WEBVTT - Grandfather Clocks 0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:08.040 Hey, and welcome to Short Stuff, the Very Brief podcast 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:11.639 on Josh. There's Chuck, that's Jerry. Let's get going. No 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:15.560 time for laughing, Chuck. Welcome everybody, And just as a 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:19.560 very quick explanation, Uh, we had this idea because we 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:24.160 often come across cool, little interesting tidbits that certainly don't 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:27.760 warrant a forty five minute episode, and everyone else on 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:30.280 the planet is doing little, shorty episodes on their podcast, 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:32.680 and we thought, well, hey, in your tin, why don't 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:34.519 we give it a shot. Yeah, let's try something new 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:38.680 for once. Yeah, so I hope you all like it. Great. Well, 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:40.720 we've just wasted a lot of time, Chuck. We might 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:42.839 not get to the end of this episode. Now. I 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:46.199 thought we agreed there was no ticking clock. So you've 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:50.400 seen a grandfather clock before, right? Uh? Yeah, we we had, 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:52.600 you know, not the what is the like the smaller 0:00:52.720 --> 0:00:56.160 version called it hangs on the wall. Actually I saw 0:00:56.200 --> 0:01:00.000 those called wagon the wall clocks. Those are the original ones. Okay, 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:01.680 we we had one of those growing up where it's 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:04.920 just like an exposed pendulum swinging back and forth. Yeah, 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:09.440 you know, three ish feet three feet in length. Yeah, okay, 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:12.520 I thought you met like off the wall, like that 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:16.800 sounds dangerous, rigged up a hovering mechanism. It was pretty advanced, right, 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:19.480 and the pendulum was super sharp, so you better watch out. 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:23.320 So um, but you're you're familiar with like the kind 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:27.240 that are tall and standing on the floor. Yeah, so 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:29.600 those are actually you know and you know and love 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:32.920 them as grandfather clocks. Sure, but the name grandfather clock 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:37.720 didn't come around until about two hundred years after grandfather 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:40.600 clocks were invented. Yeah, and it's funny when I saw 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:43.720 this that they they were invented about three d fifty 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:45.839 years ago, and when I saw that they were originally 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:50.000 called long case clocks, I immediately would liked that name better, 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:53.560 long case better than grandfather. Okay, yeah, I think it's cool. 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:58.680 I'm ambivalent towards both because I like the I do 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:02.120 like cuckoo clocks for sure, but the the the name 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:05.160 grandfather clock, we'll we'll find out where it came from. 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:08.959 But the grandfather clock itself, or the long case clock, 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:11.720 was actually one of the first clocks. And it kind 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:13.839 of makes sense because if you think about it, when 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:18.720 you start out inventing something new, it's it's huge, it's enormous, 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:21.520 and then as you get better at it over time 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:24.560 and find like workarounds and and shortcuts and stuff, you 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:27.560 can make it smaller and smaller. So it makes sense 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:31.200 that some of the first actually precise clocks were giant 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:35.000 grandfather clocks. And again they were originally they just had 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:37.400 the pendulum swinging back and forth. You could mount him 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:39.880 on the wall. They were called wag on the wall clocks. 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:43.000 And the first person who really tried to invent this 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:47.000 thing was none other than Galileo Galilee. Yeah, he's the 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:50.080 one that discovered, Hey, a pendulum swings at a constant 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:53.800 rate regardless of its size. I think we've got something here, boys. 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:57.520 And unfortunately he died before he could actually make a 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:00.760 legit clock. Yeah, but he tried for like his whole life. 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:05.480 That's what killed him. It was the sharp pendulum, and 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:10.200 he's like, I regret everything. But a Dutch astronomer named 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:15.239 Christian Hugans built the very first pendulum clock. Uh. And 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:19.920 then and this is when like, apparently this is the 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:24.160 most accurate time piece ever in the history of the world. Yeah. 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:28.200 Before that, it was clocks were accurate within fifteen minutes 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:32.840 every twenty four hours. Sure, for the for the early 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:36.720 seventeenth century. But then Hugans comes along and his was 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:41.520 accurate within a minute every twenty four hours. So finally 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:43.840 what he had produced was something that you could actually 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:47.240 use for like scientific purposes, which again, as you said, 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:51.840 it was an astronomer and you need precise clocks for astronomy. 