Task 2: Historical Technological Artifact

The Pendulum Clock

“The increase of disorder or entropy is what distinguishes the past from the future, giving a direction to time.” 

- Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time.

What Time is it?

Time is perhaps one of the universes’ most defining properties, and the quest for understanding this complex entity has been fundamental to humanities progression. I am fascinated by both the idea of time, humanities drive to measure it and how the rhythm and patterns of its passing are linked to both our biological and cultural evolution.  

Measuring the Passage of Time
While full comprehension of the properties of time tests our most accomplished physicists, humanity has been largely successful in our innovation of its measurement. Our ongoing struggle to understand the concept of time is juxtaposed by measurements now so precise  ’that if such a clock (optical clock) had ticked away every second since the big bang 13.7 billion years ago, it would not yet have missed a beat’. (Chalmers, 2009)

Click on Icons for further insights. 

A Defining Moment in Time
All clocks must have two basic components:

§·a regular, constant or repetitive process or action to mark off equal increments of time.

§·a means of keeping track of the increments of time and displaying the result.                     (Higgans et al, 2004)

In 1657 Dutch scientist and mathematician, Christian Huygens, made the first clock regulated by a pendulum mechanism with a  regular period of oscillation. As is often the case in innovation, Huygens was able to step on the shoulders of previous explorations on the pendulum; it is said that Galileo first noticed the regularity of a suspended lamp swinging back and forth in the cathedral of Pisa, when he was still a student there (Gratten, 2016). Huygens' early pendulum clock had an error of less than 1 minute a day, later he would reduce this error to less than 10 seconds a day.

The 'Tick-Tock' of the pendulum clock is a sound synonymous with my idea of passing time, though modern time pieces make little sound at all. This recognisable rhythm was inherent to the mechanical nature of the device; rather than a dependence on an electric current to mark time, it relied on the winding of a key, the raising of a weight, the swing of a pendulum and the whir of a gear.

                                                                Click on Icons for further insights. 
Drawings of the first pendulum clocks, designed by Christiaan Huygens in 1657. From "Geschichte der physikalischen Experimentierkunst", by Ernst Gerland and Friedrich Traumüller, 1899.

Additional References:

Andrewes, W. (2006). A Chronicle of Timekeeping. Scientific American: A Matter Of Time, 23(4s), 50-57. doi: 10.1038/scientificamericantime1114-50

Chalmers, M. (2009). Super clocks: More accurate than time itself. Retrieved from https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126941-900-super-clocks-more-accurate-than-time-itself/

Beacock, I. (2015). A Brief History of (Modern) Time. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/12/the-creation-of-modern-time/421419/

Grattan, K. (2016). A brief history of telling time. Retrieved from http://theconversation.com/a-brief-history-of-telling-time-55408

K. Higgins, D. Miner, C.N. Smith, D.B. Sullivan (2004), A Walk Through Time(version 1.2.1). Retrieved from http://physics.nist.gov/time.