Spiders

From Know the Escapement, by Sarah and Homer Barkus, 1945.

"One of the most interesting 'stoppers' we ever what was a 4 1/2 ligne Swiss.  It must have been cleaned just three months before.  Sorry we did not have this one photographed.


"A tiny spider, no larger than the head of a pin, had somehow gotten into this watch.  The constant ticking and noise of the movement must have been very distracting to the insect; at least it had reasons for stopping this watch.


"The mechanical ability of the spider surpassed anything we ever dreamed of.  Somehow fastening his web, he lassoed the Balance Wheel at the point where it came to a complete stop to reverse motion.  We took special care to note that the wheel was caught at the dead-center point of it excursion.  The contacts of the web and the angles at which it was fastened proved a masterpiece of engineering.


"The poor little creature was dead on his web when the watch was opened.  There were no contacts of the web on the lid.  It was all accomplished from the balance bridge to the escape bridge and Balance Wheel, with a few strands on the pallets.


"How it undertook and completed the job of harnessing this fast-moving Balance Wheel, hundreds - perhaps thousands - of times his own weight, was really a masterpiece."