No photograph is shown for this exhibition. The museum displays an image only where it can show the object honestly.
About this date
Records of weight-driven clocks appear in the late 13th century, but the earliest ones do not survive. The oldest surviving examples date from the late 14th century, such as Salisbury Cathedral’s clock of about 1386.
About credit
No inventor is known. Earlier water clocks and astronomical models informed the design, and the key invention was the escapement.
Chapter II
The world before
Life before the Mechanical Clock
Time was told by sun, sundials and water clocks, and church bells marked the monastic hours.
II
The human achievement
How it came about
Clockmakers found a way to let a weight fall slowly using a verge escapement and foliot. Large clocks in town towers struck the hours, and towns began to organise work and markets by them.
III
Understanding the invention
How it works
The Mechanical Clock, explained in two steps.
01
Step 01 of 02
Falling weight
A weight on a rope turns gears as it descends.
Falling weight
The escapement
IV
The transformation
What changed for humanity
Work
Equal hours made it possible to schedule working days and wages.
Culture
The idea of time as something measured and spent grew.
Hours of equal length replaced the unequal hours of daylight. Daily life, work and eventually industry began to follow the clock.
V
Before and after
Life before and after The Mechanical Clock
Before
At sunrise, signalled by bell.
After
At a set hour on the town clock.
On larger screens, drag the divider (or use the arrow keys) to give more room to the world before or after.