(5) The bob of a pendulum, oscillating backwards and forwards, acts like a weight under the influence of a spring, and is therefore isochronous.
(6) The time of vibration of a pendulum is uninfluenced by changes in the weight of the bob, but is influenced by changes in the length of the pendulum rod. The time of vibration of a mass attached to a spring is influenced by changes in the mass.
We have now to deal with the application of these principles to clocks and watches.
Clocks had been known before the time of Galileo, and before the invention of the pendulum. They had what is known as balance, or verge escapements. Strictly in order of time I ought to explain them here. But I will not do so. I will go on to describe the pendulum clock, and then I will go back and explain the verge escapement, which, we shall see, is really a sort of huge watch of a very imperfect character.
As soon as Galileo had discovered that pendulums were isochronous, that is, equi-time-swinging, he set to work to see whether he could not contrive to make a timepiece by means of them. This would be easy if only he could keep a pendulum swinging. When a pendulum is set swinging, it soon comes to rest. What brings it to rest? The resistance of the air and the friction of the pivots. Therefore what is obviously wanted is something to give it a kick now and then, but the thing must kick with discretion. If it kicked at the wrong time, it might actually stop the pendulum instead of keeping it going. You want something that, just as the pendulum is at one end and has begun to move, will give it a further push. Suppose that I have a swing and that I put a boy in it, and I swing him to and fro. I time my pushes. As he comes back against my hand I let him push it back, and then just as the swing turns I give it a further push. But I cannot stand doing that all day. I must make a machine to do it. Now what sort of a machine?
First, the machine must have a reservoir of force. I can’t get a machine to do work unless I wind it up, nor a man to do work unless I feed him, which is his way of being wound up. But then what do I want him to do? I want him, when I give him a push, to push me back harder. I want a reservoir of force such that when a pendulum comes back and touches it, the touch, like the pressure of the trigger of a gun, shall allow some pent-up power to escape and to drive the pendulum forward.
This is the case in a swing. Each time that the swing returns to my hands I give it a push, which serves to sustain the motion that would otherwise be destroyed by friction and the resistance of the air.
Such an arrangement, if it can be contrived mechanically, is called an “escapement.”
An arrangement of this kind was contrived by Galileo. He provided a wheel, as is here shown, with a number of pins round it. The pendulum A B has an arm A H attached to it, and there is a ratchet C D which engages with the pins. The ratchet has a projecting arm E F.
