Floor clock

Precision clock with month - Äquationswerk . Case: Nicolas Petit. Clockwork: Jean André Lepaute Paris, around 1770 ( Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin )

The floor clock , also called hall clock , house clock or grandfather clock , is a weight-driven pendulum clock that stands on the floor .

Floor clock with musical mechanism by Johann Gottfried Kaufmann, Dresden 1774, in the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon in Dresden

history

This type of clock originated in England in the 17th century , then spread to Amsterdam , Northern Germany and Scandinavia . In Bavaria and Austria no typical regional variants developed as in other areas ( Bergisches Land , Odenwald , fishing , England, Bornholm ). At the time of manual production, until around the middle of the 19th century, the clockworks were sold with the surrounding upper part of the case ("head") and the buyer had the rest of the (often three-part) case made to match. Until then, the head could also be used as a wall clock , sometimes the rest of the case was only created later, depending on the financial possibilities of the owner. In England in the 18th and 19th centuries in particular, grandfather clocks were part of every well-off household for generations, but they were also widespread in Germany, not only among the bourgeoisie, but in some regions also among wealthy farmers . In France, simple floor clocks are known as Comtoise clocks . All floor clocks were designed as pieces of furniture up to the 20th century in the respective style epochs , e.g. B. from the Berlin company A. Mustroph (AMUF), since the middle of the 19th century with industrially manufactured clockworks, also with three weights and Westminster strike . From this time on, furniture factories often offered uniformly designed room furnishings, for which a matching floor clock was also available. Recently, models with a quartz movement have also been sold in which the high case only has a decorative function due to the lack of a pendulum or is used in some other way (e.g. as a shelf).

description

The case standing on the floor, protecting the clockwork , weights and pendulum , is up to 3 m high. There are also some higher clocks known, such as the grandfather clock in the upper town hall in Bremen , which is almost 5 m high.

With the option of installing long pendulums, the floor clock reached previously unimaginable rates of accuracy as early as 1700 with careful workmanship . The floor clock was continuously improved technically, so that it continued to achieve very good rate results in accordance with its period of manufacture. From the 18th to the 20th century, precision pendulum clocks ( floor regulators ) with compensation pendulums and particularly high-quality movements resulted in floor standing clocks in a clear, factual form for precision time measurement in observatories and as master clocks in the scientific field.

Floor grandfather clocks are available with various complications ( cadrature ), from the date display to astronomical indications . In addition, almost all clocks of this type have one or more additional gear mechanisms , from simple striking mechanisms to flute and organ mechanisms .

literature

• Klaus Maurice: The German wheel clock. 2 volumes, CH Beck , Munich 1976.
• Tom Robinson: The longcase clock. Antique Collectors' Club, Woodbridge (Suffolk) 1981, ISBN 0-907462-07-3 .
• Brian Loomes: Grandfather Clocks and their cases. Bracken Books, London 1985, ISBN 1-85170-376-4 .
• Ulrich Reinke: House clocks - utility clocks. Hamaland Museum. Verden (1987).
• Peter Heuer, Klaus Maurice: European pendulum clocks. Decorative instruments of timekeeping. Callwey Verlag , Munich 1988, ISBN 3-7667-0858-9 .

Web links

Commons : Floor clocks  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Works on a floor clock in the catalog of the German National Library
• Search for floor clocks in the German Digital Library
• Search for a floor clock in the SPK digital portal of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
• Harald Fetzer: floor clocks
• Kerstin Rommerskirchen: floor clocks from the AGU Lenzkirch
• English longcase clocks in archive "Brian & Joy Loomes" (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Viktor Pröstler: Callweys manual of the clock types. From the wristwatch to the zappler . Callwey Munich 1994, ISBN 3-7667-1098-2 ; P. 46
2. ↑ Fritz von Osterhausen: Callweys lexicon . Munich 1999, ISBN 3-7667-1353-1 ; P. 39
3. ↑ Floor clock in UhrenLexikon
4. ↑ Timo Gèrald: Description and measurement of the floor clock signed: "Meybach à Bremen 1739" . Restoration report, Bremen around 2005