日本語

Pendulum Clocks

The Italian scientist, Galileo Galilei made an important discovery about pendulums: that for a pendulum of the same length, the time taken to swing back and forth is the same, whether the pendulum makes a long swing or a short one. Pendulum clocks were made using this principle.
A weight driven pendulum clock(Made in Great Britain, c.1700)
So Galileo invented pendulum clocks?
No, it was the Dutch inventor Christiaan Huygens who made the first pendulum clock, in 1656. By adjusting the speed of the clock using the swing of the pendulum, these clocks became very accurate, with an error of around only two or three minutes per day.
Wow, Huygens was amazing!
Next

History of Timepieces

Go back to the beginning

  • Sundials
  • Water clocks
  • Hourglasses
  • Combustion Clocks
  • The First Mechanical Clocks
  • Pendulum Clocks
  • Portable Mechanical Clocks & Watches
  • Quartz Clocks & Watches