Grasshopper escapement Grasshopper escapement The grasshopper escapement is a low-friction escapement for pendulum clocks invented by British clockmaker John Harrison around 1722. An escapement, part of every mechanical clock, is the mechanism that gives the clock's pendulum periodic pushes to keep it swinging, and each swing releases the clock's gears to move forward by a fixed amount, thus moving the hands forward at a steady rate. The grasshopper escapement was used in a few regulator clocks built during Harrison's time, and a few others over the years, but has never seen wide use. The term "grasshopper" in this connection, apparently from the
Mechanical energy mechanical energy is conserved – the sum of the mechanical energies of the colliding objects is the same before and after the collision. After an inelastic collision, however, the mechanical energy of the system will have changed. Usually, the mechanical energy before the collision is greater than the mechanical energy after the collision. In inelastic collisions, some of the mechanical energy of the colliding objects is transformed into kinetic energy of the constituent particles. This increase in kinetic energy of the constituent particles is perceived as an increase in temperature. The collision can be described by saying some of the