![]() Seventy years later, the noted Dutch astronomer Christian Huygens was searching for an accurate design for an astronomical clock. Unfortunately, despite all his noteworthy achievements, he was unsuccessful in this task and died before it could be realised. For the rest of his life Galileo, with the aid of his son, experimented on producing such a timepiece. Eventually he concluded that if the swing of a pendulum could be integrated into the workings of a clock, it would be the most accurate ever made. ![]() Having recorded his findings, he mused on them for some years in search of an application. Galileo noticed that regardless of the width of the arc it followed, the time taken for one complete swing was the same. He began to time its swings, comparing them to his own heartbeat. Noticing a swaying chandelier that the lamplighter had lit, he was struck by inspiration. In 1582 Galileo Galilei, the ‘father of modern science’, was at prayer in Pisa Cathedral. Reliability was vastly improved with the invention of the pendulum clock, but this was some way off. However, these could be expensive and unreliable, with a loss of accuracy of up to fifteen minutes per day. In ‘Paradiso’ the third volume of his Divine Comedy (1320), Dante makes the first recorded reference to a clock that strikes on the hour.īy the 15 th Century, advances in design led to miniaturisation and domestic clocks became possible. By the 11 th Century, clocks were well known throughout Europe according to writings of the time. ![]() Accurate timekeeping was important to observe their religious obligations and strict schedules. Monitoring the passage of time was important to those in holy orders and many of the earliest clock designers were monks. The first mechanical clock on record was built by the future Pope Sylvester II in 996 for the German town of Magdeburg. The history of the grandfather clock stretches back further than most people would imagine. ![]()
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