum Bob, or at the bottom, for "faster or slower" minute adjustments).The Waiting Train Movement for larger, (usually Tower clocks),..equally simple, but deriving the 30 second pulse from the C7 (or similar) located elsewhere in the building;..and in some cases, tied in with a Carillion, to provide "Chimes" on the hour / half hour. As stated, the C7 could control some dozens of S Type Movement, Slave clocks in schools, Hospitals, or industrial buildings. ...
  .......... Bob McCoy, Livingston, West Lothian, 12th of July 2016
  
  
• John is of course correct in saying the Gents clock does not make use of the Hipp toggle. As he says, it makes use of a gravity arm to impulse the pendulum - as do the competing ( and arguably superior)Synchronome master clocks. The Hipp toggle was used in another similar master clock widely used by the GPO - the PO.No 36. All three designs work only, and directly, from a battery supply and no propulsion springs are involved. They would normally drive a string of "slave dials" in a large building and so indicate the same time throughout.
  .......... Robert Gilbert, UK, 31st of December 2014
  
  
• My Grandfather made a wind up clock from a Gent Master Clock C7. It retained most of the housing and the clock face but a chain-driven wind up mechanism from a worker's timekeeping clock replaced the original electrical mechanism. My Grandfather used to be a fireman at the Elswick works in Newcastle upon Tyne this is where the C7 came from. I inherited the clock and even to this day it's quite happily ticking away telling everyone in the household the time. I am happy to forward some photos of the clock if you would like them.
  .......... Wayne Dearden, Blyth, Northumberland, UK, 3rd of August 2010
  
  
• The Gents C7 which you show does not use a Hipp Toggle, a device intended to maintain the pendulum independent of the timekeeping. Instead it uses a gravity arm which impulses the pendulum every 30 secs "whether it needs it or not" and also impulses the slave clocks.
  Gent did make some clocks with a hipp toggle (Not "Hipp and Toggle", Hipp is a mans name)most notably their waiting train movements which are used to drive large Tower Clocks
  .......... John Ashurst, Manchester, 21st of May 2010
  
  

A0949