Ok, so Galileo discovered the pendulum. How does it work?

 

Most clocks were driven by weights and gravity. A string was tied to a rod, also called an axle, and a weight attached to the string. The string was wound around the axle. As gravity pulled on the weight, the attached string would be unraveled from the axle, causing the axle to turn, or spin. However, as gravity acts on objects, those objects begin to accelerate unless something interferes with, or acts upon that object. Until the pendulum, the weight on the clock mechanism just kept speeding up, and clocks would not keep accurate time.

 

Next post: how the pendulum and escapement are used to counteract gravity in weighted mantel clocks and table clocks.