Hi all clock aficionados,
Recently, on the Hand Tools- Unpowered forum under the heading "Unbranded chain drill" I asked about the origins of a chain drill I had recently acquired. My reason for posting here is, does this drive mechanism have any relevance to clock works?

Russell maybe 004.jpg Fowlercoilinggearhaining01.jpg

This first photo is of the chain drill drive where the bottom two cogs of unequal number of teeth, 26 and 27, are held in mesh by the cog above them. This results in the tool advancing slowly as the drive shaft is turned. The second photo is taken from the book Ploughing By Steam by John Haining and Colin Tyler and shows a cable coiling mechanism patented by John Fowler in England in the early 1860's. To date I've had no luck tracking down a copy of that patent. Fowlers example is used to lay the rope evenly on the winch drum as it is wound in.
What's the relevance to clocks you may ask? Well my thinking is that with the appropriate number of teeth, say 60 and 61, (59 - 60?) a mechanism like this could be used where every sixty revolutions of the minute hand would be accompanied by the advancement of the hour hand by one increment. If this is relevant to clock mechanisms, then it stands to reason that the idea is hundreds of years old rather than the 150 odd that Fowlers shows.
And although I have still not found the name of the manufacturer of my chain drill, which I'm sure I eventually will, this query viewed and hopefully addressed by you clock makers, will add a bit of information to my catalogue entry for this tool.

Cheers,
Geoff.