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:54.360 So he kind of made a scientific instrument for himself 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:57.520 more than you know, let's let's make something that everybody 0:03:57.520 --> 0:04:00.600 sets their watch too. Yeah, So his wasn't It wasn't 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:05.440 a long case clock though, but because people are um, 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:08.200 people like to invent and build on others work, of 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:11.040 course he's got bigger and bigger, and eventually in London, 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:15.000 uh and what like not even two many years later, 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:17.560 three or four years later, the very first long case 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:20.960 clocks started, like six ft tall, started to be released 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:24.400 into uh for purchase. Yeah, and there was a dude 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:26.640 named Clement, I can't remember his first name, but he 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:31.160 added um. He he basically made the pendulum so precise 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:33.080 that all of a sudden there was a clock that 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:36.560 was accurate within a second over twenty four hours. And 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:38.880 so they added minute hands and second hands and really 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:41.680 started to show off. But at the time in the 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:46.440 late seventeenth early eighteenth centuries, you had to literally be 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:51.159 um royalty to afford a clock like this. And then 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:53.800 over time again they figured out shortcuts and there were 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:57.479 improvements in manufacturing. You just had to be somewhat rich 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:00.000 to afford him. And they started to spread and they 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:03.600 started to kind of encase him in would they They 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:05.800 started really kind of tricking him out and everything. They 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:08.400 made the pendulum look really beautiful, and then what you 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:11.400 know and love as a grandfather clock really kind of 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:16.320 was developed between I think um up to about eighteen fifty. 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:19.159 I think right from the late seventeenth century up to 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:22.279 eighteen fifty. And then that was like kind of the 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:24.000 golden age of the grandfather clock. And then they just 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:26.479 stopped progressing and they said, this is perfect. This is 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:29.200 the Grandfather clock, although we don't call it that yet, 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:31.919 and um, we're going to just leave it as is 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:37.159 and say we're happy with this model. Yeah, so put 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:40.080 a pin in that. And then we switch on over 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:43.279 to the story of a man named Henry clay Work 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:47.080 who was born in Connecticut in eighteen thirty two. He 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:51.839 was a musician, uh singer, songwriter, very emo. From what 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:55.159 I understand a little bit. I got that too, And 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:57.479 it was back in the days when you would write 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:01.520 like war songs. Um, that doesn't happen much today unless 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:06.119 you count like Toby Keith, whatever work he's doing, whatever 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:09.200 good work he's doing. But he was a champion of 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:11.799 the North. And he had a song called Kingdom Coming, 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:15.440 a pro union ballad, which gave him a music contract 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:18.760 with a publishing firm named Root and Katie or Caddie. 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:22.000 And he started pumping out hits over like the next 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:26.599 decade or so until hard times fell. He he made 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:29.800 some bad financial moves. Two of his kids died in 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:32.400 the eighteen seventies, and so his life he kind of 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:35.320 fell on hard times, but he would come back with 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:40.159 a big, big hit called Grandfather's Clock. Right, And this 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:43.840 is actually where the name grandfather Clock comes from, is 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:47.400 from this guy's song. And it's a pretty sweet song, 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:51.680 actually sad. He basically sings about how his grandfather, his 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:56.600 grand his great grandparents bought a long case clock on 0:06:56.640 --> 0:06:59.760 the day his grandfather was born. What a great baby gift. 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:02.800 Right Exactly, here you go, kid, maybe someday you'll be 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:05.720 this tall. Here's a grandfather, a long case clock. And 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:09.159 a woobie exactly, don't let it fall on you. But 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:11.560 they so they bought. Yeah, I guess now that you 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:14.640 pointed out as a weird baby gift. But um, it 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:17.800 was a great, sturdy, reliable clock and it worked through 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:22.280 the grandfather's whole life until until the day he died. 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:25.880 And the day that the grandfather died, the clock stopped 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:28.760 as well, and it still hasn't worked since. Yeah, here's 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:31.520 the lyric. My grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf, 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:34.440 so it stood ninety years on the floor. It was 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:36.720 bought on the morn of the day he was born, 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:40.520 and was always his treasure and pride. But it stopped short, 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:43.320 never to go again when the old man died. Yeah, 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:46.920 and America was like, oh God, this is the greatest 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:49.520 song anyone will ever write. We can just stop, we 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:52.840 can stop improving on grandfather clocks, we can stop writing 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:55.920 songs now. And the two come together in the U 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:58.520 in this writing by work or this song by Henry 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:00.400 Clay work. Right. Yeah, it was a big, big hit. 