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    On the Origin of Clockwork, Perpetual Motion Devices, and the Compass
    On the Origin of Clockwork, Perpetual Motion Devices, and the Compass
    On the Origin of Clockwork, Perpetual Motion Devices, and the Compass
    Ebook81 pages56 minutes

    On the Origin of Clockwork, Perpetual Motion Devices, and the Compass

    By Derek J. de Solla Price

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    DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "On the Origin of Clockwork, Perpetual Motion Devices, and the Compass" by Derek J. de Solla Price. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDigiCat
    Release dateAug 15, 2022
    ISBN8596547171225
    On the Origin of Clockwork, Perpetual Motion Devices, and the Compass

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      Book preview

      On the Origin of Clockwork, Perpetual Motion Devices, and the Compass - Derek J. de Solla Price

      Derek J. de Solla Price

      On the Origin of Clockwork, Perpetual Motion Devices, and the Compass

      EAN 8596547171225

      DigiCat, 2022

      Contact: [email protected]

      Table of Contents

      Power and Motion Gearing

      Mechanical Clocks

      Mechanized Astronomical Models

      Perpetual Motion and the Clock before de Dondi

      The Magnetic Compass as a Fellow-traveler from China

      Chronological Chart

      Power and Motion Gearing

      Table of Contents

      It may be readily accepted that the use of toothed wheels to transmit power or turn it through an angle was widespread in all cultures several centuries before the beginning of our era. Certainly, in classical times they were already familiar to Archimedes (born 287 B.C.),3 and in China actual examples of wheels and moulds for wheels dating from the 4th century B.C. have been preserved.4 It might be remarked that these machine gear wheels are characterized by having a round number of teeth (examples with 16, 24 and 40 teeth are known) and a shank with a square hole which fits without turning on a squared shaft. Another remarkable feature in these early gears is the use of ratchet-shaped teeth, sometimes even twisted helically so that the gears resemble worms intermeshing on parallel axles.5 The existence of windmills and watermills testifies to the general familiarity, from classical times and through the middle ages, with the use of gears to turn power through a right angle.

      Astronomical Clock of de Dondi, showing gearing on the dial for Mercury and escapement crown wheel. Each of the seven side walls of the structure shown in figure 1 was fitted with a dial.

      Figure2.—

      Astronomical Clock

      of de Dondi, showing gearing on the dial for Mercury and escapement crown wheel. Each of the seven side walls of the structure shown in figure 1 was fitted with a dial.

      Granted, then, this use of gears, one must guard against any conclusion that the fine-mechanical use of gears to provide special ratios of angular movement was similarly general and widespread. It is customary to adduce here the evidence of the hodometer (taximeter) described by Vitruvius (1st century B.C.) and by Hero of Alexandria (1st century A.D.) and the ingenious automata also described by this latter author and his Islamic followers.6 One may also cite the use of the reduction gear chain in power machinery as used in the geared windlass of Archimedes and Hero.

      Unfortunately, even the most complex automata described by Hero and by such authors as Riḍwān contain gearing in no more extensive context than as a means of transmitting action around a right angle. As for the windlass and hodometer, they do, it is true, contain whole series of gears used in steps as a reduction mechanism, usually for an extraordinarily high ratio, but here the technical details are so etherial that one must doubt whether such devices were actually realized in practice. Thus Vitruvius writes of a wheel 4 feet in diameter and having 400 teeth being turned by a 1-toothed pinion on a cart axle, but it is very doubtful whether such small teeth, necessarily separated by about 3/8 inch, would have the requisite ruggedness. Again, Hero mentions a wheel of 30 teeth which, because of imperfections, might need only 20 turns of a single helix worm to turn it! Such statements behove caution and one must consider whether we have been misled by the 16th-and 17th-century editions of these authors, containing reconstructions now often cited as authoritative but then serving as working diagrams for practical use in that age when the clock was already a familiar and complex mechanism. At all events, even if one admits without substantial evidence that such gear reduction devices were familiar from Hellenistic times onwards, they can hardly serve as more than very distant ancestors of the earliest mechanical clocks.

      Mechanical Clocks

      Table of Contents

      Before proceeding to a discussion of the controversial evidence which may be used to bridge this gap between the first use of gears and the fully-developed mechanical clock we must examine the other side of this gap. Recent research on the history of early mechanical clocks has demonstrated certain peculiarities most relevant to our present argument.

      the european tradition

      If one is to establish a terminus ante quem for the appearance of the mechanical clock in Europe, it would appear that 1364 is a most reasonable date. At that time we have the very full mechanical and historical material concerning the horological masterpiece built by Giovanni de Dondi of Padua,7 and probably started as early as 1348. It might well be possible to set a date a few decades earlier, but in general as one proceeds backwards from this point, the evidence becomes increasingly fragmentary and uncertain. The greatest source of doubt arises from the confusion between sundials, water-clocks, hand-struck

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