The German theoretical physicist Arnold Sommerfeld, himself a legendary scientific pioneer, described Huygens as ‘the most ingenious watchmaker of all time’. Later versions of this design further improved this to only ten seconds, a level of accuracy previously unheard of.
Accuracy was increased from fifteen minutes a day to one minute, revolutionising clockmaking for ever. In 1656, he produced his first successful design by hitching a pendulum to the existing workings of a clock. Inspired by Galileo’s ideas and experiments he concluded that the inclusion of a pendulum was the key. He knew that precise timekeeping was vital for accurately predicting the movement of stars and planets.
Seventy years later, the noted Dutch astronomer Christian Huygens was searching for an accurate design for an astronomical clock. Unfortunately, despite all his noteworthy achievements, he was unsuccessful in this task and died before it could be realised. For the rest of his life Galileo, with the aid of his son, experimented on producing such a timepiece. Eventually he concluded that if the swing of a pendulum could be integrated into the workings of a clock, it would be the most accurate ever made. Having recorded his findings, he mused on them for some years in search of an application. Galileo noticed that regardless of the width of the arc it followed, the time taken for one complete swing was the same. He began to time its swings, comparing them to his own heartbeat. Noticing a swaying chandelier that the lamplighter had lit, he was struck by inspiration. In 1582 Galileo Galilei, the ‘father of modern science’, was at prayer in Pisa Cathedral. Reliability was vastly improved with the invention of the pendulum clock, but this was some way off. However, these could be expensive and unreliable, with a loss of accuracy of up to fifteen minutes per day. In ‘Paradiso’ the third volume of his Divine Comedy (1320), Dante makes the first recorded reference to a clock that strikes on the hour.īy the 15 th Century, advances in design led to miniaturisation and domestic clocks became possible. By the 11 th Century, clocks were well known throughout Europe according to writings of the time. Accurate timekeeping was important to observe their religious obligations and strict schedules. Monitoring the passage of time was important to those in holy orders and many of the earliest clock designers were monks. The first mechanical clock on record was built by the future Pope Sylvester II in 996 for the German town of Magdeburg. If the clock had never been invented, there would be no organizationin anything like school or even out on the street.The history of the grandfather clock stretches back further than most people would imagine. Nowadays, insteadof going into buildings or looking at a clock outside in the street, peoplewear a watch around the wrist which makes it a lot easier to see what timeit is. The difference between the digital and themechanical clocks is that the digital uses microchips and circuits insteadof using moving parts which is why it is more accurate. Right now, many of the clocks are digital which are moreaccurate than the mechanical. Now the clock is one of the most importantparts of life. The Mechanical-waterworked by water falling into spoons in a set time so when some hours passedthe hand in the clock moved.Ĭlocks have now been changed to different sizes, colorsand different ways of working. When Chang Ssu-Hsun madehis first clock it was a mechanical-water clock and did not work perfectly,so he made another kind of clock, the mechanical clock. Thatclock was one of the first mechanical clocks. The clock took 8 years to build and it was 30 feet high. The Song emperor decided to make a clock with a team of12 people. Su Song was very upset with getting there so early so he wanted tomake a clock as good as the one in Laio, so they would never make sucha mistake again. When Su Song, a government official went to Laio to meetthe emperor on his birthday, he got there one day before he was supposedto. The importance of mechanical clocksis that they were made for telling time more accurately than water or sunclocks.
Itwas the first working mechanical clock. Chan Ssu-Hsun built a clock using mercury. The mechanical clock was invented in China, in 976 A.D.during the Song Dynasty.
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