Pendulums Have a Swinging History
Copyright (c) 2009 Mike Bond
The pendulum was a most remarkable step. Right up until the 1930’s, and with the advent of the quartz movement, the pendulum was the timekeeper for every clock
It’s thought that Galileo Galilei was the first person to receive the spark of the idea from examining the movement of a chandelier in Pisa Cathedral in 1582.
In 1602, he began work in earnest on the device and developed the Metronome, which musicians ever since have found to be so valuable.
A derivative of this also proved invaluable to a physician friend of his, and the machine was named the Pulsilogium. As the name suggests, it was used for taking his patients’ pulses.
In 1641, Galileo actually designed a clock regulated by a pendulum, but the poor old chap never lived to see his design in action. It could be said that every development has been made by people standing on the shoulders of giants. Christiaan Huygens perched on Galileo.
There are
