Wall Regulator

A regulator is a clock with exceptional accuracy, made possible by the invention of the deadbeat escapement in 1715. Regulators were called such because they were used to regulate less accurate clocks and watches. For example, they were used in train stations and jewelry stores, where great accuracy was essential. Over time, however, less accurate clocks were labelled regulators, so eventually the term "regulator" just became a generic name for a hanging wall clock.

Statue

Figural clocks, now known as statue clocks, feature representations of people, animals, or mythical beings. Internationally, France was the most significant manufacturer. Within the United States, the Ansonia Company was the early leader.

Porcelain

Porcelain clocks have cases made of glazed ceramic. While the Royal Bonn Company of Germany made many of these colourful hand-painted cases, the Ansonia Company made most of the works.

Mantel

Mantel clocks, otherwise known as shelf clocks, began replacing long-case (grandfather) clocks when spring-driven movements became available. Previously, clock cases were necessarily tall and bulky because weight-driven movements required a relatively long drop in order to operate. Mantel clocks also became more popular and affordable when mass production methods were introduced.

Grandfather

Grandfather clocks, also known as hall, tall, floor or long-case clocks, are weight-driven clocks first made in England in the 1660s. They were among the most common early clocks in the colonies.

Grandfathers were large because they required a tall case to provide an adequate drop to run the clock. Those made in the colonies were copies of English styles.

Calendar

In about 1853, John Hawes of Ithaca, New York, made the first simple calendar clock in the U.S. Several years later, the first perpetual calendar clocks were produced. Perpetual models are superior to simple ones because they automatically adjust for leap years and differing numbers of days in the months. Most calendar clocks have two dials, one for time and the other for the date.

Carriage

Carriage clocks were designed to hang inside coaches and were often covered with leather cases to protect them. They typically feature a rectangular brass case with glass front and sides, a porcelain dial, and a bailtype handle on top. Many also have a smaller subsidiary alarm dial below the main dial.

Banjo

Simon Willard patented his wall clock in 1802. While he called it his "Improved Timepiece", it became known as the banjo clock because of its shape. It featured a pendulum that could be screwed down so the clock could be easily moved without damaging its suspension. Unlike many clocks of that day, the banjo clock is an original design rather than a version of a European clock. Although its popularity diminished after i860, it has frequently been copied ever since.

Alarm

Although the Greeks developed a water-operated alarm clock wound 250 B.C, the first mechanical alarm clock was not invented until 1787, when Levi Hutchins of Concord, New Hampshire, made a crude model. Because the alarm could only be set to ring at 4 AM, however, it was of little practical use. In 1876, nearly a hundred years later, Seth Thomas created and patented a wind-up alarm clock that could be set for any hour.

Advertising

These clocks display promotional information on their cases, dials, or tablets. Two early U.S advertising clock companies began manufacturing these wall clocks in the late 1800s. The first was the Sidney Advertiser Company of Sidney, New York; the second was the Baird Company of Plattsburgh, New York. Sidney featured a clock with advertising messages placed on a drum that turned every five minutes. Baud's early clock cases were made of papier-mache; later they were made of wood.

In Part I we traced the development of the pendulum clock from early beginnings in China around 1100, to the improvements made in Italy then Holland in the 1600's.

Now we can take a look at English clockmaking up to the point where the grandfather or longcase clock as we recognise it today appeared.

Here is an advertisement, which appeared in the London paper "Commonwealth Mercury" in November 1658:

"There is lately a way found for making clocks that to exact and keep equaller time than any now made without this Regulator (examined and proved before his Highness the Lord Protector by such Doctors whose knowledge and learning is without exception) and are not subject to alter by change of weather, as others are, and may be made to go a week, a month, or a year with once winding up, as well as those that are wound up every day, and keep time as well, and is very excellent for all House Clocks that go either with springs or weights; and also Steeple Clocks that are most subject to differ by change of weather. Made by Ahasuerus Fromanteel, who made the first that were in England. You may have them at his house on the Bankside, in Mosses Alley, Southwark and at the sign of the Mermaid, in Lothbury, near Bartholomew Lane end, London"

I'll bet the guy who wrote that went off to America selling Snake Oil shortly afterwards.

What the advert is telling the people of London is that the pendulum had arrived in England at last, and clocks were for the first time reasonably accurate, certainly to within a few minutes a week. The other give away here is the name of the clockmaker, Ahasuerus Fromanteel was a Dutchman living and working in England, this explains how an obscure book written in Dutch came to be recognised so quickly in England, one of Fromanteel's sons, John, was sent over to Holland to learn about making pendulum clocks from Salomon Coster, the clockmaker who made the clocks for Huygens and by a happy accident he was there within 11 weeks of Huygens being granted his patent for the pendulum.

