A millennium clock: AD 1746
In 1746 a French clockmaker named Monsieur Passemont makes a clock which is the first in the world to be able to take account of a new millennium. Its dials can reveal the date of the month in any year up to AD 9999. It is a long case clock, in an ornate baroque casing that holds a mechanism having more than 1000 interconnecting wheels and cogs. As they turn at their different speeds with each swing of the pendulum, they cope with the complexities of the Julian calendar. Thus, for example, one large brass wheel has the responsibility of inserting February 29 in each leap year. This wheel takes four years to complete a single revolution. When it has come full circle, it pops in the extra day. Louis XV buys the clock in 1749, three years after its completion. It is still ticking away two and a half centuries later in the palace of Versailles. The minutiae of daily time-keeping are also adjusted by hand, but Monsieur Passemont's masterpiece requires no assistance in making a significant change in the first digit of its year display.
In 1746 a French clockmaker named Monsieur Passemont makes a clock which is the first in the world to be able to take account of a new millennium. Its dials can reveal the date of the month in any year up to AD 9999. It is a long case clock, in an ornate baroque casing that holds a mechanism having more than 1000 interconnecting wheels and cogs. As they turn at their different speeds with each swing of the pendulum, they cope with the complexities of the Julian calendar. Thus, for example, one large brass wheel has the responsibility of inserting February 29 in each leap year. This wheel takes four years to complete a single revolution. When it has come full circle, it pops in the extra day. Louis XV buys the clock in 1749, three years after its completion. It is still ticking away two and a half centuries later in the palace of Versailles. The minutiae of daily time-keeping are also adjusted by hand, but Monsieur Passemont's masterpiece requires no assistance in making a significant change in the first digit of its year display.
No comments:
Post a Comment