Rack striking The Reverend Edward Barlow is widely credited with inventing, in 1676, the rack striking mechanism, although it is possible that the development of this design came out of ‘an amalgam of ideas by Barlow, [Thomas] Tompion, [Joseph] Knibb and [Robert] Hooke’.[1] Rack striking is regulated by a rack-and-snail mechanism and was devised to strike the hour. The snail is part of the going train that revolves every 12 hours. It regulates the distance that the rack is allowed to fall, thereby regulating the number of times the bell is struck. Because the number of strikes on the hour is determined by the position of the snail, which rotates in tandem with the hour hand, rack striking seldom becomes desynchronised. Rack striking also made the repeating clock possible. The design became the standard mechanism used in striking clocks going forwards, right through to the present day. End Note [1] Robey 2005, 17. Reference Robey, J. March 2005. ‘Who invented rack-and-snail striking? The early development of repeating and rack striking’ in Antiquarian Horology, pp. 1–18.
