Chimes, chiming clock/pendulum clock; A clock that sounds or repeats a tune on the hour, the half hour, and sometimes the quarter of an hour.

These clocks are very common in Flanders; they can be seen at almost all of the churches: but in this country – they are quite rare. The Samaritan clock is, I believe, the only one of its kind in Paris.

Regarding chiming clocks, they are used more frequently in England than here, where few are made.

Chimes are made using the same principles as serinettes, or organs of Germany. For these, the pitches are formed by small organ pipes; for chimes, the pitches are made by bells, whose diameters must exactly follow the tuning fork. See Tuning Fork and the article Bell. They likewise have a drum that has pegs on its perimeter, which instead of raising the keys like in an organ, lower levers so that they hit the bells.

As the bells of chimes are often far removed from the cylinder being placed symmetrically in a roof lantern on top of the building containing the clock, the action of the pegs on the cylinder is transmitted to their hammers by wires attached at one end to the end of the hammer, and at the other attached to the middle of a switch, fixed at one of its ends. See Keyboard of the great organ; and for the way in which to describe the cylinder, the article Serinette. It must be noted that the keyboard of the cylinder cannot be touched by fingers, because the cylinder takes the place of the organist; and furthermore, the keys are too large and all of the same length, and therefore cannot be distinguished on these types of keyboards. So if you want to adjust one so that your fingers can touch it, place the keyboard where it seems appropriate, and by means of one or more adjustments* ( see Adjustment), establish the ringing between the keys of the keyboard and the levers, or end of the hammers.

It is easy to understand that when chimes repeat by means of the cylinder, there must be a power that makes it rotate, such as, for example, a spring, a weight, whose movement is moderated by means of a wheel, as in the ringing of several bells together. See Ringing. It is therefore easy to imagine that there is a trigger that corresponds to the clock, whereby the chime sounds on the hour and half hour, and that this trigger is arranged in a way that always allows it to ring before the clock, and that the latter can only ring after the chimes.

As for the way in which to describe the drum, it is the same as those of the organs of Germany. See Serinette, Organ of Germany .

Moving figurines, and those that play tunes, either with a violin, or a tambourine, are made using the same principle; there is always a drum, which, rotating in a given period of time, lifts levers, which, using small chains, cause the fingers and arms, etc, to move; such was, for example, the admirable flute player of M. Vaucanson. See the article Android.