The Rolling Ball Web
An Online Compendium of
Rolling Ball Sculptures, Clocks, Etc.
By David M. MacMillan et. al.
The critical modern study of these clocks is "The Rolling Ball Time Standard" by Prof. Hans von Bertele (1956). Prof. von Bertele's study should be read in the context of two earlier studies. One, Perpetuum Mobile: The Invention of Rolling Ball Clocks in the Seventeenth Century" by Silvio Bedini (1956) is the study which rediscovered the early history of the rolling ball clock. The other, "Precision Timekeeping in the Pre-Huygens Era" (1953) by Prof. von Bertele, does not address rolling ball clocks directly but does set the stage for von Bertele's analysis of the intellectual climate of late 16th and early 17th century Europe which produced the rolling ball clock.
The earliest known reference to a clock in which a rolling ball served as the timebase dates to 1595. During the first half of the 17th century a number of examples were produced, several of which survive today (or survived until the bombings of WWII). These clocks were not (generally) novelties, but rather were serious attempts at precision timekeeping during the latter stages of the period before the introduction of the pendulum. With the arrival of the pendulum, they ceased to be relevant and disappeared from view until their rediscovery by Silvio Bedini in 1956. These clocks were not successful as improved timekeepers, but the fact that they represent a failed avenue of technological inquiry in no way diminishes their importance to the history of technology.
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1.3, 1998/06/19.
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