Electromagnetism – the mysterious force

In 1820, Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted discovered the electromagnetic force.  The resulting field of electrical engineering facilitated completely new applications. One of them was a clock whose pendulum was driven by electromagnetic impulses, developed by Scottish clockmaker Alexander Bain around 1840.  

Bain’s clocks did not have to be wound up, but they required constant electrical power supply. Alexander Bain found a solution to this issue: He buried copper and zinc plates in moist soil. This type of “earth battery“ provided enough energy to power an electric clock for several years.

Alexander Bain held patents on this and many other inventions. Yet, his clocks were not free from “teething problems” yet. It was not least because of this reason that Bain failed as a businessman.

Someone who was more successful was Swabian clockmaker Matthias Hipp, who worked in Switzerland. Thanks to a patented switch, the so-called Hipp Toggle, his clocks worked reliably and accurately. They proudly displayed their modern interior under a glass cover.