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Concept
Shortt–Synchronome clock
Summary
The Shortt–Synchronome free pendulum clock is a complex precision electromechanical pendulum clock invented in 1921 by British railway engineer William Hamilton Shortt in collaboration with horologist Frank Hope-Jones, and manufactured by the Synchronome Company, Ltd., of London. They were the most accurate pendulum clocks ever commercially produced, and became the highest standard for timekeeping between the 1920s and the 1940s, after which mechanical clocks were superseded by quartz time standards. They were used worldwide in astronomical observatories, naval observatories, in scientific research, and as a primary standard for national time dissemination services. The Shortt was the first clock to be a more accurate timekeeper than the Earth itself; it was used in 1926 to detect tiny seasonal changes in the Earth's rotation rate. Shortt clocks achieved accuracy of around a second per year, although a recent measurement indicated they were even more accurate. About 100 were produced between 1922 and 1956.
Shortt clocks kept time with two pendulums, a primary pendulum swinging in a vacuum tank and a secondary pendulum in a separate clock, which was synchronized to the primary by electro-mechanical means. The secondary pendulum was attached to the timekeeping mechanisms of the clock, leaving the primary pendulum virtually free of external disturbances.
The Shortt clock consists of two separate units: the primary pendulum in a copper vacuum tank 26 cm diameter and 125 cm high attached to a wall, and a precision pendulum clock locked to it, standing a few feet away. To prevent any possibility of coupling between the pendulums, the two units were either installed far apart in different rooms, or the units were oriented so the planes of swing of the two pendulums were ninety degrees apart. The secondary clock was a modified version of a standard Synchronome precision regulator clock. The two components were linked by wires which carried electric pulses that operated electromagnets in the mechanisms to keep the two pendulums swinging in synchronism.
Official source
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