Grandfather Antique Clock

It is said that Galileo Galilei, while sitting in the cathedral at Pisathat and timing the swinging of lamps with his own pulse, came up with the idea of the pendulum clock. Thankfully the Inquisition didn’t spot his undevout daydreaming and Galileo returned home to work on his ideas for the pendulum escapement. It was not until 1656 however, that a pendulum was incorporated into a clock as a regulating device by the Dutchman, Christian Huygens – probably the original Grandfather Antique Clock.

We must not forget however that the genius Leonardo da Vinci had already thought out the whole problem and designed a solution for a clock 162 years earlier with his silent pendulum escapement with sinusoidal cam. Once again he had beaten everyone.

So, in 1656, the world had it’s first pendulum clock but it would be a long time before they were known as grandfather clocks. They started off by various names, longcase clocks, floor clocks and even coffin clocks. The first grandfather clocks were produced in Britain by a clockmaker called Ahasuerus Fromenteel after he sent his son to Holland to learn how to use a pendulum in a timepiece.

Although the pendulum theory was sound, provided it was long and the angle of swing very small, it was extremely difficult to make a pendulum device that would keep accurate time so it was about 15 more years before the anchor escapement had been developed in 1670. Once this invention was combined with the pendulum the floor clocks could be developed that had great accuracy and many manufacturers of fine clocks appeared in Britain soon afterwards. Grandfather clocks by Thomas Tompian, Joseph Knibb, George Graham, and Daniel Quare are all collector’s items now in fact, several centuries later a antique clock maintains it’s attraction despite the advances in digital clock design.

In the beginning the grandfather clock cases were made from English oak but later different hard woods were used such as African mahogany. The faces of the clocks started off rather plain but as time went on, dials illustrated with small painted scenes were designed and now most grandfather clocks have some sort of painted design on the face.

Quality British antique clocks were very popular throughout the world until about 1870 when mass produced cheap movements from America flooded the market. After this the manufacture of British grandfather clocks virtually disappeared.

It was around this time that grandfather antique clocks got their name. The real grandfather clock, it’s about 200 years old, stands in the George Hotel in England. Back in the 19th century the clock worked fine but after the death of the two Jenkins brothers who managed the hotel, it stopped, short, never to go again. The popular song that all children now learn was composed by the American Henry Clay Work in 1874 when, when a guest at the hotel, he heard the story while admiring the antique clock in the lobby.

Grandfather antique clocks are more that just a clock. They are often a treasured heirloom and even considered members of families to be passed on from generation to generation.

I’m interested in old mechanical clocks – so long as the have a slow tick, tock. I really don’t like fast, busy ticking clocks. If you are interested in Grandfather Clocks please visit http://www.grandfather-clock.org.

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