Electric Clocks

A history of the evolution of
electric clocks

by J E Bosschieter

[email protected]

The history I will describe here of the development of electrical horology leading to the Synchronome-Shortt free pendulum is certainly not complete. Many parts of this evolution are omitted for the sake of simplicity. The emphasis is put on technical details and for that reason many animations are shown.

By putting your cursor over an image a different image may appear or a small animation will run. Full size animations will open when clicking on the animation sign. Some sound effects have been added to create a livelier atmosphere.

The use of animations is a powerful tool in showing how things work in detail. Words can hardly describe what an animation will show in an instant. It is therefore very much worthwhile spending time to download Macromedia's Shockwave needed to view these animations.

Many more animations than shown on this website can be viewed by obtaining a disc I created containing over 80 animations of electric clock systems.
Please see the last page for more details.

1. The first inventors
2. Independency of battery
3. Reliability of contact making
4. Synchronization
5. Count wheel and impulse
6. The first free pendulum
7. Shortt's free pendulum