Antique Clocks
Definition of a clock
In today’s general usage, a clock is a device for measuring,
computing and displaying the accurate time. Unlike a watch,
a clock is not intended to be worn on or about the person.
For industry specialists and horologists, however, a clock is
device that employs a striking mechanism that is contained
within or on the physical body of the device. The striking
mechanism provides an announcement of the time intervals
such as the quarter hour, half hour or hour by providing an
acoustical notice in the form of chimes, gongs, bells or other
sounds. If the device lacks chimes, bells, gongs or other
sound producing mechanisms, it is traditionally considered to
be a timepiece, not a clock. In today’s world, however, most
people consider any time keeping device, not intended to be
worn on or about the person, to be a clock – without differentiation.
Timepieces worn on or about the person are considered to be watches.
Time
The passage, recording and keeping of time has been a major
concern of human beings since prehistory. Although the invention
and use of clocks is a relatively recent phenomenon in recorded
history, there are numerous examples of ancient people’s interest
in and use of time to plan for religious ceremonies and the marking
of the seasons of planting and harvest. All time measurement is
based upon the occurrences of natural processes – usually the
astronomical intervals between thee passage of the sun, the
moon and certain identifiable stars, that is the year, the lunar
month and the day. Today, the most accurate time-keeping
systems continue to be based upon a natural phenomenon, the
vibration of atoms – ergo, the atomic clock. The atomic clock is
what makes the modern Global Positioning Satellite system possible
and practical.
Sundials
Although saddled with several significant disadvantages; namely
the inability to function at night and when no sun is present
(such as on cloudy days) the sundial presented a reasonable
approximation of the actual time. The sundial presented another
substantial advantage in that it provided a basis against which to
compare other means of measuring time. An example of this is
the hourglass in which uniformly fine sand pours through a small
hole between oppositely mounted glass chambers at a uniform rate,
describing a previously specified period of time, for example, one hour.
Water Clocks
Another prime example of a time measuring device that was
calibrated against the sundial is the water clock that is one of
the oldest known forms of time measurement. It isn’t known,
and perhaps cannot be known, just when and where the water
clock originated. However, some individuals write about water
clocks appearing in India and China as early as 4000 BC. The
simplest form of a water clock is said to have been present in
Babylon and Egypt as early as the 16th century BC.
As civilizations advanced, the design and complexity of the water
clock also advanced. The Greeks and the Romans are credited
with equipping water clocks with gears to improve their
functionality by increasing their accuracy and making use of
automata possible. Eventually, the knowledge of water clocks
having passed through other civilizations, the technology made
its way to Europe. During approximately the same time period,
whether independently or through trade, water clocks were
developed and improved in China from where the technology
was transmitted to Japan and Korea.
For the most part, the use of very labor intensive water clocks
was confined to the learned elite for astrological, astronomical
and religious purposes. Until the advent of the Industrial
Revolution there was simply no need for the Commoners to
mark and keep track of time other than that which was kept
for them. By that era, the water clock had been replaced by
increasingly accurate and sophisticated pendulum clocks,
starting in 17th century Europe. Even then, clocks were not
common and found only in churches and among the learned
elite. He who controlled time controlled the great unwashed masses.
Transition Period
The transition from water clocks to those with pendulums
and escapements took place over a period of several centuries.
It is apparent that, in reference to European church and
horology records, from approximately 1280-1320 AD a new
clock mechanism had been invented. Although still driven
by waterpower, an oscillating escapement mechanism had
been developed and applied to clocks. Subsequently, the
water-powered mechanism was supplanted by power from
falling weights. Thus marks the beginning of the era of the
true mechanical clock in Europe.
Outside of Europe, specifically in medieval China, during the
period of 1020-1101AD Su Song, an engineer and master
horologist, developed an escapement mechanism. This
mechanism was incorporated into a water driven astronomical
clock tower with a rotating armillary sphere. A mechanical
clock was first described in an Islamic work in approximately
1565AD. It was a weight-driven device that incorporated a
striking train of gears, a mechanical escapement, a moon
phase representation and an alarm.
In Europe, spring-driven clocks first appeared in the 1400s.
The earliest spring-driven clock extant is the chamber clock
given to the Duke of Burgundy, Peter the Good, around 1430
and now resident in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum.
New mechanisms were required to compensate for the
changes in available power as the spring wound down.
This resulted in the invention and development of many
improvements over the years.
European clock making flourished in Germany and France
in the 15th and 16th centuries. Although crude by modern
standards, the availability of reasonably accurate clocks had
profound social implications. As the skill level of the clock
makers improved, clocks with astronomical features and
musical movements became more available to those who
could appreciate and afford them. Improved production
methods and mechanisms also pointed the way to the day
when clocks would become available to and affordable by
classes other than royalty and the educated elite.
Major Improvements
A major improvement in the accuracy of clocks occurred
after the mid 1650s. Early in the 17th century Galileo, the
great Italian inventor, came up with the idea of of using a
swing pendulum bob to regulate the motion of a time keeping
device. However, it fell to Christiaan Huygens to actually
develop the mathematical formula that related time to
pendulum length and therefore made the pendulum clock
practical. The pendulum length appropriate for a one second
first pendulum driven clock, complete with a crown escapement,
made. Subsequent to the manufacture of the Huygens clock,
in 1670 William Clement, an English clockmaker, invented the
anchor escapement, a significant improvement, which led to
the implementation of minute and second hands. Clement
also is credited with developing the long case clock form that
we now refer to as a grandfather clock. The long case form was
ideally suited to housing the clock works and its associated
pendulum. This occurred sometime in the period 1670-1671.
The faces of these clocks were initially crafted of wood but
quickly morphed into forms that used metals such as brass,
enamels and hand painted porcelain.
The importance of accuracy
About this time, that is, the late 17th century, national, commercial
and social interests merged to add great impetus to the development
of increasingly accurate clocks. The European nations of Great Britain,
France, Spain, Holland and Portugal were competing in exploration
and trade involving transoceanic routes. Accordingly, each nation
established, supported and nurtured their merchant fleets and the
navies that protected them. The merchant trade routes extended
worldwide and were traversed by sail powered ships that were subject
to substantial adverse conditions. Therefore, the ability to accurately
navigate the oceans and precisely determine the position of the ships
upon them became of paramount importance. The major key to
accomplishing this was, and is today, the ability to very accurately
determine the time. The initial goal was to create a clock that would
neither gain nor lose in excess of 10 seconds per day. Given the
conditions under which such a clock had to operate; a rocking ship,
extremes of temperature, salt air, moisture, rough seas, etc, this
was a very difficult assignment.
However, the value of such a clock design was virtually incalculable
to the nation or merchant house possessing it. The governments
to anyone who could accomplish this highly daunting task. The
British Crown offered 20,000 pounds sterling that, today, according
to our calculations, would be worth approximately $36,000,000 as
a reward. John Harrison, an Englishman, claimed the prize in 1761.
He then devoted his life to improving the accuracy of the clocks he
produced. Losing less than 5 seconds over 10 days, Harrison’s H5
model clock was the pinnacle of his very successful efforts.
Even so, the purchase of clocks was largely limited to the province
of churches, royalty and the moneyed elite. In subsequent articles
we will discuss the individual, societal and liberating aspects of the
development and manufacture of clocks in America. These additions
will focus upon the important individuals that made this possible
and the companies that sprang from their work.
