Other web pages on Electrical Horology:

Electric Clocks............. www.mypage.bluewin.ch/electric-clocks
Electrical Horology....... www.mridout.freeserve.co.uk/
Vrolijksclocks .......... .. www.mysite.freeserve.com/vrolijksclocks/

Those of you who are interested in viewing many more animations of a variety of electric clock systems may be interested in obtaining my CD. This CD contains over 80 animatins of electric clocks systems and slave movements.
Creations of the following inventors/makers appear on this CD:
ATO, Bain, Ball, Bardon, Borrel, Bowell, Boymeyer, Brillié, Bulle, Bürk, Campiche, Carley, Cauderay, ENEM, Eureka, Favarger, Favre-Bulle, Fedchenko, Fischer, Froment, Garnier, Gent, Gill, Godineau, Gyr, Halske, Hâtot, Hennequin, Hipp, Holden, Hope-Jones, Jamin, Jauch, de Jong, Kusnick, Lambert, Landis, Lavet, Lepaute, Lowne, LR, Magneta, Milch, Mildé, Moulin, Murday, Palmer, Parsons, Perret, Peyer, van de Plancke, Poole, Powers, Pulsynetic, Rabe, Reclus, Reform, Régina, Ritchie, Rudd, Schild, Schmid, Shepherd, Shortt, Siemens, Silentia, Solari, Steinheil, Steinheuer, Streizig, Stroh, Synchronome, Tiffany, Tordoir, Vaucanson, Vigreux, Wagner and Wheatstone.
I have also collected many portraits of inventors of these electric clocks and made descriptions of the more complex electric systems. Furthermore, I have compiled some biographies of the creators of these interesting clocks and added a large reference list of books and articles dealing with electric clocks. If you have Access 2000 on your computer you can search through this list easily.
Finally, I have added a gallery of pictures of the electric clocks animated by me. Unfortunately the quality of these pictures is poor, but I intend to improve this and any addition from your side is welcomed.
Please contact me at [email protected] if you are interested in buying my CD. The costs, including shipping, are €25,-.

For any information dealing with electric clocks, don't hesitate to contact me.

J E Bosschieter
The Netherlands

Introduction

Electricity & Magnetism

Electricity & Horology






Conclusion
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Electric Clocks

  A history of the evolution of
electric clocks

by J E Bosschieter

Conclusion

Looking back over the history of the evolution of electric clocks, one cannot help noticing the lack of cooperation between mechanical and electrical horologists. Electric clocks were regarded with suspicion, even with hostility by professional clockmakers. And yet, the electro-magnetically operated clock is basically a mechanical clock using electricity as a simple method for control and impulsing.
In fact, Shortt's free pendulum could have been achieved by purely mechanical methods.
Most of the fundamental steps in the development of electric clocks were taken by men without a horological education. Hope-Jones was an electrical engineer and Shortt a railway engineer, and yet they took the performance of the pendulum to its practical limit of about one millisecond a day.

With the introduction of the quartz crystal clock and later the atomic clock, these electric clocks are now quite obsolete for astronomical purposes. However, they can still be used for daily timekeeping at home and many of us will find it exciting to discover the many different systems used, and save them from the scrap yard.

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
end
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