More accurate pendulum clocks, called regulators were installed largly in public areas and used to schedule work and set other clocks. By the mid 1700 precision pendulum clocks achieved accuracies of a few seconds per week. By using vials of mercury on the base of the pendulum, the mercury would expand or contract to “compensate” for differences in temperature making the pendulum more accurate. The mercury pendulum by George Graham in 1721 and the gridiron pendulum by John Harrison in 1726. A clock that leans to the left or right at the slightest angle will throw your pendulum into pandemonium or stop it in its daily tracks for tracking good time. This was solved by the invention of temperature-compensated pendulums. Observation that pendulum clocks slowed down in summer brought the realization that thermal expansion and contraction of the pendulum rod with changes in temperature was a large source of error. The deadbeat escapement invented in 1675 by Richard Towneley and popularized by George Graham around 1715 in his precision regulator clocks gradually replaced the anchor escapement and is still used in most modern pendulum clocks. The increased accuracy resulting from these developments caused the minute hand to be added to clock dials around 1690. The long narrow clocks built around these pendulums, first made by William Clement around 1680, became known as tall case clocks and later, grandfather clocks. The seconds pendulum (also called the Royal pendulum) in which each swing takes one second, which is about one metre (39.37 in) long, became widely used. In addition to increased accuracy, this allowed the clock’s case to accommodate longer, slower pendulums, which needed less power and caused less wear on the movement. This design reduced the pendulum’s swing to 4°-6°. Clockmakers realized that only pendulums with small swings of a few degrees are isochronous motivated the invention of the anchor escapement around 1670. In his 1673 analysis of pendulums, Huygens showed that wide swings made the pendulum inaccurate. The introduction of the pendulum increased the accuracy of clocks enormously from about 15 minutes per day to 15 seconds per day leading to their rapid spread replacing older designs.Įarly pendulum clocks had wide pendulum swings of up to 100° due to their verge escapements. Galileo and his son had the idea for a pendulum clock in 1637, but neither lived to finish it. Antique Pendulum Clocks are now kept mostly for their decorative and antique value. Any motion or accelerations will affect the motion of the pendulum causing loss or gain of pendulum speed and beat. Pendulum clocks had to be stationary and level to operate. From its invention in 1656 by Christiaan Huygens until the 1930s, the pendulum clock was the world’s most precise timekeeper. Christiaan Huygens Pendulum Clock History of the Pendulum ClockĪ pendulum clock is a clock that uses a pendulum, a swinging weight as its timekeeping element.
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