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Mechanical Clocks
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 Before
mechanical clocks, the most accurate clocks were water clocks. Water
clocks measured the time by letting water flow regularly out of
a vertical container through a small aperture. As the next container
filled and the water level rose, the time of day could be indicated.
Water clocks have been shown to have existed around 1500 BC -
3000 BC. Fancier water clocks were very ornate and even tolled the
hours and displayed the planets. Water clocks were accurate give
or take 15 minutes every day.
It was a major deal for mechanical clocks to be invented and to
replace such a time-honored type of timepiece.
Mechanical clocks are mechanical because of a mechanism called
an escapement. The escapement is the balance wheel on a watch or
the pendulum of a grandfather clock. The first escapement was the
verge and foliot mechanism.
The verge is a vertical rod with pallets to engage and release
the main gear. The foliot is a horizontal bar with weights on both
ends, and it sits on the verge. The verge puts the foliot back and
forth in a rhythm that determines the pace of the gear train.
It is guessed that the first mechanical clocks were made in the
1200s - the first clear drawing of an escapement was by Jacopo
di Dondi and his son in 1364.
The first mechanical clocks had about the same accuracy as water
clocks - they were only accurate up to about 15 minutes a
day. Over the years, the accuracy of mechanical clock improved greatly.
With the advent of the pendulum -- first thought of as a timekeeper
by Galileo and put into practice by Huygens in 1656 - mechanical
clocks became very accurate - they were accurate within one
minute, every week.
Mechanical clocks have undergone many changes over the years. More
recently, electrical clocks and battery powered clocks and other
clocks like atomic clocks have been invented and keep time even
better than mechanical clocks. But mechanical clocks still hold
a place near and dear in many people’s hearts.
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