Huygens refocused his attention on the physics of vibrations in springs in 1674 and within a year he had developed his ideas into a practical mechanism for timekeeping applications. Huygens first sketch of a watch balance regulated by a coiled spring is dated 20 January 1675 and it was submitted to the Royal Society on […]
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Christiaan Huygens publishes his book The Pendulum Clock (Horologium oscillatorium sive de motu pendularium). This work is regarded as one of the three most important works done on mechanics in the 17th century, and builds his second pendulum clock with verge escapement claiming an accuracy of 10 seconds per day. Learn more: Identification and attribution […]
MoreBy 1664, Huygens had all the elements of a theoretical treatise on the pendulum clock. But by then he also had reason to hope that the treatise could offer stunning evidence of the theory’s practical value. In 1663 and 1664 the Royal Society had sent a marine version of the clock to sea to test […]
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Huygens collaborated with Alexander Bruce on the project to build sea clocks, with the Scot introducing a number of new features to the Dutchman’s designs before having four sea clocks made, two of them by Severyn Oosterwijck.By the end of 1662, Bruce’s initial sea-trials were proving promising. More formal sea-trials were carried out, with reports […]
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Huygens spent two years calculating and confirming his table of cumulative inequality, which by subtraction provided the inequality over any number of days, and sent out the first public copies in February 1662.
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Huygens’s application for the patent of his pendulum clock is delivered to the authorities by Saloman Coster and remarkably two days later after the actual timepiece had been inspected by the States General of the United Netherlands. Identification and attribution of Christiaan Huygens’ first pendulum clock OR Two days later Coster is awarded exclusive rights […]
MoreUsing empirical testing Huygens devised the methods and features necessary to substantially improve the accuracy of the pendulum clock, realizing the optimal solution on Dec 25, 1656. One of the critical features were curved metal plates near the pivot point that modified the swing of the pendulum from a regular arc to a cycloid. “…at […]
MoreRemontoire come in a wide variety of mechanical styles, and complexity. They can generally be divided into two categories. The first, and earlier type is the gravity style. Its invention is generally credited to by Jost Burgi, Swiss (b.1552 -1631), circa 1595 exhibited in his Experimental Clock No. 1. However, there is still some technical issue […]
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The word remontoire comes from the french word ‘remonter’ meaning “to wind” and describes mechanisms that provide near-constant driving force by isolating and regulating the power from the primary power source. The gravity remontoire was invented by Swiss clockmaker Jost Burgi around 1595. The “Kalenderuhr” (three months running, spring-driven, calendar-desk-clock) Burgi made for William IV, […]
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Jost Bürgi is credited with inventing the cross beat escapement in 1584. The cross-beat escapement is a variation of the verge escapement but with two coupled foliot elements that rotated in opposite directions. The foliot is the oscillating horizontal bar that carries a weight at each end. By all accounts his clocks incorporating this technology improved […]
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The astronomical table clock shown was made in Prague by Jacob Zech and completed around 1525. There is an inscription in Old German around the dial that reads “when you count the years 1525 Jacob Zech made me in Prague – it is true.” There’s no chain; spring-powered table clocks from this period used catgut […]
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The Exeter Cathedral Astronomical Clock is one of the group of famous 14th- to 16th-century astronomical clocks to be found in the West of England. Others are at Wells, Ottery St Mary, and Wimborne Minster. The main, lower, dial is the oldest part of the clock, dating from 1484.[5] The fleur-de-lys-tipped hand indicates the hour (and the position of the sun in the sky) […]
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The oldest surviving clock powered by a mainspring is the Burgunderuhr (Burgundy Clock), an ornate, gilt chamber clock, currently at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, whose iconography suggests that it was made around 1430 for Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. “I consider my clock to be one of the first, perhaps the first, to be built with a spiral mainspring […]
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The astrarium was considered to be a marvel of its day. Giovanni Manzini of Pavia writes (in 1388) that it is a work “full of artifice, worked on and perfected by your hands and carved with a skill never attained by the expert hand of any craftsman. I conclude that there was never invented an artifice so […]
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The clock that gives the Quai d’Horloge its name today is on the corner of the Boulevard du Paris. It is built into a tower that historians say dates back to the mid 1300s. The clock was built by Henri le Vic, a German engineer who arrived in Paris in 1370 and installed in the […]
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The rectangulus was an astronomical instrument made by Richard of Wallingford around 1326. Dissatisfied with the limitations of existing astrolabes, Richard developed the rectangulus as an instrument for spherical trigonometry and to measure the angles between planets and other astronomical bodies. This was one of a number of instruments he created, including the Albion, a […]
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The verge (or crown wheel) escapement is the earliest known type of mechanical escapement, the mechanism in a mechanical clock that controls its rate by allowing the gear train to advance at regular intervals or ‘ticks’. Its origin is unknown. Verge escapements were used from the late 13th century until the mid 19th century in clocks and pocketwatches. The name verge comes from the […]
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Some historians have speculated that a sketchbook compiled between 1225 and 1235 AD by Villard de Honnecourt could contain designs of the earliest known timekeeping escapement. The book has been digitized and is available in its entirety at the link below. Sketchbook by Villard de Honnecourt The sketch in question shown here is very simple […]
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