Workshop
The digital tour in the Saarland Clock Museum was made possible by the support of:


The workshop
The Franz (Frantz) family's shop was located in this room, but it was mainly a workshop. The workbenches that can be seen here, many tools and machines as well as a cash register come from their possession and are mostly from the 19th century.
The clocks in the two shop windows face outwards.

Lathe
The flat bath lathe is operated with a Fidel-bow, since the control with the hand was more precise than with an electric motor.
Description: The Swiss top swivel chair consists of two tailstocks, the burin support and a rail. A tailstock is attached to one end of the rail. The other two parts can be moved and fixed on the rail. The workpiece is inserted between the hollow center points. Either a roller is clamped onto the shaft to be rotated or onto the tailstock tip. The drive with a rotary arc naturally requires that the burin may only attack in one direction. The rotary arc was z. B. from a highly elastic rod made of whalebone, at the ends of which a cord was attached.


Regulator 1
After a repair has been completed, the clock still needs to be adjusted. This not only means setting the exact time, but also regulating the accuracy.
In the past, every watchmaker had a regulator, a pendulum clock with a precision movement and temperature compensation, possibly also with air pressure compensation. The repaired watch was set to the same time and after some time, e.g. B. a day, compared with the precision pendulum clock.

Regulator 2
This second pendulum clock with Graham escapement was made by Martin Machlinski, a member of the Saarland Clock Museum's association. The clock in a wooden case glazed on the front and sides has a white metal dial with a brass rim, a large minute hand, a small second hand in a dial below the twelve, a small hour hand in a dial above the six. The structure is similar to Riefler pendulum clocks and clocks from Strasser and Rohde from around 1900. The clock has a brass weight, the rope of which runs over a pulley, and a seconds pendulum with air pressure compensation. This - invented by Riefler - consists of four barometer boxes (aneroid boxes) coupled one behind the other, which contract or expand when the air pressure changes, thereby moving a piece of weight up or down. The effective length of the pendulum is changed in such a way that the slight change in rate caused by the change in pressure is compensated for.


Nowadays the time can be obtained via radio or the Internet and the adjustment is carried out electronically.
The "Wagumat" timing machine is used to measure the rate on mechanical, electrical and electronic watches and compares the oscillations of the rate regulator with a quartz-controlled standard frequency. The measurement result is made visible with the aid of a diagram printed on paper strips. The clockwork is placed on the left (electronic clocks) or right (mechanical clocks) side of the combined microphone and depending on the type of speed regulator, the corresponding button is pressed (one of nine buttons - e.g. 32 kHz quartz, 4 MHz quartz, LED display, mechanical clock with beat number 18000-21600, tuning fork clock, connection of a clip microphone for measuring a clock). Statements about the sound image and thus about deviations from the normal frequency and about interfering noises can be derived from the diagram on the paper strip. The nature of the interference also provides information on the causes of the error.

The cash register
The cash register has a device in the upper part in which writing paper can be unrolled from one roll to another. By pulling a knob, a roller is turned over a rod, a bell is activated and the paper is transported further. The paper can be written on through a window in the lid. All earnings for the day were recorded on the roll. After close of business, the cash register was settled and the receipts checked. The lower part of the drawer has five compartments for coins and bills. On the back, i.e. the side on which the customer is standing, large letters made of sheet metal are nailed to form the word KASSE.
A cash book from 1905 is still preserved. You will find many Italian names in it, guest workers from a time when the Saarland was rich and Saarbrücken was still the "metropolis of the west". They bought a pocket watch for their work underground, which they "paid off" on a monthly basis.
