In 1730, the Cuckoo Clock Was Invented in Germany
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010In 1730, the cuckoo clock was invented in Germany. These clocks house a little cuckoo bird figure that appears from a tiny door at the very top to proclaim the hours and half hours with it signature call of ‘cuckoo’. This call is generally accompanied by a gong. In 1802, Simon Willard of Roxbury, Massachusetts, patented the clock that came to be known as the banjo wall clock due to its shape. The figure 8 wall clock was the direct descendant of the banjo clock. The Waterbury Company, now called the Timex Co. , made eternal calendar clocks, and starting in 1881, these clocks were available in Italian, German, Swedish, German, French, Portuguese, and Spanish as well as English. The difference of the perpetual calendar clocks and easy calendar clocks is in how they keep an eye on the days for a year.Collectibe antique clocks are a very profitable way to make money if you know what to look for.
Eternal clocks include the year as well as month and day and make allowances for a leapyear, while the unsophisticated calendar clocks must be changed manually occasionally to remain correct. An American clock with a wave-like or s-shape molding round the front of a rectangle case is an ogee clock. It generally has a door in front with clear glass in front of a dial and a stenciled or reverse-painted tablet below.
These were produced generally between 1830 and 1914. The pendulum is one thing all antique wall clocks have in common. The pendulum of a clock has 3 parts, the pendulum rod, the pendulum ball, which is sometimes decorative and the wire loop, which is threaded for the controlling nut, which is the pendulum bob.
Clocks made in the Victorian age, from the late 1830’s to early 1900’s, reflected the Victorian style of wooden furniture with curved carvings and moldings. Wall clocks were now and then made in the Mission style, which was oak and had straight, strong lines. This style continued from the early 1900s thru the late 1920s.