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The History of Grandfather Clocks
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 The
history of grandfather clocks truly begins with the advent of the
first time-keeping devices or the first mechanical clocks, but we
are going to start the history of the grandfather clock at the invention
of the pendulum.
In 1582, Galileo Galilei discovered that a pendulum could be used
to keep time. Nearly a century later, in 1656, Christiaan Huygens
used Galileo’s theory to make the first pendulum clock. This
first pendulum clock is the prototype for future grandfather clocks.
Huygens’ clock is the true beginning of the history of grandfather
clocks.
Huygens’ pendulum clock was at the time the most accurate
type of clock. It was, however, still off by about 3 minutes every
day. The first pendulum clocks had rather short pendulums. Around
1670, Robert Hook found that a longer pendulum made the clocks much
more accurate. Adding Hook’s find to the introduction of the
anchor escapement by William Clement, and the history of grandfather
clocks was well on its way.
These new improvements led to a very tall clock of about 7 feet
high. This clock required a long case and was therefore aptly named
a long case clock (also known as a floor clock). A long case clock
is the same as a grandfather clock, but it was not so named until
much later, as you will learn as you read on about the history of
grandfather clocks.
It was not until after 1875 that the term grandfather clock became
popular to describe long case clocks. The term grandfather clock
actually comes from Henry Work, an American songwriter. He wrote
a song about “my grandfather’s clock” after staying
in an old hotel in North Yorshire, England called the George Hotel.
The George Hotel had a long case clock standing in the lobby, but
it no longer kept time. The story goes: two bachelor brothers named
Jenkins once managed the George Hotel. They put in the lobby a grand
long case clock that kept exceptionally good time. That is, it kept
exceptionally good time until the first brother died.
After the death of the first brother, the long case clock slowly
kept worse and worse time and would sometimes even be off by about
an hour a day. Then, when the second brother finally dies, the long
case clock stopped working completely. And supposedly the time that
remained displayed on the long case clock is the exact time that
that brother died,
Henry Work heard this story and new that it would make a great
song. He of course had know idea that his song would become so popular
and rename long case clocks grandfather clocks.
This is just a concise history of grandfather clocks. Every grandfather
clock in existence today probably has its own history that goes
with it - many grandfather clocks have been passed down from
one generation to the next. Many grandfather clocks have witnessed
much history over the years.
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