Anchor escapement the tooth sliding along its surface, pushing it. Then the tooth slides off the end of the pallet, beginning the cycle again. Neither the anchor escapement nor the deadbeat form, below, are self-starting. The pendulum must be given a swing to get them going. The backward motion of the escape wheel during part of the cycle, called "recoil", is one of the disadvantages of the anchor escapement. It results in a temporary reversal of the entire wheel train back to the driving weight with each tick of the clock, causing extra wear in the wheel train, excessive wear to the
Escapement is made from a special steel alloy with 36% nickel called Invar whose length changes very little with temperature, swings as free of external influence as possible sealed in a vacuum chamber and does no work. It is in mechanical contact with its escapement for only a fraction of a second every 30 seconds. A secondary "slave" pendulum turns a ratchet, which triggers an electromagnet slightly less than every thirty seconds. This electromagnet releases a gravity lever onto the escapement above the master pendulum. A fraction of a second later (but exactly every 30 seconds), the motion of the master