Expert: William J Perkins - 1/30/2008

Question
My wife has just bought a second hand French pendulum clock with no maker's name or marks.  It runs reasonably well, and will keep good time once it's adjusted correctly.  However it should chime every quarter hour (4 notes at quarter past, 8 notes at half past etc)but it sounds all of the notes for quarter past, half past and quarter to at quarter past the hour (24 in total I believe) with 16 notes correctly on the hour.  Have you any suggestions how we may easily correct this please?

Answer
Your minute hand is out of position.  You need to take it off, move it to a position consistent to the chime last struck.  Say for example the clock has chime eight blows but the time says 15 minutes past an hour.  Remove the hand and position it to the 30 minute position.  (Any time you remove a hand always stop the clock to assure that it is indeed repositioned correctly.) If this does not work, your clock has features I am unaware of.  My answer is generic.  To be more specific I would need more description information about your clock.  Regards WJP