Recoil Escapements

Here the oscillation organs have to rewind the entire works of the wheels against its will, while running the supplementary arc...

domestic Clocks
when	term/inventor	what for
from the 12th sen.	verge escapement / (unknown)	Clocks
since 1680	English Anchor Escapement / William Clement	tableclocks, daily used clocks/watches
since 1700	Metal Strip Type Of Anchor Escapement/unkonwn	Cockoo clock
??	Tick-Tack Escapement / unknown	short pendulums
since 1729	Berthoud-escapement / Ferdinand Berthoud	good wall-clocks
since 1849	Brocot-escapement / Achille Brocot	small domestic clocks

Portable Clocks
time	term/inventor	what for
ab 1510	verge escapement / Peter Henlein	pocket-watches

......One could think, that recoiling is a nice thing, as the balance of the oscillation organs is extremely sensitive, and any alteration of the balance can cause a change in the running. Let us take the Verge Escapement for example; currently it can not be found on these pages. Anyway, the Verge Escapement recoils like crazy and therefore is often called the old escapement. But the old craftmen knew just how to construct this escapement, so the bad reputation of the recoil could now be used positively. With these "real" constructions, the recoil was used to accelerate the high vibrations of the pendulum, as these are known to tick slower than the smaller ones. So one mistake eats up the other. This can also be found with the Brocot Escapement - that, was once made with a recoil and once without one. And that was, just because the recoil was used with care. All in all one could say, that the first escapements were recoils and, that the best constructions knew how to get the accelerated effect of the recoil over to the pendulum.