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:04.120 He sold uh close to a million copies, made the 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:08.760 equivalent of about nine dollars on the song. Johnny Cash 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:12.880 would record it Prairie Home Companions spoofed it. I think scrillis. 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:17.960 I'm just kidding. It was in a video game called 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:21.360 Five Nights at Freddie's. Yeah, and if you look it 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:23.760 up in the O E. D. The Oxford English Dictionary, 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:28.160 if you look up grandfather clock, it attributes the etymology 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:33.040 of that term to um to Work, Henry clay Work. 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:36.080 That his name does not stick to the brain. No, 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:39.120 even having Henry clay in it. I know you think 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:41.600 that would do it for us, Yeah, but Henry clay Work, 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:44.600 it just does not stick. So it was a huge deal, 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:46.920 and there's it's pretty much undisputed. I think it's a 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:49.800 percent on disputed that Henry clay Work was the person 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:52.880 who came up with the song that later became the 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:56.719 name for long Case Clock's grandfather Clocks. Right, So we're 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:58.680 gonna take a very short break and we're gonna come 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:00.800 back and tell you about what in bird work to 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:21.000 write that song himself. Alright, Chuck. So that was a 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:25.040 pretty good cliffhanger. So because you think, like sure, Henry 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:28.040 clay Work came up with this song and it had 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:32.040 the effect of renaming the long case clock the grandfather clock. 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:36.080 But anyone, anythinking person's brain is going to keep going 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:38.480 and say, but wait a minute, where did Henry clay 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:42.640 Work get the inspiration for this song? And there's actually 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:45.640 two stories for that. Yeah, so uh. One of them 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:49.360 is there's a hotel called the George Hotel in uh of. 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:51.480 I'm sorry, the full name is the George Hotel of 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:55.880 pierce Bridge in North Yorkshire, England. And they said, and 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:58.440 they still claim, that dude wrote this in the lobby 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:02.680 he stayed here in eighteen seventy four, saw our long 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:06.880 case clock, sat down and started writing a song about it, 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:10.280 because our clock is frozen in time at eleven oh five, 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:14.319 with a uh, with a story that is likely what 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:17.040 I call bs and what others would call folklore. Well, 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:19.079 I don't if if it's not B, yes, then I 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:21.600 would say, yes, these people are. They have the claim 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:24.960 to inspiring the Henry clay Works song because it has 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:27.720 basically the same story. There was a clock bought for 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:31.640 the hotel owners sons um and when the first son died, 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:34.000 the clock started to slow, and when the second son 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:37.480 died it stopped altogether. And if Henry clay Work stayed 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:41.400 at that hotel, heard that story in it's so effactive 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:43.920 it's done. But yes, there is a lot of a 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:46.880 lot of people are like those people are lying, lying 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:50.839 through their teeth, and um there there people in their 0:10:50.840 --> 0:10:54.000 town won't speak to them actually because they so detest 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:57.240 the lie. That's right. Uh. And the other version of 0:10:57.280 --> 0:10:59.120 the story, of course, has to do with the family. 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:04.160 But his family, his wife's family, Sarah Parker, they said, no, no, no, no, no, 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:07.520 that's we have the clock. Uh. And then he wrote 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:10.920 the song about our clock. And he wrote it because 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:13.040 you know, he married our daughter, and we have this 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:16.920 great long case clock that belonged to Sarah's grandfather. And 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:19.760 it really has nothing to do with um a haunted 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:23.240 clock that stops when people die, right, but it did, 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:29.040 it doesn't work anymore, sure, So you know, there you go. 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:32.280 And then when people ask the family do you have 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:35.320 the clock, they just say yes and then leave it 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:38.559 at that. All right, And there's our story. I've got 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:43.880 one more thing. There's actually, um, there's actually different. So 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:47.839 a grandfather clock is seven feet, a six footer is 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:52.200 called the grandmother clock. Five fter is called the granddaughter clock. 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:55.680 That's cute. So there you go, chuck. And anything shorter 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:59.320 is called you're not even a family member. Clock, that's right. 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:03.000 I guess that's it. Yeah, if you want to find us, 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:04.760 you can find us on the web, and we're both 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:06.720 at stuff you should know dot com. So look us 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:09.360 up and we'll see you next time. Right, that's right.