Evolution from giant clock to table clock

The initial waterborne instrument like a table is a device which is combined with the armillary sphere, celestial globe and mechanical timer. It takes hydraulic power as power source, with scientific escapement, about 12 meters high, seven meters square, shows its great size. Later the giant specie in the Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed in the “the humiliation of Jingkang”, Jin people would send it back to their capital city, in the transport process some parts were damaged, and they didn’t know how to repair it so that this giant specie was abandoned. Since then, China has never reached to the front line in producing time instruments.

 

The first problem that has been solved in clock is power resource. The water borne instrument like a table is very huge, that is the reason it needs a large pool with water, using water potential energy as power. Fourteenth Century British and France in Europe has appeared huge time signal clock. The power resources of the clock come from gravity action through taking rope to hang up huge hammer, but its size was still enormous. At the end of fifteenth or sixteenth Century, Western iron making technology was progressed, and iron spring was appeared, which created a new power source for clock, also created condition for the bell in small change. In 1583 Galileo built famous isochronous theory, and it also is the theoretical foundation of the pendulum. In 1956 Huygens applied Galileo's theory and designed pendulum, in the second years, under his guidance the young watchmaker S.Coster built the first pendulum clock, then, table clock was standing on the stage of history.