© R. Neumeyer 1997
This is a closeup view of the centre of the balance wheel inside a pocket watch with a mechanical movement. The wheel pivots on a small red ruby jewel visible in the centre of the arm. A dimpled, gold-coloured pressure spring secures the arm in position without impeding the to-and-fro motion of the arm. The hairspring and the tension adjustment for the hairspring which adjusts the timekeeping of the watch is also visible.
The picture was taken using the Leitz Ultropak epillumination system on an Ortholux. Illumination in this case was provided by a Canon ring flash (Macro Ring Lite ML-2) connected to my T-90 camera. I hand-held the flash in position around the Ultropak 6.5x objective. The eyepiece was a Periplan 10x, which together with the objective, generated a colour negative image about 20x actual size.
Editors note: The Microscopy around the Home article this month looks inside a quartz watch, so readers may be interested to compare the two and read how a quartz watch is capable of keeping time more accurately than a mechanical watch.
The Micscape and Microscopy UK Editors thank Ron Neumeyer for submitting this month's stunning Image of the Month.
The author, Ron Neumeyer can be contacted by Email.
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