nick@clockmaker.com.au

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Important French Revolution period sculptured porcelain clock of a museum quality ca. 1795.

During the French Revolution, the French invented and put into use a new Revolutionary calendar. The Revolutionary calendar was established in October 1793. Each month consisted of three weeks of ten days. The days were named after various crops and flowers. Instead of getting one day off every seven to pray in a church, the peasants were miffed that they got off only one day in ten to attend a "temple of reason," which is what the churches were rechristened. The years were numbered starting with the revolution, Year 1. The French also established a new clock, in which the day was divided in ten hours of a hundred minutes of a hundred seconds. (Thus, exactly 100,000 seconds per day.) The French Revolutionary calendar was in use from 1793 through 1805. Napoleon re-instituted the Gregorian calendar on December 31, 1805, as well as abolishing the "temples of reason," and the new clock

Repair to the broken calendar wheel bridge.
Some previous "repairer" decided to soft solder broken calendar wheel bridge. My dilemma was weather to make a brand new one or to repair the existing bridge (by way of silver or "hard" soldering and refinishing). The later was chosen based on argument of 1/ preserving original parts 2/ quality of repair 3/ functionality.

Related web site: restoration of a 1912. Waltham 18K Pocket watch "Bond St"

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