A brief history of time on land...

A General Chronology of Time Keeping Devices On Land.

For what purpose the first people employed the abstract calculation of time may be debated.  Many have argued that the abstract concept of time may be linked directly to a fundamental human need, such as religion and the marking of the sacred not only in space but also something that is constant.  Others have argued that the purpose would most likely have been purely functional as in pertaining to the planting of crops, or the herding of animals to new enclosures.  What we do know is most cultures have some concept of time and many developed complex systems for measuring it.  And this is where we meet a device known as the clock.  A calculator and crutch for those dependant upon time.

The first records of mechanical devices for the measuring of time can be traced as far back as the second millennium B.C.  The clepsydra or water clock was known to have existed in China and Egypt at this time.  This device like many later clocks used the motive power of gravity to power it.  The simplest form of this device is simply a container with a hole in it.  However we do have records of advanced versions which were said to be capable of great feats of accuracy that this simple form could not attain due to the laws of physics, namely the change in the hydraulic gradient.  The Greeks and Romans seem to have taken the clepsydra to perhaps its most complicated level.  The Romans having come to what one could call an early version of daylight savings time had realized that the amount of daylight was variable upon season.  Therefore, “The Roman hour was variable in length according to the seasons of the year.  They devised clepsydras that automatically recorded the variations in the length of the hours.”  (Drepperd 4-5.)

The clepsydra was a big advancement over perhaps an even simpler form of non-mechanical time reckoning, the sun dial. But in many ways it was inferior.  In cold climates the clepsydra was stopped by the water freezing.  It also had to be refilled, a possible problem if you lived in an arid climate.  Another time keeping device was developed that solved these problems, the clepsammia or hourglass.  This device once again used gravity as its motive power, and had many similarities with the clepsydra.  The water was replaced with sand and therefore couldn’t freeze.  It also never had to be refilled like the clepsydra.  However this device had its drawbacks.  The device had to be constantly attended to be turned over, also the greater density and other physical properties of the sand made construction of large clepsammia impractical. All three of these devices have mechanical faults that make them impractical or unreliable for timekeeping.  The sun dial was only useful during the day, was relative to your position on our planet, as well as the season.  The clepsydra was cumbersome, was affected by climate, and was susceptible to changes in the hydraulic gradient.  The clepsammia was somewhat unreliable, relative to the particular clepsammia, and required constant attention.

It would appear that this unreliability had a large part to play in the development of the first mechanical clocks with differentiated and calibrated gears.  When the sun dial, clepsydra, and clepsammia failed, many learned scholars depended upon a natural constant, the stars.  In this way mathematics and clockmaking where greatly affected.  In 1901 a late Hellenic Greek shipwreck was discovered off the coast of the island of Antikythera.  This treasure ship was filled with period or antique bronzes and marbles, jewelry, and what some would describe as a computer or clock.  This Antikythera mechanism was largely ignored until half a century later when Dr. Price of Yale decided to make an in depth analysis of it over the next two decades.  “The Antikythera mechanism was an arrangement of calibrated differential gears inscribed and configured to produce solar and lunar positions in synchronization with the calendar year.  By rotating a shaft protruding from its now-disintegrated wooden case, its owner could read on its front and back dials the progressions of the lunar and synodic months over four-year cycles.  He could predict the movement of heavenly bodies regardless of his local government’s erratic calendar.”  (Rice)  This is the earliest surviving example of a time calculating device, it is attributed to Geminus of Rhodes, and presumed to have been constructed by him around 87 B.C.  However, other examples of astronomical calculators are mentioned by early historians, one being attributed to Archimedes.

The Dark Ages brought a halt to most scientific endeavors, including clockmaking.  Science, “…was unholy, and [it was] dangerous to contemplate the vast arena of possible things.”  (Drepperd 5.)  However, some research was done under the auspices of the church.  Our origin for the word clock comes from within this time period.  The origin for the word clock is generally held to translated into bell.  This stems from the fact that it was customary for cities or churches to ring out the hours on a bell.  One of the earliest written accounts of this is an order by Pope Sabinianus to ring bells for the seven hours of the day in Rome in the year 605.  Some accounts have this early date as the invention of the first mechanical clock, but so many people are credited at later dates and at other locations that no date is certain for this development.  It is just as likely the churchmen were employing a clepsammia, clepsydra, or even a sundial for this performance.  Candles are also said to have been used during this period as timekeeping devices.

