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Bicycle Pump Clock

 pneumatic clock powered by a bicycle pump
  (+2, -1)
(+2, -1) 		  [vote for,
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Pneumatic clocks are not new (see link for a very fine article on the subject) but this is a domestic version that's powered by a bicycle pump. Once a week the owner must deliver a fresh change of air to the clocks reservoirs via a standard bicycle pump.

The modestly amount of stored compressed air is sufficient to drive the tiny piston, and escape mechanism that operates the clock.

De-luxe version comes in the form of a miniature of the famous Popp clock of which there were once 7,800 on the streets of Paris examples (link)

—xenzag, Feb 22 2020

Popp Clock http://www.douglas-...rclock/airclock.htm
The French were always innovators of gloriously designed eccentricity [xenzag, Feb 22 2020]

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       // escape mechanism //   

       Sp. "escapement"   

       This could be an interesting constant-force energy source for a clock, so [+].   

       Also in the Museum of Retro Tech there's a whole gallery of "Oddly powered clocks" including several powered by changes in atmospheric pressure.
—8th of 7, Feb 22 2020
   

       //constant-force energy source// I'm not sure how you plan to keep the driving force constant, as it will tend to decline as the pressure falls. That's not a disaster (most spring-powered clocks and watches don't have a constant driving force), but it will affect the timekeeping.   

       You could always use a fusée, though, to recover a constant driving force.
—MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 22 2020
   

       A slow moving wide area piston - or a diaphragm - driven by very low pressure air via a regulator, and gearing to a fusée as described. If the flow rate is low, there will be little energy lost in the regulator, and it can be valved by a cam on the fusée.
—8th of 7, Feb 22 2020
   


 

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