The term “grandfather clock” has little to do with family relationships, growing older, or bowls full of Werther’s Original candy. In fact, the clock design (which the Oxford English Dictionary describes as “a weight-and-pendulum eight-day clock in a tall case”) is several generations older than the name. Let’s chime in and take a look at how this timekeeping device got its grandfatherly name.
Before we called it a grandfather clock, the tall-case or long-case clock was the housing for pendulum timekeeping. These types of clocks were invented in the mid-17th century by astronomer and physicist Christian Huygens. Pendulum timekeeping was vastly more accurate than spring-driven timekeeping that was otherwise available. As such, the pendulum design caught on with London clockmakers, who began producing these sleek, tall cases en masse. They were popular for their aesthetic appeal as well as their accuracy.
The name change occurred two centuries later, thanks to the popularity of the 1876 song “Grandfather’s Clock” by American composer Henry Clay Work. While visiting England, Work became fascinated by a broken long-case clock in a hotel lobby. He heard a (possibly apocryphal) story from staff that the clock belonged to the two former hotel owners and it stopped working when they both died. Inspired by this tale, Work penned song lyrics about a long-case clock that stopped working after a grandfather’s passing:
It was taller by half than the old man himself, Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born, And was always his treasure and pride;
But it stopp’d short – never to go again – When the old man died.
CHORUS
Ninety years without slumbering (tick, tick, tick, tick),
His life seconds numbering (tick, tick, tick, tick),
It stopp’d short – never to go again – When the old man died.
In watching its pendulum swing to and fro, Many hours had he spent while a boy;
And in childhood and manhood the clock seemed to know And to share both his grief and his joy.
For it struck twenty-four when he entered at the door, With a blooming and beautiful bride;
But it stopp’d short – never to go again – When the old man died.
(And it continues for a few more verses.)
Work’s song was so popular that it sold over a million copies of sheet music and changed the common name of the long-case clock to the “grandfather clock.” By 1883, the new term was being used by clockmakers and sellers, and was appearing regularly in print ads.
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