| Grandfather Antique Clock |
It is said that Galileo Galilei, while dozing in the cathedral at Pisathat and timing the swinging to and fro of lamps with his own heartbeat, thought up the idea of the pendulum clock. Thankfully the Holy Inquisition didn't spot his undevout thinking and Galileo returned home to work on his ideas for the pendulum escapement. It was not until 1656 however, that a pendulum was designed into a clock as a regulating device by the Dutchman, Christian Huygens - probably the original Grandfather Antique Clock.
We have to remember however that the genius Leonardo da Vinci had already thought out the whole puzzle and designed a solution for a grandfather antique 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 grandfather antique clock but it would be a considerable time before they were known as grandfather clocks. They started off by a collection of names, longcase clocks, floor clocks and even coffin clocks. The first grandfather antique 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.
Even though the pendulum theory was correct, provided it was long and the angle of swing very small, it was technically difficult to make a pendulum device that would keep accurate time so it wasn't until 15 more years before the anchor escapement had been developed in 1670. Once this invention was added 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 antique clocks by Thomas Tompian, Joseph Knibb, George Graham, and Daniel Quare are all collector's items now in fact, several centuries later a grandfather antique clock maintains it's attraction despite the advances in digital clock design.
At first the grandfather antique 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 antique clocks have some sort of painted design on the face.
Quality British grandfather 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 antique clocks virtually disappeared.
It was about this time that grandfather antique clocks got their name. The real grandfather antique 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 grandfather 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  www.grandfather-clock.org
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