The Charming History of the Grandfather Clock

Today, we know these tall clocks that are set in wooden cases to be "Grandfather Clocks." But, they weren't always called that. In fact, they were first called, "Longcase Clocks" or "Coffin Clocks". So how did they acquire their current name? Read this interesting article and find out the charming history of the Grandfather Clock.

Two Scientists and a Clockmaker Contribute
Although it's usually not among his list of popular contributions to the world, Italian scientist Galileo Galilei discovered in the year 1582 that time could be told by using a pendulum. Seventy-four years later after Galileo's discovery, a Dutch scientist named Christian Huygens built the first clock that used a pendulum. However, William Clement, who was a Dutch clockmaker, realized that by lengthening the pendulum, the time on a clock was more accurate. But, the long, three-foot pendulum he created wouldn't fit into a standard-sized clock case. So, in 1670, Clement built the first "long-case" clock with a pendulum. Clocks like this were also called "Floor Clocks", for obvious reasons, as well as "Coffin Clocks" because they looked like the wooden boxes corpses were buried in. This part of the history of the Grandfather Clock is entirely true. The next part of the story is supposedly true as well. Whether it is or not, you have to agree it makes the clock's history "charming" and certainly more interesting!

Some years ago, two brothers named "Jenkins" owned and operated the George Hotel, an establishment located in rural North Yorkshire, England. In the lobby of this hotel sat a long-cased clock. It just "tick-tocked" away and kept perfect time, until... one of the Jenkins brothers died. Then, the long-cased clock wouldn't keep the correct time. It always ran behind. The surviving brother brought in clocksmith after clocksmith, but none of them could figure out what was wrong with the timepiece. It just kept running slower.