John quickly sent the knowledge of the new pendulum back to England, with the permission of either Huygens or Coster, and by the time he returned home to London the family was well established making clocks. Ahasuerus Fromanteel worked with his friend Thomas Loomes, and his is the second address in the advert, at the sign of the Mermaid in Lothbury".

The first English pendulum clocks were wall clocks, often known as "hoop and spike" clocks, the hoop hung on a nail or peg set in the wall, and there were two spikes or pointed steel bars that protruded from the back of the clock and dug into the wall to stop the clock slipping sideways.

These clocks were really lantern clocks with a pendulum hanging down beneath, which meant they could not be stood on a table or shelf any more, but the huge increase in accurate timekeeping was considered worth the trouble of fixing them to the wall.

The beautiful English Lantern Clock, made of brass with an engraved dial and four corner pillars like a four poster bed, started to be enclosed in a wooden hood, similar to the hood on the grandfather clock, this then went on a high shelf fixed to the wall, and the shelf had holes in so that the pendulum and weights could hang down below the shelf through the holes. The clock inside the case quickly became much plainer to look at, the wooden hood was easier and cheaper to make, and with a nice engraved brass dial, and some mouldings to the case, it looked good too.

Around the same time, 1665, someone unknown got the idea of enclosing the weights, and the rope they hung from, in a long "trunk" going down to the floor, and the grandfather clock appeared for the first time. These early clocks are highly sought after today, and bring large sums of money on the rare occasions they come on the market. A few of the old Lantern Clocks were also housed in a grandfather case at the time, and again these rare early clocks are very sought after today.

Up to this point, the pendulum was about ten inches long, as they were used with the old verge escapement, and they sounded quite "busy" with a beat of half a second, and because the new clocks had a long case it seemed a good idea to put in a longer pendulum - the trouble was, it was going to need another new invention to do this, the seconds pendulum is 39 inches long, and if it were used with the verge escapement it would swing in an arc of around three feet! - clearly too much for the beautiful, slim, new grandfather clock case.

The credit for the first useable long pendulum clock goes to a former blacksmith called William Clement; like many others he went into clock making from blacksmithing, and rose to become an eminent London clockmaker. Clement was commissioned to build a new clock for Kings College, Cambridge, and this clock (for which he was paid £42) is now in the Science Museum in London. Dated 1671, it is the earliest known clock with an "anchor escapement"

The anchor escapement was so named because it resembles a ships anchor, and is driven by a vertical escape wheel. Another effect of the adoption of the longer pendulum, with it's soothing one second tick, was the rapid growth in the use of the long clock case, as a protection for the pendulum, which hung down a long way below the clock movement.

This brings us to the grandfather clock we would recognise today, and in fact the anchor escapement is still in use the world over in clocks of all shapes and sizes, as it is robust, reliable, and tolerant of a certain amount of wear and tear without stopping the clock.

The beat interval of a pendulum varies, as we said before, according to its length, a 10 inch one beats half-seconds, a 39 inch one beats seconds (this is by far the commonest length used in grandfather clocks), a 14 foot long one beats two seconds (often used in Church or Tower clocks), and one in St Chad's Church Shrewsbury has a mighty 52 foot long pendulum beating four seconds! There is little to be gained using these longer pendulums, as other factors such as "circular error" creep in and affect the timekeeping, which is why they are so rare.

Townely Hall in Burnley, near where I live, has a wonderful clock by Thomas Thompion, the pendulum is hung from the ceiling and goes into the clock through a hole in the top of the hood - an "upside down" arrangement which seems to work very well, I'm not sure how long the pendulum is, at least 14 feet but it could be more, the ceiling is very high!

The two most common types of grandfather clock movement are the "30 hour" and the "8 day" - this refers to how long the clock will run before the weights drop to the bottom and the clock stops. There are others of longer duration, as mentioned in the Fromanteel advertisement above, but most of us are unlikely to own one of these clocks, famous London makers mainly made them, and the prices of these clocks have spiralled out of reach of most of us.

I mention the 30 hour and 8 day winding because I want to finish this piece with a traditional rhyme, which I love:

There was a man who had a clock
His name was Mr Mears.
And every night he wound that clock
For five and forty years.

And when at last that clock turned out
An eight-day clock to be
A madder man than Mr Mears
I never hope to see!

I hope you enjoyed reading this brief walk-through of the development of the pendulum clock, and if you are lucky enough to own one, may you continue to enjoy it for many years to come.

- Andrew Clayton, Clockmaker
Clock Makers and Repairs