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 steam engine converts heat energy to mechanical energy. Energy is a scalar quantity and the mechanical energy of a system is the sum of the potential energy which is measured by the position of the parts of the system. The kinetic energy which is also called the energy of motion: The potential energy, "U", depends on the position of an object subjected to a conservative force. It is defined as the object's ability to do work and is increased as the object is moved in the opposite direction of the direction of the force. If "F" represents the conservative force