Love and RelationshipsTelling Time Through The Centuries With Grandfather Clocks
The swing of the pendulum brought back the grandfather clocks. The new breed of clocks retains the old charisma but have new interesting features. These are surely must-haves for the incurable romantics.
Step back into time
Man’s compulsive need to know the time dates back to ancient eras. This was dictated by the seasons and his need to hunt, plant, and harvest. Before the grandfather clocks took its important place in the history of horology, people told the time by the shadow of the sun on the meridian line or by the rate that water dripped from a vessel with a tiny hole.
Until the 1500s, people had to rely on inaccurate time telling devices. Galileo Galilei opened the way to the improvement of mechanical time devices. He hit upon the idea of using the pendulum to provide a better way to keep time. This idea and was later improvised by Christian Huygens, a Dutchman, but his clock erred by one minute less a day. Being able to detect this was already a huge advancement in horology. The pendulum clocks came later in 1670. It was discovered that a longer pendulum made grandfather clocks keep better time.
The clock with many names
The early settlers of America brought along their grandfather clocks. These were usually encased in long wooden cases that resembled coffins. These were called the floor clocks, long case clocks, or the coffin clocks, for obvious reasons. These crossed the prairies with their owners, braving heat, rain, and snow.
Grandfather clocks were named such when the song composed by an American, Henry Clay Work (1832-1884), became a hit. The song My Grandfather’s Clock was released in 1876. The song was composed after Work heard the story of two brothers who owned a long clock. The clock began to falter on the death of one brother and finally chimed its last with the demise of the other.
How early grandfather clocks worked
The old grandfather clocks were made of mahogany, oak, walnut, and pine. They were massive, standing between 6 to 8 feet tall. A pendulum located in the clock’s tower was in constant motion. These clocks would continue to tell time without rewinding from 30 hours to 8 days. The 30-hour clock was worked up by a rope or a chain, while the 8-day clock was wound with a key. The latter was obviously more expensive than the former.
Some of the grandfather clocks did not have face dials. Instead, time was told by the striking of the clock by the hour. This has contributed to the 12-hour clock face. Instead of the 24 hours to represent a day, the clock number was limited to 12. There was no telling the havoc it would cause when these struck 24 times at midnight when everybody was in bed.
The old grandfather clocks are prized heirlooms, not so much for their functionality, but rather for their elegance and the resonant chimes they produce. With each generation, these clocks improved, both in function and appearance. Grandfather clocks have indeed withstood the test of time.