The Pendulum Clock

I believe. Indeed, it should hardly be necessary to oppose them with anything other than this one fact: namely, that sixteen years ago—when no mention of clocks of this kind had been made by anyone in speech or writing, nor had any rumor at all been spread (I speak here of the use of the simple pendulum original: "penduli simplicis" applied to clocks, for I believe no one will raise a controversy regarding the addition of the Cycloid The "Cycloid" refers to the specific geometric curve Huygens discovered would make a pendulum swing in perfectly equal time regardless of the width of the arc.)—I discovered their construction through my own reflection and saw to it that they were completed. In the following year, which was the fifty-eighth of this century 1658, I published the drawing and description of the machine original: "automati" in print; I sent out copies, both of the work itself and of the small book, in every direction. Since these facts are so well known to everyone that they have no need to be confirmed by the testimony of the learned, nor by the acts of the States of Holland original: "Bataviæ Ordinum actis" (though they could be), it is easily apparent what should be thought of those who, seven years later, advertised the same construction in their books as if it had proceeded from themselves or their friends.

Those who truly attempt to award the first honors here to Galileo—if they say that he attempted but did not actually perfect the invention—seem to detract from his praise more than mine, since I investigated the same matter with a better outcome than he did. However, when they contend that it was brought to a conclusion either by Galileo himself or by his son (as a certain learned man recently wished to claim), and that clocks of this kind were actually displayed, I do not know how they hope to be believed. It is scarcely probable that so useful an invention could have remained unknown for eight whole years, until it was brought to light by me. But if they say it was hidden by deliberate effort, they must realize this same excuse could be held out by anyone else who desires to claim the origin of an invention for himself. Therefore, while that would need to be proven, it would still not pertain to me in any way, unless it were also shown that what was hidden from everyone else was known to me alone. And these things indeed had to be said for the sake of a necessary defense. Now let us proceed to the construction of the machine itself.