The History of Timekeeping

Sundial

Clepsydra

Astrolabe

Candle Clock

Sandglass

Mechanical Clock

Spring-Driven Clock

Pendulum Clock

Quartz Clock

Cesium Atomic Clock

 

Pendulum Clock
  In 1656, the pendulum clock was invented by Christian Huygens. These time devices had advanced a great deal as now they could measure seconds. The discovery first began in the early 1580s when Galileo recognized that a pendulum could swing through a wide arc and a small arc at the same given time. In 1614 a year before Galileo was to pass away, he began to work at creating a pendulum that would remain in a constant motion. In 1656, a Dutch mathematician and astronomer named Christian Huygens took the pendulum and added a common escapement of this time to produce the first pendulum clock. In 1671, a new and improved escapement called the anchor escapement was invented that allowed for almost complete accuracy with the loss of just a couple seconds each day. Much later in 1906, the first pendulum clock was to be powered by an electric battery which was stationed in the clock.