Description: France, 1815-1825, G. Vincent
With a profiled mahogany cornice and plain architrave supported by four columns with gilt bronze capital and base flanking the dial face with palmette border, white enamelled cypher ring with black Roman numerals, signed G. Vincent, strike on a bell.
H. 55.3 cm
Note:
The mechanism of the pendulum was invented by British clockmaker John Harrison (1693
1776) around 1726 and further modified by John Ellicott (1706
1772), used in precision clocks. In ordinary clock pendulums, the pendulum rod expands and contracts with changes in temperature. The period of the pendulum's swing depends on its length, so a pendulum clock's rate varied with changes in temperature, causing inaccurate timekeeping. The gridiron pendulum consists of alternating parallel rods of two metals with different thermal expansion coefficients, such as steel and brass. The rods are connected by a frame in such a way that their different thermal expansions (or contractions) compensate for
