Studio Brief 2 - Object - Research - Clock History

History World

History of Clocks

First watches were round metal objects that were worn around the neck. These were originally made in Nuremburg from 1500 onwards and were inspired from similar spheres which were used as pomanders to hold herbs and protect against disease.

Galileo observed the swing of a lamp and later proved that a suspended object takes the same amount of time to swing back and forth even if it is larger or smaller. In 1656 Christian Huygens creates a model of a clock based on this principle and in 1657 a full-scale clock is made.

In 1675 Huygens creates a spiral balance (aka hairspring) which is a fine spring that is coiled flat and controls the speed of the oscillation of the balance wheel. This made a watch more accurate and slim. Thomas Tompion later applied the hairspring to pocket watches, this then led to the development of the clock face and the addition of the minute hand. There were various alterations to the arrangement of the clock face before the iconic design was created.

The Chronometer was developed between 1714 and 1766 and was used by naval and merchant ships during ocean travel. Originally the stars could be used to understand latitude, but due to the turning planet you needed to know the time of day in order to work out the longitude. Conditions at sea made it hard to accurately tell the time, which in turn made it impossible to know the exact position of a ship at sea. John Harrison developed various versions which used bearings to reduce friction, weighted balances connected by coiled springs to minimise the effects of movement and the use of two metals in the balance spring to cope with the expansion and contraction caused by the changes in temperature. In combination with the sextant this allowed explorers to record accurate information.

In 1746 a millennium clock was created which would reveal the date of the month up to the year 9999. It was made up of wheels and cogs that turned at different speeds which would tie in with the Julian calendar.