Chapter Seventy-Eight: Sending the Clock

With Ye Huan's gesture, Bai Qijun finally shifted her gaze from the phonograph to the wooden box.
This wooden box is a vertical rectangular shape, divided into two parts: upper and lower sections.
At the top is a disc with two metal needles, one thick and one thin. The bottom part is hollowed out and a circular iron ball is suspended by a rope, swinging back and forth inside.
"This is actually a timer, like a sundial or an hourglass." Ye Huan walked up to this thing and introduced it to her, "But unlike a sundial, it doesn't need the sun. Do you see this thick needle? It rotates two numbers, which is one hour. And there's this smaller needle, it rotates a full circle, which is half an hour. I call it an 'hour'. You'll need to change the water for the bonsai at this time..."
This is actually a pendulum clock.
As a popular science video creator who specializes in debunking, Ye Huan has some knowledge about the basic structure of clocks and watches, as well as things like tourbillons.
This thing is actually very simple. Even if he uses only wood, he can hand-carve a clock, but it takes more time and is not very durable. And now with spells, metal processing has become easier, making it even easier to manufacture, with a certain guarantee of precision and durability.
And in the process of making, Ye Huan also observed that, like Earth, this world also has 24 hours in a day. Even the gravitational acceleration, which is closely related to the performance of the pendulum clock, is similar. So the pendulum clock he made is basically the same as the one on Earth.
Bai Qijun quickly learned how to read a clock after listening to Ye Huan's explanation for a while.
Her attention also shifted completely from the phonograph. After careful observation for a while, she found out that the slender needle called the "minute hand" was really moving slowly, while the movement of the "hour hand" was not so obvious.
"This thing is quite interesting," said Bai Qijun excitedly. "The most important thing is that it doesn't need to be managed, which is so convenient!"
This thing can tell her the time by itself wherever it is placed, which is much simpler than the way of using an hourglass or burning incense. It is really suitable for her, a demon! It's truly an interesting new toy.
"But it's not completely hands-off, it still needs some manipulation."
"Come over here and take a look."
Ye Huan waved his hand, signaling Bai Qijun to follow.
Both of them walked to the back of the wooden box, where there was a rotating handle. Below the handle, there was a hole on the box surface, through which a rope was hanging from above with an iron ball tied at its bottom. However, unlike the iron ball in front that was swinging left and right continuously, the iron ball at the back was hanging still in the air.
But if you keep staring at it and observe carefully, you will find that this iron ball is descending very slowly.
"This thing is a power source," explained Ye Huan.
It is well known that the basic structure of a clock is very simple. Among them, the most important core component is called the "anchor escapement".
"... The anchor escapement is a controller that looks like a fork and is wedged in the gear train of the hour and minute hands. It constantly swings back and forth, and with each swing, the gear held by the anchor escapement is temporarily released and rotated, thereby driving the movement of the hour and minute hands."
Ye Huan tried his best to explain without hiding anything, without distinguishing between Bai Qi Jun and the staff on-site - he considered all of them as his own people. If someone among them could understand, that would be the best.
"The escapement on this pendulum clock is connected to the large swinging pendulum in front."
"The large swinging pendulum undergoes simple harmonic motion, with the time for each swing being essentially the same. This time is determined by two variables, the length of the rope and the local gravitational acceleration—that you don't need to understand for now, just treat it as a fixed number."
"Simply put, in a situation where the length of a pendulum's rope is determined and the local acceleration due to gravity remains constant, the time it takes for the pendulum to swing from left to right can be considered as fixed."
"The escapement lever is controlled by a swinging pendulum, which means that the speed at which the escapement lever rocks and moves the gears of the hour and minute hands is fixed at a unit rate. This is the principle for why the time on a clock is generally consistent for each minute."
Ye Huan pointed to the hanging iron ball behind the wooden box.
"This thing is hanging in the air, naturally it will fall down, and the other end is connected to the gear group of the hour and minute hands. So, it pulls the gear group of the hour and minute hands to rotate."
"However, the gear train of the hour and minute hands is jammed by the escapement, so it provides power to keep driving the escapement. Therefore, to be accurate, it is not the escapement that moves the hour and minute hands, but the gear train of the hour and minute hands that moves the escapement. The escapement only serves the function of fixing the time."
"The hour and minute gear set is the power source and output end, while the escapement is the controller. Basically that's how it works."
"With that, Ye Huan felt satisfied. "
"Finally, he understood why he became a science popularizer on the Internet. He truly loves sharing knowledge."
But after looking around, he saw confused faces.
"... it is indeed difficult to understand all at once, let's take it slowly." Ye Huan gave up and went straight to the point, "Miss Bai, all you need to know is that when this iron ball falls below this line,"
He said, gesturing to the back of the wooden box.
Next to the outer frame of the suspended iron ball, near the ground, there was a white line engraved.
"You just need to turn the handle at the back and lift it up, lift it to this position."
Ye Huan raised his finger and pointed upwards, and a white line was also carved near the upper part.
"This will do. For this pendulum clock, just turn it once a day."
Just now, Bai Qijun, who was still confused, suddenly woke up and became energetic. "I understand," he said, but he couldn't help complaining, "Why didn't you say it earlier?"
Giving someone fishing skills is better than giving them fish, Ye Huan thought to himself, but his experience told him that most people actually just want to eat fish and have no interest in fishing.
How frustrating...
At this moment, there was a movement at the door.
Bai Qijun turned her head and looked towards the door, and everyone else also turned their heads to look at the door.
They saw a man standing at the door, leaning against the door frame, looking weak. It was the man that Bai Qijun had rescued from the river.
At the beginning, when he arrived at the door, he glanced around at the people inside the room, quickly fixing his gaze on the only female, Bai Qijun.
But soon, his gaze suddenly shifted away, staring blankly in the direction of the phonograph, mouth agape, eyes filled with shock as if he had seen a ghost.
The phonograph is still playing, and it has been replaced with Ye Tianwang's new single "Love to Fight and Win".
"Three points are destined by heaven, seven points rely on hard work, only by fighting can one win..."
Idol singer Ye Tianwang's voice is coming out of the speaker of the phonograph, sexy yet deep, with a hint of noise, adding flavor and a sense of vicissitudes. It is different from the interpretation of "Governor's Tears", but what remains the same is the occasional off-key and slight pitch problems.
Of course, for fans of the idol genre, the current conditions may not be able to fix the audio, but this is not a big problem. Anyone who keeps dwelling on this small issue is just being argumentative, expressing dissatisfaction with Yunzhou, the southwest, or Dahuchu. - If you dare to find faults with Governor Ye now, I really don't know what you're planning to do next! It's scary just thinking about it.
"Awake?" Bai Qijun spoke first, with a calm expression. "Then let's go, don't linger here."
The man finally snapped back to reality from the gramophone, quickly shifting his gaze to Bai Qijun. He opened his mouth and asked, "May I ask if the lady is the 'woman of the mortal world, pale pink peony'?"
白绮君脸孔瞬间涨红，当场社死，双拳梆硬，一双眼睛冷冷看向门口那男子。
The murderous look cannot be concealed.