149]
Here it will quickly be seen that regarded from the standpoint of
regularity of motion, this arrangement can be productive of but meager
results. Subjected as it is to the influence of the slightest variation
in the motive power and of the least jar or shaking, a balance wheel
escapement improvided with a regulator containing within itself a
regulating force, could not possibly give forth anything else than an
unsteady movement. However, mechanical clocks fitted with this
escapement offer indisputable advantages over the ancient clepsydra; in
spite of their imperfections they rendered important services,
especially after the striking movement had been added. For more than
three centuries both this crude escapement and the cruder regulator were
suffered to continue in this state without a thought of improvement;
even in 1600, when Galileo discovered the law governing the oscillation
of the pendulum, they did not suspect how important this discovery was
for the science of time measurement.
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