An electric clock is a clock that is powered by electrical current instead of powered by springs or weights. Specifically, the clock's mainspring is wound either with an electric motor or with an electro-magnet and armature, rather than wound manually.

History

In 1814, Sir Francis Ronalds (1788) of London invented the forerunner of an electric clock, the electrostatic clock. His prototype was powered with a dry pile battery. It proved unreliable in timekeeping, however, because of a strong dependence on a stable room temperature and 'weather conditions'.

In 1815, Giuseppe Zamboni (1776-1846) of Verona invented and showed a electrostatic clock run with dry pile battery and an oscillating orb. Over the test of time the clock was praised "the most elegant and at the same time the most simple movement yet produced by the electric column."(3) Zambodi's clock had a vertical needle supported by a pivot and so energy efficient that it could operate on one battery for over 50 years.

Numerous people were intent on inventing the electric clock with electromagnetic principles around the year 1840, such as Wheatstone, Steinheil, Hipp, Breguet, and Garnier, both in Europe and America.

In 1840, Alexander Bain (1811-1877), a Scottish clock and instrument maker is the first to invent and patent the electric clock. His original electric clock patent is dated October 10th, 1840. On January 11th, 1841, Alexander Bain along with John Barwise, a chronometer maker, took out another important patent describing a clock in which a electromagnetic pendulum and an electric current is employed to keep the clock going instead of springs or weights. Later patents expanded on his original ideas.

Matthias Hipp (1815-1893), clockmaker born in Germany, is credited with establishing the production series, mass marketable electric clock. Hipp opened a workshop in Reutlingen, Switzerland, where he developed an electric clock to have the Hipp-Toggle, presented in Berlin at an exhibition in 1843. The Hipp-Toggle is a device attached to a pendulum or balance wheel that electromagnetically drives the pendulum or wheel, and is so efficient that it was subsequently used in electric clocks for over a hundred years. Hipp also invented a small motor and built the chronoscope and the registering chronograph for time measurement.

Smaller clocks and watches with a spiral-balance are made on the same principles as pendulum clocks.

See also

References

• 1. History of Electric Clocks by Michel Viredaz
• 2. Alexander Bain Biography
• 3. Perpetual Electromotive of Giuseppe Zamboni