Strike or Silent Dial

Usually found in the arch of bracket clocks but also in some longcase clocks. Bracket clocks with verge movements were portable, and the owner, on retiring to bed, could take his bracket clock with him and turn the hand of the strike/silent dial to 'silent' so that he would not be disturbed by the clock striking while he was asleep. The strike/silent mechanism was only made possible by the introduction of rack striking at the end of the 17th century. Longcase clocks were not, of course, portable but silencing the striking mechanism at night is sometimes no less desirable.