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Earlier than creating his famed marine chronometers (1730–59) to find out longitude at sea, John Harrison centered on land-based timekeeping, striving to construct pendulum clocks of the best attainable precision. Within the years following the Scientific Revolution and on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution, pendulum clocks ruled journey, work, and day by day life. The UK’s variable local weather posed a particular problem for clock precision: colder air contracted steel pendula whereas hotter air expanded them, shortening and lengthening the swing interval, respectively. In 1726, Harrison invented the gridiron pendulum. By connecting alternating rods of metals reminiscent of brass and metal, every with totally different thermal growth charges, Harrison’s gridiron compensated for temperature shifts and stabilized the pendulum’s size and interval.
On the Might 2025 lecture of the Horological Society of New York (HSNY), Eddie Landzberg will current his undergraduate analysis on John Harrison’s gridiron pendulum. In an unbiased research at Harvard College, Landzberg examined Harrison’s authentic manuscripts in London and constructed a brass and metal gridiron pendulum. In his lecture, Landzberg will focus on the scientific discoveries, local weather circumstances, and horological improvements that set the scene for Harrison’s work. He’ll additional focus on how the gridiron pendulum features, replicate on its early reception, and share insights from the copy course of.
About Eddie Landzberg
Since a younger age, Eddie Landzberg has been fascinated by timekeepers previous and new. As a highschool scholar, he interned on the American Clock & Watch Museum in Connecticut, the Nationwide Watch and Clock Museum in Pennsylvania, the Museum of Timekeeping in England, and the Royal Observatory Greenwich. Landzberg was impressed by HSNY’s introductory watchmaking programs and enjoys novice watchmaking and restore throughout off hours from his work in finance. Landzberg was accepted to the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) Academy in 2023 and has been featured in The New York Occasions.
Particulars
The Might 5, 2025, HSNY lecture will happen on the Normal Society Library in Midtown Manhattan, situated at 20 West forty fourth Road, New York, NY, 10036. Free tickets are required to attend. Doorways open at 5:30 PM and the lecture begins at 6 PM. All HSNY lectures are free, open to the general public, and video-recorded. Recorded lectures are made out there to HSNY members instantly, and to most people with a two-month delay.
Hodinkee is a sponsor of the Horological Society of New York.
