Clocks · Model of the application of the pendulum to the clock
Model of the application of the pendulum to the clock by Eustachio Porcellotti, 1860
- Maker / attribution
- Eustachio Porcellotti (maker)
- Date
- 1860
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Model of the application of the pendulum to the clock
- Materials / technique
- iron, brass
- Dimensions
- 160x350 mm
- Holding institution
- Museo Galileo, Florence
- Accession / object no.
- Inv. 3450
- Credit line
- Museo Galileo, Florence
- Catalogue title (original)
- Model of the application of the pendulum to the clock (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Museo Galileo, Florence (object number Inv. 3450), this is a model of the application of the pendulum to the clock by Eustachio Porcellotti, dated 1860. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: iron, brass. Recorded dimensions: 160x350 mm. The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Catalogue description — Museo Galileo
This model, showing the application of the pendulum to the clock, revives the concept developed by Galileo as early as 1637. The iron frame holds brass gears. The train comprises two wheels and two pinions. The escapement is composed of: a wheel with 12 teeth along the rim and 12 pegs placed crosswise along the rim as well; a retaining lever powered by a thin spring; and two long upward-curved pallets, integral with the pendulum at its hinge point (the upper pallet is for release, the lower one receives the impulse). At the end of each oscillation the upper pallet meets the retaining lever and lifts it, freeing the escapement wheel. As the latter rotates, it meets the lower pallet and pushes it down, imparting the impulse needed to keep the pendulum moving. As the impulse pallet is pushed downward, it lowers the upper pallet as well, which consequently drops the retaining lever blocking the wheel. The pendulum is free to travel the remainder of its arc path, returning to the opposite end. There, it lifts the retaining lever, releasing the wheel and so starting a new cycle. Release and impulse occur in rapid succession at the end of every complete oscillation. One of the drawings (inv. 2433) by Vincenzo Viviani and Galileo's son Vincenzo Galilei was rediscovered in 1855: it illustrated the first application to the clock of the pendulum concept invented by Galileo. The discovery fostered the construction of countless models. This one, built in 1879 by Eustachio Porcellotti, was one of the first (the Museum has another copy by the same maker, dating from two years earlier).
Historical context
Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
American interchangeable-parts manufacture; railroad time standards; Swiss and German factory systems.
Factory production transformed the clock into an everyday object. American makers (Seth Thomas, Ansonia, Waterbury) and German factories (Junghans, Gustav Becker, Lenzkirch) sold millions of shelf, wall and alarm clocks worldwide; France produced standardised Paris movements and carriage clocks; electric time distribution began.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Precision & Scientific Horology
Atlas type guide
Domestic clocks
A clock combines four systems: a source of power (falling weight, coiled spring, or later electricity), a gear train that divides time, an escapement and oscillator that regulate it (foliot, pendulum or balance), and an indicating system of dial and hands or a bell. Its history runs from the large iron weight-driven clocks of the late thirteenth century to Renaissance spring-driven table clocks, the pendulum revolution of 1656, the factory clocks of the nineteenth century and electric and quartz clocks of the twentieth.
Domestic clocks also reflect regional furniture and decorative traditions — English longcase and bracket clocks, French pendules, Viennese regulators, Black Forest and American shelf clocks — and therefore record changing tastes as much as technical progress.
What to look for
- How the clock is powered: weights, spring barrel, fusee, electric coil.
- The oscillator: foliot, short pendulum, long seconds pendulum or balance.
- Whether it strikes: hour only (count wheel) or hours and quarters (rack striking).
- The maker or retailer's name on dial and movement, and any factory trademarks.
- Signs of alteration — replaced dials, converted escapements, 'married' cases.
Dating clues
- Before 1656 clocks used foliots or balances; after, most domestic clocks have pendulums.
- Anchor escapements spread after c. 1670; minute hands became common at the same time.
- Factory production in America and Germany transformed prices after c. 1840.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
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