These timepieces were so expensive that only royal families and nobles could afford them (photo on right: a six foot high long case clock, dated 1675–78). It’s interesting that during the period of 1630 to about 1730, there was a kind of “Royal Age” of the long case clock. His invention of the dead beat escapement took clock movements to an even greater level of accuracy. Here’s when, with these improvements, the towering timepiece became the first recognizable grandfather clock, although at the time its name was still the “long case clock” or “floor clock.” The next big breakthrough in the clock’s development was in 1715 by George Graham. From top to bottom it was just over seven feet tall and to showcase its pendulum and weights, glass panels were eventually added. It varied by no more than ten seconds per day and was so accurate that a minute and second hand could be added to keep company with the hour hand. Now this clock was something to get excited about.
#William clement clockmaker full#
As some things tend to get bigger and better, the pendulum grew even longer in 1670 when English clockmaker William Clement introduced the Royal Pendulum it was thirty nine inches in length and took one full second to swing back and forth. By 1660, English clock makers had thoroughly made over the “wag on the wall” with a longer ten inch pendulum and a case of about six feet in length. Not what you’d call “pretty” but they did the job.īefore too long, the clocks were encased in wood and in just few short years there were many versions of Huygen’s design. The clocks mounted on a wall and had cast iron frames and weights which dangled below. At the time, these clocks were named “wags-on-the-wall” since their pendulums were short, and “wagged” back and forth like the tail on a dog. His creation was the very first prototype of what would later be called the “long case clock”. It revolutionized clock making by greatly increasing the accuracy of timepieces from fifteen minutes per day to one minute per day. And in 1656, Huygens successfully “hitched” a pendulum to the workings of a clock.
Accuracy of time to an astronomer is like a sharp chisel to a sculptor. For his work paved the way for Christian Huygens, a Dutch astronomer who himself was in pursuit of a more accurate clock for predicting the movement of the stars and planets. In the realm of science, one discovery often leads to another, and Galileo’s efforts were not in vain. But, in spite of his many other scientific achievements, he was ultimately unsuccessful with the clock. He hoped to produce a timepiece that was more accurate than anything before, and for the rest of his life he and his son worked at the task. Some years later, he experimented trying to apply the pendulum’s precise movement to the measurement of time so as to regulate the workings of a clock. Of course Galileo recorded his findings, but his discovery wasn’t going to be just another entry in a forgotten notebook. Having no other tools with which to measure, he used the steady pulse of his heartbeat and found that no matter how wide or narrow an arc the chandelier made, the time it took to swing from one side to the other was the same. It was no surprise, being scientific-minded as he was, that Galileo began to time the swings. Distracted by a swinging chandelier that had been just lit by the lamplighter, his attention got caught up in its movement. In 1582, eighteen year old Galileo Galilei was praying in the cathedral of Pisa.
That was how it happened with the grandfather clock. The history of anything sometimes begins in unlikely ways with unlikely people.
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