Whatever the method of telling time; it was the church as a sponsor which led to the next great development in clockmaking.  While the ringing of the bells was one way to disperse the time to people one could imagine an instance when an important person had been upset or become late by not hearing them.  By the late 12^th or early 13^th century the tower clock had become a feature in important towns or cities with large easy to read dials.  These early clocks had there mechanical components made by blacksmiths, and for the next three centuries clocks would be largely manufactured of iron by blacksmiths and locksmiths.  The earliest clocks are known to have used a “fan fly” to regulate there time keeping abilities.  This was in the shape of a fan blade that by its resistance to air density slowed the power going through the mechanical train.  Motive power was once again supplied by gravity, but instead of acting on water or sand, a weight possibly in the shape of a weight filled leather bag to save metal.  (Lucas 1.)

These clocks were designed to enhance the structures they were built into.  They were built into towers for much the same reason that the bells had been rung from them, but now they could be seen as well as heard.  As they were constructed into Cathedrals, town halls and other structures of pride they to were well decorated.  Two early surviving examples are those of the clock of the Strasbourg Cathedral which was originally completed in 1354, another would be the great clock of Rouen which was constructed in 1389.  Both of these clocks have undergone modification of the centuries.  (Hering 521-522.)  At this time the most prevalent escapement or form of time regulation was the balance and foliot.  This escapement has a crownwheel, a gear cut in such a manner as to regulate the time keeping abilities of the mechanism.  While this was better that the fan fly, it still was far from accurate.  (Drepperd 8.)

Tower clocks were large and could not be transported, but during the Renaissance the financial elite began to fund experiments in clockmaking to reduce the overall size of the clock.  This would lead to the development of the mantle and the wall clock.  One of the limitations imposed on these clocks was that of the means by which they were powered.  A weight used for power requires that the case of the clock either be tall or that it be mounted upon the wall.  To overcome this the mainspring or coilspring drive was invented.  This is simply a flat wound spring which replaces the weight as the mechanisms source of power.  This invention is first credited to Peter Henlein of Nuremburg in the middle of the fifteenth century.  He is also credited with inventing the modern watch or drum clock.  There are no surviving examples of his work but contemporary pieces by other makers have these general features.

While the mainspring was a major breakthrough that allowed for the miniaturization of the clock, it produced some unwanted affects.  The spring when fully wound produced much more power than when it began to run down, meaning the timekeeping ability of these pieces was variable across this winding cycle.  Another invention also credited to Henlein is the stackfreed, a device which in a rudimentary fashion reduced this effect.  The stackfreed was simply a cam that was compressed by a flat spring, and thus controlling the amount of power going through the mechanisms train.  This was later replaced in the early 16^th century by the fusee.  This device which is attributed to Zech of Prague had the mainspring in a separate container or barrel, the spring and barrel would pull on the fusee, a truncated cone by which the amount of power/torque was regulated, which was attached to the barrel by catgut cord or later as metallurgical techniques improved by a fine chain.  The fusee was in essence a more complicated stackfreed.

Galileo is credited with making the next advance in clockmaking, one that would bring more accuracy to the clock.  Galileo after witnessing a swinging lantern made the observation that a pendulum swings in equal amounts of time and is therefore isochronous, a feat no balance can produce.  However, it would take almost another century from the time that this was first discovered in the Late 16^th century for the pendulum to be melded with the verge and foliot escapement.  (Drepperd 8-9.)  This event is credited to the Dutch clockmaker Christian Huygens at the end of 1656.  (Leopold 158.)  This coincides with the refinement of the minute derivations on clock dials starting in the later half of the 17^th century in Britian and the Netherlands, as well as the growing use of the second hand itself.  (Lucas 3-4.)  This event as well as a growing taste by middle class Europeans would lead to the modern clock.

