Grandfather clock
The tall floor clock with a long swinging pendulum, from late-1600s London to Connecticut and Michigan, and the 1876 song that gave it its name.
What a grandfather clock is
A grandfather clock is a tall floor-standing clock whose long pendulum and weights hang inside a wooden case. Collectors and museums usually call it a longcase or tall case clock; grandfather clock is the everyday name.
The case has three parts: the hood at the top, which holds the dial and movement, the narrow waist that hides the pendulum and weights, and the base that sits on the floor.
Why it is so tall
The height is there to protect a long pendulum. Around 1670 the English clockmaker William Clement is credited with introducing the anchor escapement, which let a pendulum swing in a much smaller arc, only a few degrees. That made it practical to use a long, slow pendulum about 39 inches long that takes about a second for each swing, and the long pendulum kept far better time.
A pendulum that long, plus heavy weights hanging on lines, needed a case to keep out drafts and curious hands, and the tall case was the answer. The Metropolitan Museum of Art notes that very long pendulums were hard to make reliable, and only the best English makers tried them. One example is a Thomas Tompion clock of about 1700, 94 inches tall, whose pendulum beats once every one and a quarter seconds and is about 60 inches long.
English makers soon pushed the tall clock further. The Metropolitan Museum of Art also owns a Tompion longcase, known as the Graves Tompion, that shows the calendar, the phases of the moon and even the tides, the kind of extra dial that became a favorite on tall clocks.
Thirty-hour and eight-day clocks
Older grandfather clocks come in two main kinds. A thirty-hour clock is driven by a single cord or chain, usually has only an hour hand, and has to be wound every day. These were the cheaper clocks.
An eight-day clock has two separate weights on lines wound around barrels, has both hour and minute hands, and only needs winding once a week. These were the finer, more expensive clocks, and you can often spot one by the winding holes in the dial.
Dials changed with fashion too. A mahogany longcase made by John Fernly of Trowbridge, Wiltshire, around 1775, now in the Trowbridge Museum, has a silvered arched dial; earlier clocks used square brass dials before arched tops took over. Details like these are among the first things collectors look at when estimating a clock's age.
See also: buying, moving and caring for a grandfather clock today on OnlineClock.app.
Where the name came from
Nobody called them grandfather clocks until 1876. That year the American songwriter Henry Clay Work published a hit song about a tall clock that ran for its owner's whole life and stopped when he died, and the song's title stuck to the clock. The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest known use of the term dates from the same year.
Work is said to have been inspired by a stopped clock at the George Hotel in North Yorkshire, England, but that story has never been confirmed. A smaller floor clock picked up the nickname grandmother clock around the same time.
Grandfather clocks in America
Tall clocks were made all over colonial and early America. The Henry Ford museum has one whose movement and dial were made by Eli Terry in Plymouth, Connecticut, in 1808 or 1809, in a pine case 87 and a half inches tall. Terry went on to help turn American clockmaking into a factory business.
In the twentieth century Zeeland, Michigan, became a center for grandfather clocks. John Spyker started a small grandfather clock business there in 1899, which became Colonial Manufacturing in 1906. Howard Miller, which dates its start to 1926, moved its focus to grandfather clocks in the 1960s, and Sligh made clocks in Zeeland from 1983 until it sold its clock designs to Bulova in 2004.
Howard Miller also bought the German clock-movement maker Kieninger in 1993.
Tempus fugit and other dial markings
Some grandfather clocks carry the Latin motto tempus fugit on the dial. It means time flies, a fitting reminder on a clock that ticks away the seconds in plain view, and some makers have used the phrase as a model name.
Other markings help with identification: a maker's name on the dial, a moving moon disk in the arch, and a seconds dial. For dating a particular clock, the movement and any maker's marks inside the case usually tell more than the case style.
See also: tonight's real moon phase, to compare with the moon dial on OnlineClock.app.
Questions people ask
Why is it called a grandfather clock?
From Henry Clay Work's popular 1876 song about a tall clock that belonged to the singer's grandfather. Before that, these clocks were called longcase or tall case clocks.
What is the difference between a grandfather and a grandmother clock?
A grandmother clock is a smaller, shorter version of the same tall floor clock. The nickname appeared around the same time as grandfather clock.
How often does a grandfather clock need winding?
An eight-day clock needs winding once a week, and a thirty-hour clock every day. Many modern grandfather clocks are eight-day clocks, and some use quartz movements that only need batteries.
What does tempus fugit mean on a clock?
It is Latin for time flies. It appears as a motto on some grandfather clock dials.
Keep exploring
Sources
- Object A to Z: L is for long-case clock, Trowbridge Museum
- Longcase clock with calendar, Thomas Tompion, about 1700, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Longcase clock with calendrical, lunar, and tidal indications (the Graves Tompion), The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Why are they called grandfather clocks?, Mental Floss
- Tall case clock made by Eli Terry, 1808-1809, The Henry Ford
- Main Street: Clock manufacturing, Zeeland Historical Society
- Company history, Howard Miller
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