Between fen and mountains

By Tickytocky

Lantern clock

I have been working on this lantern clock.  I don't think I have blipped one before.  This one is a 20th century mechanical reproduction with a platform escapement and not a pendulum. Originally they were weight driven.  Lantern clocks were the first type of clock widely used in private homes. They probably originated before 1500 but only became common after 1600; in Britain around 1620. There are two theories of the origin of the name "lantern clock". One is that it refers to brass, the main metal of which English lantern clocks are made. Clocks were first made on the continent, at first of iron with iron wheels, and then later with brass wheels. Later still, in France, Belgium and The Netherlands, clocks began to be made from brass. Brass alloys were then called latten, and it seems likely that brass clocks would have been called "latten clocks" to distinguish them from iron clocks, and that "lantern" could be an English interpretation or corruption of latten. The other is that the name derived from the shape; the clock resembles a rectangular lantern of that period, and like a lantern was hung on the wall.

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