What I expected to happen: I made 2 styles of 1 tick Redstone Clocks. I would put a dispenser/dropper on the output and it would dispense/drop. (It works the same with dispensers and droppers I will be saying dispeser)

What actually happened: the picture 2013-01-24_15.47.32 (the one that used two repeaters)the dispenser fired normally and very fast as expected.

With the second design in the other pictures I used a clock that involved burning out torches. This design when pointed at a dispenser will not fire but, will randomly dispense one or two items. Usually at increments of 10 seconds to 3 minutes. In the pictures the redstone line is pointing at the dispenser and it is within signal strength. The dispenser is not receiving power besides for the one redstone line coming from the clock. I think it must be that the torch clock is producing a faster than 1 tick pulse and the dispenser is not reacting.