Page 47 - All About History 55 - 2017 UK

Through History

Christiaan Huygens’
first pendulum clock
Mechanical clock 1300s revolutionised timekeeping PenduluM clock
The first mechanical clocks seem to have 1656
appeared in Europe by the early 1300s.
The first pendulum clock was
They were controlled by a verge escapement,
created by a Dutch scientist,
where essentially a gearwheel looking
Christiaan Huygens, although the
rather like a crown is driven by weights — a idea originally came from famed
way of transferring energy from the power astronomer Galileo Galilei, who
source to the counting mechanism. A clock
had realised that pendulums made
in the tower of the palace chapel of Milan’s
good timekeepers. The invention
Visconti dynasty is often considered to be
the first such device. There was a celebrated
Salisbury Cathedral clock enormously increased the accuracy
dates from around 1386 of clocks and the technology was
type of mechanical clock at St Albans Abbey,
and was one of the earliest rapidly perfected. A typical model
mechanical clocks dating to around 1327, but it was destroyed
had a pendulum that took one
in the Reformation.
second to make a swing and the
Marine chronoMeter John Harrison’s third mechanism was contained in a
long case, creating the typical
1735-61 marine chronometer, H3, ‘grandfather’ clock. Their greater
took 19 years to build
precision allowed for the addition of
In order to navigate accurately on a long voyage,
minute hands, which had previously
mariners need to determine their latitude and
been unknown on domestic clocks.
longitude — and for the latter they need to know
the time. However, the available timepieces were Wristwatches had practical
advantages for the military
not sufficiently precise, especially out on rolling WristWatch c.1511 and devices like this became
seas. A chronometer measures the time at a fixed widespread during the Boer War
The invention of
location such as Greenwich Mean Time, so by the first timepiece
working out the time difference between this and carried on the body
the ship’s position, a seafarer could determine
is attributed to a
longitude. John Harrison
clockmaker from
famously invented John Nuremberg who
the true marine Harrison made ornamental
chronometer, 1693-1776, english pendant ‘clock-
with a range of This Lincolnshire carpenter and watches’. In the
increasingly clockmaker made his first longcase mid-17th century,
sophisticated clock in 1713. When the British the balance spring
devices that government passed the Longitude Act
in 1714 and offered a prize for a reliable or ‘hairspring’
revolutionised method of determining longitude, was introduced,
maritime Harrison set about devising the improving
navigation. marine chronometer. He spent
most of his life solving accuracy. During
the problem. the reign of
Thomas Charles II,
Tompion men began
1639-1713, english using pocket
A blacksmith’s son, Tompion watches that
became apprenticed to a London they carried in
clockmaker. One of his early patrons
was scientist Robert Hooke who brought their waistcoats.
new technology and Tompion created Functional wristwatches appeared in the 19th
some of the first watches with balance century. Some say the first wristwatch was created for the
springs. Buried in Westminster Queen of Naples in 1810, others say Patak Philippe made
Abbey, he is known as the
father of English the first in 1868 for a Hungarian countess. However, Robert © Alamy, Apple
clockmaking. Dudley gave Elizabeth I a decorative arm watch in 1571.
digital The familiar digital alarm
alarM clock 1956 clock was unknown until sMartWatch 2000 The Apple Watch can
do a lot more than
the 1950s
tell the time
For centuries, clocks indicated the time by the use of rotating Smartwatches arguably have their roots in the innovations
hands, but digital clocks use numbers (also known as ‘digits’). of the 1980s, such as the Casio calculator watch and the
Digital alarm clocks first appeared in the middle of the 20th Seiko D409, which had a built-in display to watch television
century after American inventor Donald Protzmann filed a on. In 2000, Dr Steve Mann — known as ‘the father of
patent for one in 1956. Of course, electronic displays didn’t wearable computing’ — took this concept one step further,
arrive until the 1970s and 80s, so these early digital clocks integrating in a Linux-powered computer into a wristwatch.
had a mechanism that turned panels to display the numbers. Modern smartwatches, which can make phone calls, receive
Alarm clocks, though, can trace their history back to Ancient texts, monitor your fitness and more, found commercial
Greece where the philosopher Plato is said to have invented a success from 2014 when Apple, Google and Samsung all
water alarm clock that whistled when it was time to get up. launched their own consumer models.
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