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Short Stuff: Grandfather Clocks · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to Short Stuff, the Very Brief podcast
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: on Josh. There's Chuck, that's Jerry. Let's get going. No
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: time for laughing, Chuck. Welcome everybody, And just as a
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: very quick explanation, Uh, we had this idea because we
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: often come across cool, little interesting tidbits that certainly don't
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: warrant a forty five minute episode, and everyone else on
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the planet is doing little, shorty episodes on their podcast,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: and we thought, well, hey, in your tin, why don't
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: we give it a shot. Yeah, let's try something new
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: for once. Yeah, so I hope you all like it. Great. Well,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: we've just wasted a lot of time, Chuck. We might
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: not get to the end of this episode. Now. I
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: thought we agreed there was no ticking clock. So you've
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: seen a grandfather clock before, right? Uh? Yeah, we we had,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: you know, not the what is the like the smaller
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: version called it hangs on the wall. Actually I saw
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: those called wagon the wall clocks. Those are the original ones. Okay,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: we we had one of those growing up where it's
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: just like an exposed pendulum swinging back and forth. Yeah,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: you know, three ish feet three feet in length. Yeah, okay,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: I thought you met like off the wall, like that
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: sounds dangerous, rigged up a hovering mechanism. It was pretty advanced, right,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: and the pendulum was super sharp, so you better watch out.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: So um, but you're you're familiar with like the kind
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: that are tall and standing on the floor. Yeah, so
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: those are actually you know and you know and love
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: them as grandfather clocks. Sure, but the name grandfather clock
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: didn't come around until about two hundred years after grandfather
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: clocks were invented. Yeah, and it's funny when I saw
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: this that they they were invented about three d fifty
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: years ago, and when I saw that they were originally
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: called long case clocks, I immediately would liked that name better,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: long case better than grandfather. Okay, yeah, I think it's cool.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: I'm ambivalent towards both because I like the I do
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: like cuckoo clocks for sure, but the the the name
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: grandfather clock, we'll we'll find out where it came from.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: But the grandfather clock itself, or the long case clock,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: was actually one of the first clocks. And it kind
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: of makes sense because if you think about it, when
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: you start out inventing something new, it's it's huge, it's enormous,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: and then as you get better at it over time
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: and find like workarounds and and shortcuts and stuff, you
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: can make it smaller and smaller. So it makes sense
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: that some of the first actually precise clocks were giant
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: grandfather clocks. And again they were originally they just had
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: the pendulum swinging back and forth. You could mount him
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: on the wall. They were called wag on the wall clocks.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: And the first person who really tried to invent this
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: thing was none other than Galileo Galilee. Yeah, he's the
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: one that discovered, Hey, a pendulum swings at a constant
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: rate regardless of its size. I think we've got something here, boys.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: And unfortunately he died before he could actually make a
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: legit clock. Yeah, but he tried for like his whole life.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: That's what killed him. It was the sharp pendulum, and
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: he's like, I regret everything. But a Dutch astronomer named
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Christian Hugans built the very first pendulum clock. Uh. And
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: then and this is when like, apparently this is the
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: most accurate time piece ever in the history of the world. Yeah.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Before that, it was clocks were accurate within fifteen minutes
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: every twenty four hours. Sure, for the for the early
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: seventeenth century. But then Hugans comes along and his was
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: accurate within a minute every twenty four hours. So finally
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: what he had produced was something that you could actually
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: use for like scientific purposes, which again, as you said,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: it was an astronomer and you need precise clocks for astronomy.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: So he kind of made a scientific instrument for himself
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: more than you know, let's let's make something that everybody
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: sets their watch too. Yeah, So his wasn't It wasn't
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: a long case clock though, but because people are um,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: people like to invent and build on others work, of
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: course he's got bigger and bigger, and eventually in London,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: uh and what like not even two many years later,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: three or four years later, the very first long case
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: clocks started, like six ft tall, started to be released
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: into uh for purchase. Yeah, and there was a dude
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: named Clement, I can't remember his first name, but he
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: added um. He he basically made the pendulum so precise
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: that all of a sudden there was a clock that
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: was accurate within a second over twenty four hours. And
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: so they added minute hands and second hands and really
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: started to show off. But at the time in the
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: late seventeenth early eighteenth centuries, you had to literally be
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: um royalty to afford a clock like this. And then
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: over time again they figured out shortcuts and there were
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: improvements in manufacturing. You just had to be somewhat rich
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: to afford him. And they started to spread and they
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: started to kind of encase him in would they They
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: started really kind of tricking him out and everything. They
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: made the pendulum look really beautiful, and then what you
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: know and love as a grandfather clock really kind of
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: was developed between I think um up to about eighteen fifty.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: I think right from the late seventeenth century up to
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: eighteen fifty. And then that was like kind of the
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: golden age of the grandfather clock. And then they just
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: stopped progressing and they said, this is perfect. This is
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: the Grandfather clock, although we don't call it that yet,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: and um, we're going to just leave it as is
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: and say we're happy with this model. Yeah, so put
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: a pin in that. And then we switch on over
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: to the story of a man named Henry clay Work
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: who was born in Connecticut in eighteen thirty two. He
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: was a musician, uh singer, songwriter, very emo. From what
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: I understand a little bit. I got that too, And
