Antique Wall Clocks
Clocks have been around for centuries and have always been a passion to collectors. Their diversity could be possibly compared to that of books and some timeless pieces of architecture. It’s possible that the invention of the clock was one of the greatest of the last millennium and as such they need to be preserved and studied accordingly.
Almost all developed nations in the world have been producing clocks for the best part of the last 200 years. Without these timekeepers today’s machines would never have existed. There is a large selection of horology books on the web today that should be studied if possible.
Similar to many contemporary words we use today, the word clock has its roots in Latin (clocca) and it means bell. For people living in medieval times, the main square’s bell toll was their only form of timekeeping. Time keeping machines in those days were only reserved for the royalty and the wealthy.
The accuracy of clocks improved dramatically in the late 17th century with the introduction of the pendulum. Previous to that all table clocks, usually depicted in old pictures as bronze, were not very accurate at all. Early 19th century saw young clockmakers and entrepreneurs mass producing time keeping machines and very quickly life began to change around the world.
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A pendulum wall clock is a timekeeping instrument that operates in suspended continous motion and represents the pioneering invention of mankind to accurately calculate time. This amazing invention goes back to the year 1656 and has a rich history. The body of the clock comprises a pendulum, a keyhole, a weight and a face, and it is the swing of the pendulum that controls that gears hidden inside the clock, to move the hours and minutes hands on the face of the clock, indicating the current time.
The first experiment of a pendulum clock was made by a German, Peter Henlein, who envisioned of developing a mechanism that would be unanimously accepted as the parameter for calculating the time. The 1510 invention of Henlein closely resembles the contemporary pendulum clock, but it operated on a spring and had only the hour hand, which posed complexity when trying to calculate half hours. Henlein work was improved by Christian Huygens, a Dutch mathematician, who invented the pendulum clock in 1577. After four years, a minute hand was added to the clock by him, which enabled accurate calculation of time.
After Huygens’ invention, several other unidentified inventors tried their hands at improving the mechanism of the pendulum wall clock, one of which includes reduction in the swing of the device. The earlier models of the clock swung up to 50 degrees for turning the gears present inside the clock, but the improved versions reduced the swinging of the pendulum to as low as 10-15 degrees.
There you see, the simple pendulum wall clock that we see on the walls of our homes and offices, has a long chain of inventions behind its successful operation. It is indeed, an antique time telling device.