In past pieces we’ve demonstrated the iterative nature of human evolution; the notion it is not our ideas which constrain our advancement, but rather the limitations of existing technology. The adoption of the mechanical clock, the focus of this History of Time piece, is consistent with this idea.
The Iterative Evolution of Material and Water Clocks
Of the two types of ancient clocks we’ve previously discussed, the mechanical clock can attribute most of it’s features to the water clock. Water clocks appeared in several different forms in ancient cultures from China to Europe and Mesopotamia. The earliest were open vessels with marks on the side, similar to the popular derivative candle and incense clocks.
As the centuries gave way, the designs for these clocks became more ornamented and their timekeeping accuracy increased. However, their known limitations would eventually stunt their development. The most obvious limitation of the water clock was the need to refill the water chambers, in which lied another limitation of water transportation capacity. The limitations of the candle and incense clocks were material property inconsistencies and regional material availability.
The First Mechanical Clocks
Despite the best ones being accurate to 15 minutes per day, by the 13th Century A.D. further material and water clock development plateaued. With monasteries and smaller cities were being constructed throughout the continent, each equipped with a central clock tower, a revolutionary solution necessitated.
The Escapement
Though it’s attribution is largely unknown, it’s estimated the escapement’s invention occurred between the mid-13th and 14th centuries in Western Europe. The escapement is, debatably, the most important invention nobody knowns about. The escapement is the central mechanism of every clock which enables it to move at specific intervals. Early escapements, called verge and foliot mechanisms, leveraged large, oscillating counterweights which turned a series of gears which then indicated the time.
The Mainspring
The explosion of city and religious institute construction accelerated the development of these early mechanical clocks. By the 15th century, consistent with the arc of the water clock, their accuracy and ornamentalism had increased exponentially, yet they were rapidly approaching their technological plateau.
Fortunately, its next significant evolution, the mainspring, was already in the developmental stages. The mainspring is a mechanically loaded spring whose origins derived from weapons such as the crossbow and musket. This loaded spring would not only make the verge and foliot obsolete by the 16th Century, but also would enable the invention of portable clocks – watches.
The Pendulum Clock
It would take the combined works of two great polymaths, Galileo Galilei and Christiaan Huygens, to further advance the mechanical clock. In the early 17th Century, Galileo began investigating the pendulum as a means of timekeeping. He made two important discoveries. First, the duration of a pendulum swing was independent from the height of its swing, aka its amplitude. The second was the reliability of its motion would be an effective regulator of escapement mechanisms, which became notorious for losing accuracy over time and were cumbersome to reset.
Christiaan Huygens would iterate Galileo’s ideas and patent the first pendulum clock in 1657. Like Galileo, Huygens’ initial interests laid in astronomy. In fact, Galileo’s interest in pendulums was also derived from improving astronomy, whose development was limited to the accuracy of early mechanical clocks. Huygens’ pendulum clock was accurate to 15 seconds per day, dramatically improved from the 15 minutes of older clocks. From this point forward, Huygens’ reputation crystallized, and his invention would be the predominant timekeeping mechanism for another 300 years.
A Seaworthy Mechanical Clock
To briefly recap, this piece has taken us from the 1st Century A.D. through the 17th Century. We are now in the age of colonialism, which necessitated another iteration of the mechanical clock. This iteration required increased durability and precision to determine longitudinal position of ships and, hopefully, newfound lands. The British Monarchy gamified this development via the Longitude Act of 1714, offering a multi-million Pound award for the individual who could create this advanced clock.
The Longitude Act concluded in 1736 when John Harrison, a carpenter and self-taught clockmaker, successfully trialed the first marine chronometer on a journey from London to Lisbon. Though the trial was not a complete success, it afforded him the partial funding required to continue improving the clock. Harrison would work on improving his initial design, the creatively named H1, for another 30 years until 1766, when the latest H4 model was finally deemed worthy under the Act’s initial requirements.
Next Time…
If I’m honest, this piece did not cover as much ground as I would’ve hoped. Last week I alluded to discussing the standardization of time on a global scale as a result of innovations to the mechanical clock. However, the innovation discussion was far deeper and more significant than initially anticipated.
The standardization of time on a global scale, as I discovered, required as much social advancement as it did technological. The 18th and 19th Centuries were a furious time in our history. The world was growing in size, national powers were growing in competitiveness, and technology was iterating at an increasingly rapid pace. All these factors would contribute to the eventual standardization of time on a global scale, our focus for Part 4.
Be More.
Become Polymathic.
Quote of the Week: “Passion is the genesis of genius.” – Galileo Galilei