Clocks, Domestic, General Huygens pendulum clock, 1673

Clocks, Domestic, General Huygens pendulum clock, 1673. Reconstruction of a clock movement described in 'Horologium OscillatoriumÕ (1673) by Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695), with brass seconds dial and additional minutes dial. Although Galileo (1564-1642) had experimented with pendulums, the Dutch scientist Huygens was the first to master and profit from them. He attached a pendulum to the gears of a mechanical clock. The regular swing of the pendulum allowed the clock to achieve greater accuracy, as the hands are turned by the falling weight, which releases the same amount of energy with each tick. ©SSPL/Science Museum