History of Clocks

History of Clocks 

Below is a brief history of clocks, explaining the early days of how the clock we know today was developed and the ground breaking achievements made by the master clock makers to overcome various problems in mechanical clock making reliability and accuracy.

In the period that humans have been on the earth we have constantly been trying to keep track of time.  The Sumarians as early as 21st century BC had a calendar year lasting 360 days long.  This was derived from rounding off the lunar month to 30 days and there being 12 lunation’s in the year.  The system was also based on the numbers 6 and 60 which when multiplied give 360.  The Babylonians continued the Sumarian system and divided the day into 24 hours which is divisible by 6 and also itself divides 15 times in to 360.

Egyptians improved the calendar and changed to a solar based system with a year of 365 days consisting of twelve 30-day months plus five birthdays for Isis, Osirus, Horus, Nepthys and Set.

The first 'clock' to be invented was the sundial.  This involved simply using the shadow of a rock or stone to show the suns position and therefore judge what the time was.  This was first used in approximately 3500BC, many years before something even similar was invented.

However, this clock wasn't as good at time keeping at night or on a bad day when there wasn't enough light to create shadows.  This then lead to the creation of the water clock roughly 2000 years later.  Unfortunately, the water clock needed an exact flow of water to keep time perfectly.  This just couldn't be guaranteed and so could be out by about 15-20 minutes each day.

It wasn't until 1300AD that the first mechanical clock came into existence, this was the first basis of many of the clocks that we know today, powered by mainsprings or large weights, these clocks could now be used day or night.  However, to begin with these were no more accurate than the water clocks and were usually off by the same amount of time at the end of each day.

It wasn't until the 1600's that the dials and hour hands were added.  In 1656 Dutchman Christiaan Huygen invented the world’s first pendulum clock.  The clock could run for about three to four hours with an error rate of as little as one/two seconds.  This was a major improvement over earlier mechanical clocks, which could gain or lose that much every few minutes and this was also the first clock to have a second hand.  Major Improvements to this clock continued and pendulum clocks became the standard for accuracy for around 300 years.

Another big step in clock making came around 1700 when the first cuckoo clock was made, it was pendulum-driven and struck the hour every hour striking a wire gong.  It used small bellows and pipes that imitate the call of the common cuckoo.  The mechanism made to produce the cuckoo call was installed in almost every kind of cuckoo clock and has remained almost without variation until the present day.

The next big achievement in clock making wasn't until 1840, when Scottish clock maker Alexander Bain invented the electric clock, this worked by the electric clock's mainspring being wound either with an electric motor.  This meant that clocks now didn't have to be wound up weekly and would be more accurate.

Since then there have been many progressions from the quartz crystal clock.  The Atomic clock made time even more accurate, it has an error of about 1 second in six million years.  Recent inventions have also included solar clocks, and radio controlled clocks that correct their own time from a radio signal from Rugby.  Clocks today have developed into luxury items in the home far away from being an essential time keeping source in local town squares, churches, workplaces and homes.

Below is a time line of useful dates in horology

1300's Appearance of the mechanical clock, powered by falling weights or large springs.

1490 The development of the coiled main spring for use as a power source for clocks (and later watches)

1510 The beginning of the watchmaking industry

1656 Christiaan Huygens makes the first pendulum clock based on Galileo's earlier designs.

1675 Foundation of the Greenwich Royal Observatory.

1686 Isaac Newton publishes Principia.

1714 The Longitude Act (July 8th).

A scale of rewards for anyone who 'shall discover a more certain and practical method of ascertaining the longitude'.

£10,000 for within 1 degree or 60 nautical miles

£15,000 for within 2/3 degree or 40 nautical miles

£20,000 for within 1/2 degree or 30 nautical miles

1730's Franz Anton Ketterer creates first cuckoo clock.

1735 John Harrison completes his first marine timekeeper H1.

1737 Commissioners of the Board of Longitude meet for the first time.

1840 Alexander Bain made the first electric clock.

1852 Greenwich time-ball converted to electric-powered operation.

1855 The majority of public clocks in Great Britain were set to GMT.

1858 British Horological Institute founded.

1880 GMT becomes the standard time for the United Kingdom.

1918 First plug into mains clock was developed by H.E. Warren

1927 The first quartz clock was built by W.A.Morrison

1936 - Speaking clock was introduced in Britain into the telephone system.

1943 Quartz clocks first used in astronomical observatories.

1955 Louis Essen and J.V. Parry's first atomic clock installed at the National Physics Laboratory at Teddington, used to synchronize a quartz-crystal clock.

1955 The atomic clock was invented.

1967 The second was defined as 9,192,631,770 oscillations of the Cesium atoms resonant frequency.