Hook, who pretended, as did Galileo, in the
application of the pendulum, to have priority in the idea. Huygens, who
had discovered and corrected the irregularities in the oscillations of
the pendulum, did not think of those of the balance with the spiral
spring. And it was not until the close of the year 1750 that Pierre Le
Roy and Ferdinand Berthoud studied the conditions of isochronism
pertaining to the spiral.
AN INVENTION THAT CREATED MUCH ENTHUSIASM.
However that may be, this magnificent invention, like the adaptation of
the pendulum, was welcomed with general enthusiasm throughout the
scientific world: without spiral and without pendulum, no other
escapement but the recoil escapement was possible; a new highway was
thus opened to the searchers. The water clocks (clepsydrae) and the hour
glasses disappeared completely, and the timepieces which had till then
only marked the hours, having been perfected up to the point of keeping
more exact time, were graced with the addition of another hand to tell
off the minutes.
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