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Mechanical Clock Information

Since the dawn of man, people have yearned for ways to keep track of the passage of time. Timekeeping devices have existed since ancient times, and mechanical clocks began to supercede sundials around the 12th century. Today, mechanical clocks are ubiquitous, and are built into many of the electronic devices we use on a regular basis.

History
- Although sundials and water clocks were capable of giving a rough estimate of the time, and were accepted for centuries, people desired a more accurate method of tracking the passage of time. In 1656, a Dutch scientist named Christian Huygens created a pendulum clock, an instrument that would track time by using an oscillation mechanism. This concept was first introduced by Galileo Galilei in 1582, and he proposed a design for a pendulum clock before Huygens. However, Galileo did not actually produce a pendulum clock.
  
  Huygens improved his clock design in 1675 by adding a spring assembly and balance wheel, improving the accuracy of the pendulum clock from a variation of one minute to 10 seconds per day. Portable watches also became possible, although their accuracy was only within about 10 minutes per day. George Graham refined the clock's design further in 1721 by compensating for temperature variations. This brought the accuracy of the mechanical clock to one second per day.
Operation
- Modern analog clocks use the same oscillating pendulum technology introduced by Christian Huygens centuries ago. A controller mechanism is powered by an electrical current or battery power source. This mechanism controls the oscillator and wheel chain of the clock. The wheel chain then turns the hands of the analog clock, typically including an hour hand, minute hand, and seconds hand. Gears within the clock keep the hour and minute hands moving in accordance with the movement of the seconds hand.
  
  Analog clocks are marked with hour numbers from 1 through 12 in a circular fashion. Some clocks, for stylistic or space-conservation reasons, will only feature some or none of these numbers on the clock face. Interestingly, some clocks produced during the French Revolution divide the day into 10 metric hours, though this time system obviously did not maintain any popularity.
  
  Today, most any inexpensive wrist watch will provide the accuracy required by all but the most discriminating professionals who rely on exact time measurements. According to Chronocentric.com, a modern quartz watch can maintain 99.9999 percent accuracy, losing or gaining up to only .02 seconds per day.

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