Grandfather clocks date back to the middle of the 1600s, and they have remained more or less the same since then. They were quite accurate, and consisted of a face with the hour and minute hand, and some weights as well as a pendulum.

Pendulums and Weights Help Keep Time

In the grandfather clock, it is normal for the pendulum to swing once every second. In cuckoo clocks, the pendulum may swing twice every second. In large grandfather clocks, the pendulum swings once in two seconds. The weight acts as an energy storage device to enable the clock to run for longer periods of time without any need for being attended to.

Winding the weight-driven clock will require pulling a cord that in turn lifts the weight, and gives it potential energy in the gravitational field of the Earth, which drives the clock’s mechanism. Sometimes, however, one may need to rewind the grandfather clock as often as every 20 minutes.

The history of the grandfather clock dates back to after Galileo Galilei discovered in 1582 that a pendulum could be used in order to keep time. After him, the Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens developed the first pendulum clock in 1656, which was to be the prototype for the grandfather clock. These clocks were was called “Long Case Clocks” or “floor clocks” until the 1880s.

The golden period for the Long Case Clock was between 1630 and 1730. They were primarily made for royals and nobility, and when production costs became lower and more affordable, even well-to-do households began purchasing them. It was not until 1685 that the grandfather clock was imported into American colonies for the first time. Just another ten years later, they began to be manufactured in the New World.

It was the American songwriter Henry Work who in 1875 composed a song called “The Grandfather Clock” that was inspired by the story of an old Floor Clock that survived in a lobby in a country lodge called the George Hotel in England.

The grandfather clock has undergone many improvements, and today pendulums have given way to the atomic clocks that are extremely accurate. However, the grandfather clock is still a piece of beauty as well as an impressive symbol of years gone by. There is nothing to match the stately elegance of those imposing clocks that could stand well over six feet tall.