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Bernard Whitworth Clockmaker offers full facilities for Clock Repair and Clock Servicing.
A Brief History of Time(keepers)
The first mechanical clocks appeared in Europe some time in the second half of the 13th century. Unfortunately no clocks from this period have survived. The word clock is derived from the Latin word for a bell, Clocka, and the first clock mechanisms were for the sole purpose of ringing bells which divided up the day in monasteries. Bells were rung by monks to call the brethren to prayer, to work, and to eat, but the sundial was only partially useful to regulate this work, and of course useless at night. The first clocks had no dial, and to this day clockmakers refer to a non-striking clock as a timepiece. A clock without a dial may seem a strange thing today, but my local cathedral in Lincoln has just such a clock, built as recently as Victorian times.
It did not take very long for these monastic clocks to spread, and soon the art of miniaturisation meant that they could become domestic items, albeit very expensive and not very reliable or accurate. It was Galileo's discovery of the reliable nature of the pendulum that led to more accurate clocks, and soon after in the 17th century clocks started to be reliable and accurate enough to displace the sundial completely. These accurate clocks led to some remarkable discoveries such as the calculation of the speed of light by Romer, and the ability to calculate longitude at sea.
The oldest clock in England, in Salisbury Cathedral
By the late 18th century clocks were being produced in large numbers, and the price meant that even moderately well-off people could own one, but it took the mass production of clocks in America and the Black Forest before clocks became universally affordable.
Today, mechanical clocks have been displaced in most homes by electrical timekeepers, but there is nothing to equal the sound and atmosphere of a mechanical clock ticking, and striking the hours. For those of you who already know this, I am here to put your clock in good order, and to keep it that way. A good clock does more than just tell you the time, and as it ticks away it continues a mechanical tradition going back 700 years.