Many of the features of what most people would consider defining of a clock came about via an Anglo-Dutch exchange of men, material, and technology in the 17^th century.  This exchange is well documented. (Leopold 155.)  It was the entrepreneuring nature of the Dutch by gathering what worked, namely the fusee, the pendulum, and the use of brass to manufacture the mechanical components.  And was there free traveling nature that made the diffusion of this knowledge possible.  It is most likely that Ahasuerus Fromanteel a contemporary of Huygens who traveled to Britain was the first to bring these technologies to Britain in about 1665.  (Cescinsky 92.)   This in many ways stimulated the British clockmaking industry and lead to the next development in the form of a more accurate escapement.

Thomas Tompion is credited with the invention of the deadbeat or anchor escapement at the end of the 17^th century.  In this escapement the escape wheel teeth are perpendicular to the axis of rotation as compared to parallel in the crownwheel.  Tompion also designed the anchor or crutch in such a fashion as to dead the motion of the newly introduced second hand. Combined with the pendulum this escapement rendered the crownwheel obsolete, although it was still produced on some clocks as late as the late 18^th century. This was also the period when the Tall case or grandfather clock became popular in England and America.

America can be seen as the next place that great events in clockmaking history appear.  As America was composed of immigrant groups of many nationalities and under resource pressure it made for a great place for experimentation and advancement.  Many of the first clocks in America were imported from England or the Netherlands.  It is assumed that Swedish colonists in Pennsylvania in the mid 17^th century or perhaps the neighboring Dutch may have become the first clockmakers in America. However documentation of this is scarce and as to my research no known surviving examples are known. 

During the 18^th century American clockmaking begins to become noticeable, apprenticeships start to be appear in local papers starting in the early 18^th century.  Ironically this is known more through the fact that they were running away from their masters which may imply either a hard lifestyle or lack of profitable work. (Mercury 1732)  By the late 18^th century in America we have the development of what can be called the American school of clockmakers.  These makers before the revolution look much to Great Britain for their style and manufacture.   Clockmakers like Charles Bruss, Simon and Aaron Willard, Gilbert Bigger, and others would lead to the mass production of cheap clocks by teaching a more American apprentice.  It is known that cheap clocks imported from Germany at this time were relatively popular.  These clocks with wooden movements were imported by wholesalers like Thuun & Boden of Philadelphia in the latter half of the 18^th century. (Independent 1783)

This new market stimulated people like Silas Hoadley, Eli Terry, Chauncey Jerome, and Seth Thomas in the early 19^th century lead to the production of the cheap but rugged American clocks by what almost amounts to an assembly line manufacture with interchangeable parts.  Clocks with wooden movements had been in America as early as the mid 18^th century but it was these two manufacturing revolutions largely brought about by Eli Terry that made there production climb.  “In 1800 Terry conceived the idea of mass producing grandfather-clock movements of wood with the aid of water-power machinery.  By 1808 he started a run of four thousand wooden clock movements on order.”  (Drepperd  58.)  These clocks where so successful that they led to legislation in Great Britain to suppress unfair competition by foreign clockmakers. This was not due to a lack of quality in English clocks but rather their expensive and backwards method of manufacture.  Terry as well as other makers like Jerome and Thomas began to use these principles starting in the 1830’s to manufacture not only cheap wooden clocks but also brass ones as well.  (Church 618-621.)

Since that time the technology to manufacture clocks has changed but the overall mechanical design has relatively stayed the same.  Most clocks after this period have the typical deadbeat escapement, were manufactured of steel, brass, and wood.  One thing that has changed is our sense of time.  I know as a clockmaker that many people are much disappointed with an Eli Terry or other American made clock as compared to their quartz wrist watches and clocks.  However it must be noted that after the death of the mechanical clock industry save few companies starting in the American depression no clock will ironically be linked in time, theory, and manufacture to a history whose time ended.

Some of the first conservatories in our country were founded for the restoration of these lost timekeepers.  Time has a tendency to be rough on all things, but clocks especially as they are made of materials which do not normally hold up well.  Wooden clocks suffer greatly from dry rot.  They also suffer from wormholes and the general abuses of untrained technicians.  They have begun to receive a resurgence of interest however, as the modern home with a controlled indoor climate greatly enhances there timekeeping abilities.  Metal clocks suffer from dust and wear.  They also suffer from chemical damage, oxidation due to the different chemical potentials of the various metals used in there construction; namely brass, steel, and lead.  They have also been known to suffer again from the hands of those who are untrained.  A good example is the picture on page 15 of Brooks Palmer A treasury of American clocks.   This picture shows the movement from a late 18^th century grandfather clock that has had the front escape wheel pivot hole penned shut to make it more tightly fitting.  This shows that someone has already made his modification to this clock.

