Having owned a two-faced clock for twelve years and never being able to get the times to agree, budding chronologician Adam (empowered by our investigations into temporal anomalies) finally realized that something was going on in his house. Though our best diagnoses require on-site inquiries, Adam's photos started some bells ringing:
Spinoza said that there are not two clocks but only one clock with two faces—our conceptions of mind and matter being manifestations of a single reality, a reality knowable by its constituent manifestations. And so, apparently, this is a time for seemingly conflicting messages. It’s been said that one must choose a side or get in the middle, yet how can one get in the middle of a two-faced clock, at least when it’s not part of a tower? Well, there is something inside every timepiece that embodies a piece of time. It’s the oscillation system—pendulum or springs. Yet oscillation systems don’t swing or spring by themselves—they require a constant push. What supplies the oscillation system with energy is called the “escapement.” Better heard than seen, it’s the escapement that gives clockwork its signature ticks and tocks. When shut, the escapement blocks the teeth of the gears. When open, energy flows into the oscillation system. That energy comes from being wound up or pulled with weights. The teeth grind only with energy released from the escapement. (The tooth that grinds the fastest is closest to the escapement—the second-hand.) What to do with all this secondhand knowledge and daily grinds? How can one reach escapement without all the wind-ups? Alas, it depends … because no two clocks are exactly the same. All we know for certain is that a good clockman must work as if he has all the time in the world.
