Timeworks clock parts pendulum4/16/2024 ![]() The 18th and 19th century wave of horological innovation that followed the invention of the pendulum brought many improvements to pendulum clocks. The increased accuracy resulting from these developments caused the minute hand, previously rare, to be added to clock faces beginning around 1690. The long narrow clocks built around these pendulums, first made by William Clement around 1680, who also claimed invention of the anchor escapement, became known as grandfather clocks. The seconds pendulum (also called the Royal pendulum), 0.994 m (39.1 in) long, in which the time period is two seconds, became widely used in quality clocks. In addition to increased accuracy, the anchor's narrow pendulum swing allowed the clock's case to accommodate longer, slower pendulums, which needed less power and caused less wear on the movement. The anchor became the standard escapement used in pendulum clocks. Clockmakers' realization that only pendulums with small swings of a few degrees are isochronous motivated the invention of the anchor escapement by Robert Hooke around 1658, which reduced the pendulum's swing to 4–6°. In his 1673 analysis of pendulums, Horologium Oscillatorium, Huygens showed that wide swings made the pendulum inaccurate, causing its period, and thus the rate of the clock, to vary with unavoidable variations in the driving force provided by the movement. These early clocks, due to their verge escapements, had wide pendulum swings of 80–100°. Some of the most accurate pendulum clocks: (left) Riefler regulator clock, that served as the US time standard from 1909 to 1929, (right) Shortt-Synchronome clock, the most accurate pendulum clock ever manufactured, which served as the time standard during the 1930s. To accommodate the wide pendulum swings caused by the verge escapement, "wings" have been added on the sides Grandfather clock ![]() A lantern clock that has been converted to use a pendulum. By 1659 pendulum clocks were being manufactured in France by clockmaker Nicolaus Hanet, and in England by Ahasuerus Fromanteel. The introduction of the pendulum, the first harmonic oscillator used in timekeeping, increased the accuracy of clocks enormously, from about 15 minutes per day to 15 seconds per day leading to their rapid spread as existing ' verge and foliot' clocks were retrofitted with pendulums. It was partly constructed by his son in 1649, but neither lived to finish it. Galileo in 1637 described to his son a mechanism which could keep a pendulum swinging, which has been called the first pendulum clock design (picture at top). Galileo discovered the key property that makes pendulums useful timekeepers: they are isochronic, which means that the period of swing of a pendulum is approximately the same for different sized swings. Huygens was inspired by investigations of pendulums by Galileo Galilei beginning around 1602. Huygens contracted the construction of his clock designs to clockmaker Salomon Coster, who actually built the clock. He described it in his manuscript Horologium published in 1658. The pendulum clock was invented on 25 December 1656 by Dutch scientist and inventor Christiaan Huygens, and patented the following year. The first pendulum clock, invented by Christiaan Huygens in 1656 Any motion or accelerations will affect the motion of the pendulum, causing inaccuracies, so other mechanisms must be used in portable timepieces. ![]() Pendulum clocks must be stationary to operate. Pendulum clocks are now kept mostly for their decorative and antique value. : p.623 The home pendulum clock was replaced by less-expensive synchronous electric clocks in the 1930s and '40s. Their greater accuracy allowed for the faster pace of life which was necessary for the Industrial Revolution. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, pendulum clocks in homes, factories, offices, and railroad stations served as primary time standards for scheduling daily life, work shifts, and public transportation. From its invention in 1656 by Christiaan Huygens, inspired by Galileo Galilei, until the 1930s, the pendulum clock was the world's most precise timekeeper, accounting for its widespread use. The advantage of a pendulum for timekeeping is that it is an approximate harmonic oscillator: It swings back and forth in a precise time interval dependent on its length, and resists swinging at other rates. Vienna regulator style pendulum wall clockĪ pendulum clock is a clock that uses a pendulum, a swinging weight, as its timekeeping element.
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