Up to 1750 it was employed to the exclusion of almost all the others. In
1850 a very large part of the ordinary commercial watches were still
fitted with the verge escapement, and it is still used under the form of
_recoil anchor_ in clocks, eighty years after the invention of the
cylinder escapement, or in 1802. Ferdinand Berthoud, in his "History of
the Measurement of Time," says of the balance-wheel escapement: "Since
the epoch of its invention an infinite variety of escapements have been
constructed, but the one which is employed in ordinary watches for
every-day use is still the best." In referring to our illustrations, we
beg first to call attention to the plates marked Figs. 145 and 146.
This plate gives us two views of a verge escapement; that is, a balance
wheel and a verge formed by its two opposite pallets. The views are
intentionally presented in this manner to show that the verge _V_ may be
disposed either horizontally, as in Fig. 146, or vertically, as in Fig.
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