Mt 084.jpg

Looking at MT84 I noticed what seems to be a pump assembly working with the pendulum and attached to the expansion/contraction linkage at the bottom.

The offered image seems to contain a combination of many physics.
The large wheel may act as a flywheel and also looks like it may also act as a water wheel, in that it lets weight from what is pumped up to fall and creates a continued offset balance. 

However, it appears, as friction will cause more problems than the swing of the pendulum can add.

In my opinion a free swinging pendulum is simply a weight dropped to earth. The rod not letting the weight fall to earth, so it simply slows the time of the fall.

Any resistance added like in MT84 to the swing of a pendulum, will add braking or slowing to the swing of a pendulum.