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: it was back in the days when you would write
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: like war songs. Um, that doesn't happen much today unless
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: you count like Toby Keith, whatever work he's doing, whatever
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: good work he's doing. But he was a champion of
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: the North. And he had a song called Kingdom Coming,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: a pro union ballad, which gave him a music contract
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: with a publishing firm named Root and Katie or Caddie.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: And he started pumping out hits over like the next
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: decade or so until hard times fell. He he made
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: some bad financial moves. Two of his kids died in
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: the eighteen seventies, and so his life he kind of
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: fell on hard times, but he would come back with
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: a big, big hit called Grandfather's Clock. Right, And this
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: is actually where the name grandfather Clock comes from, is
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: from this guy's song. And it's a pretty sweet song,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: actually sad. He basically sings about how his grandfather, his
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: grand his great grandparents bought a long case clock on
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: the day his grandfather was born. What a great baby gift.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Right Exactly, here you go, kid, maybe someday you'll be
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: this tall. Here's a grandfather, a long case clock. And
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: a woobie exactly, don't let it fall on you. But
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: they so they bought. Yeah, I guess now that you
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: pointed out as a weird baby gift. But um, it
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: was a great, sturdy, reliable clock and it worked through
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: the grandfather's whole life until until the day he died.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: And the day that the grandfather died, the clock stopped
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: as well, and it still hasn't worked since. Yeah, here's
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: the lyric. My grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: so it stood ninety years on the floor. It was
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: bought on the morn of the day he was born,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: and was always his treasure and pride. But it stopped short,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: never to go again when the old man died. Yeah,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: and America was like, oh God, this is the greatest
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: song anyone will ever write. We can just stop, we
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: can stop improving on grandfather clocks, we can stop writing
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: songs now. And the two come together in the U
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: in this writing by work or this song by Henry
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Clay work. Right. Yeah, it was a big, big hit.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: He sold uh close to a million copies, made the
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: equivalent of about nine dollars on the song. Johnny Cash
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: would record it Prairie Home Companions spoofed it. I think scrillis.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: I'm just kidding. It was in a video game called
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Five Nights at Freddie's. Yeah, and if you look it
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: up in the O E. D. The Oxford English Dictionary,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: if you look up grandfather clock, it attributes the etymology
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: of that term to um to Work, Henry clay Work.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: That his name does not stick to the brain. No,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: even having Henry clay in it. I know you think
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: that would do it for us, Yeah, but Henry clay Work,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: it just does not stick. So it was a huge deal,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: and there's it's pretty much undisputed. I think it's a
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: percent on disputed that Henry clay Work was the person
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: who came up with the song that later became the
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: name for long Case Clock's grandfather Clocks. Right, So we're
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: gonna take a very short break and we're gonna come
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: back and tell you about what in bird work to
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: write that song himself. Alright, Chuck. So that was a
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: pretty good cliffhanger. So because you think, like sure, Henry
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: clay Work came up with this song and it had
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: the effect of renaming the long case clock the grandfather clock.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: But anyone, anythinking person's brain is going to keep going
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: and say, but wait a minute, where did Henry clay
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Work get the inspiration for this song? And there's actually
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: two stories for that. Yeah, so uh. One of them
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: is there's a hotel called the George Hotel in uh of.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, the full name is the George Hotel of
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: pierce Bridge in North Yorkshire, England. And they said, and
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: they still claim, that dude wrote this in the lobby
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: he stayed here in eighteen seventy four, saw our long
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: case clock, sat down and started writing a song about it,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: because our clock is frozen in time at eleven oh five,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: with a uh, with a story that is likely what
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: I call bs and what others would call folklore. Well,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: I don't if if it's not B, yes, then I
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: would say, yes, these people are. They have the claim
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: to inspiring the Henry clay Works song because it has
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: basically the same story. There was a clock bought for
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: the hotel owners sons um and when the first son died,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: the clock started to slow, and when the second son
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: died it stopped altogether. And if Henry clay Work stayed
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: at that hotel, heard that story in it's so effactive
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: it's done. But yes, there is a lot of a
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: lot of people are like those people are lying, lying
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: through their teeth, and um there there people in their
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: town won't speak to them actually because they so detest
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: the lie. That's right. Uh. And the other version of
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: the story, of course, has to do with the family.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: But his family, his wife's family, Sarah Parker, they said, no, no, no, no, no,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: that's we have the clock. Uh. And then he wrote
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: the song about our clock. And he wrote it because
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: you know, he married our daughter, and we have this
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: great long case clock that belonged to Sarah's grandfather. And
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: it really has nothing to do with um a haunted
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: clock that stops when people die, right, but it did,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: it doesn't work anymore, sure, So you know, there you go.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: And then when people ask the family do you have
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: the clock, they just say yes and then leave it
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: at that. All right, And there's our story. I've got
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: one more thing. There's actually, um, there's actually different. So
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: a grandfather clock is seven feet, a six footer is
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: called the grandmother clock. Five fter is called the granddaughter clock.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: That's cute. So there you go, chuck. And anything shorter
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: is called you're not even a family member. Clock, that's right.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: I guess that's it. Yeah, if you want to find us,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: you can find us on the web, and we're both
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: at stuff you should know dot com. So look us
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: up and we'll see you next time. Right, that's right.