References:

Cescinsky, Herbert. A Bracket Clock by Ahasuerus Fromanteel. The Burlington for Connoisseurs, Vol. 35, No. 198, 1919, pp. 92-93.

Church, R. A. Nineteenth-Century Clock Technology in Britain, the United States, and Switzerland. The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 28, No. 4, 1975, pp. 616-630.

Drepperd, Carl W. American Clocks and Clockmakers. Charles T. Branford Company. Boston Massachusetts, 1958.

Hering, D. W. Art in Clockmaking and Watchmaking. The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 40, No. 6, 1935, pp. 519-534.

Hering, D. W. Numerals on Clock and Watch Dials. The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 49, No. 4, 1939, pp. 311-323.

Hoke, Donald. British and American Horology: Time to Test Factor-Substitution Models.  The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 47, No. 2, The Tasks of Economic History, 1987, pp. 321-327.

Landes, David S. Watchmaking: A Case Study in Enterprise and Change.  The Business History Review, Vol. 53, No. 1, European Entrepreneurship, 1979, pp. 1-39.

Leopold, J. H. Clockmaking in Britain and the Netherlands. Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 43, No. 2, Science and Civilization under William and Mary, 1989, pp. 155-165.

Lucas, Gavin. The Changing Face of Time: English Domestic Clocks from the Seventeenth to Nineteenth Century. Journal of Design History, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1995, pp. 1-9.

Murphy, John Joseph. Entrepreneurship in the Establishment of the American Clock Industry.  The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 26, No. 2, 1966, pp. 169-186.

Palmer, Brooks. A Treasury of American Clocks.  The Macmillan Company, New York, 1967.

Price, Derek De Solla. Gears From the Greeks. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, Vol. 64, No. 7, 1974.

Rice, Rob S. The Antikythera Mechanism: Physical and Intellectual Salvage from the 1^st Century B.C.  USNA Eleventh Naval History Symposium, Paper Collected for Volume, 1995.  http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rrice/usna_pap.html

Periodicals Chronological:

The American Weekly Mercury. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Thursday Nov. 16- Thursday Nov. 23, 1732. Issue 673, p. 4.

The American Weekly Mercury. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Thursday June 29- Thursday July 6, 1738. Issue 966, p. 3.

The Providence Gazette. Providence, Rhode Island, 12-11-1762. Vol. 1, Issue 8, p. 1.

The New York Gazette; and the Weekly Mercury. New York, New York, 01-08-1770, Issue 950, p. 1.

The Pennsylvania Chronicle. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Monday March 16- Monday March 23, 1772. Vol. VI, Issue 9, p. 35.

Connecticut Journal. New Haven, Connecticut, 01-30-1783. Issue 796, p. 3.

The Independent Gazetter. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 08-16-1783. Issue 94, p. 4.

The Independent Chronicle and Universal Advertiser. Boston, Massachusetts, 02-05-1784. Vol. XVI, Issue 802, p. 4.

Maryland Journal. Baltimore, Maryland, 05-03-1785. Vol. XII, Issue 35, p. 2.

City Gazette and daily Advertiser. Charleston, South Carolina, 11-19-1794. Vol. XII, Issue, 2287, p. 2.

The Independent Gazetter, From the Maryland Journal, Anecdotical Notices of Mr. David Rittenhouse. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 07-20-1796. Issue, 1792, p. 2.

Connecticut Courant. Hartford, Connecticut, 06-09-1800. Vol. XXXV, Issue, 1846, p. 2.

Columbian Centinel. Boston, Massachusetts, 11-08-1806. Issue 2361, p. 1.

Mercantile Adviser. New York, New York, 06-23-1812. Issue 7627, p. 3.

The Desert News. Salt Lake City, Utah, 11-03-1880. Vol. XXIX, Issue 40, p. 629.