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The Encyclopedia of Horology

Clock type · Specialist

Congreve (Rolling Ball) Clocks

Partially verified

Clocks using a ball on a tilting plate, named after their inventor Sir William Congreve.

Movement & mechanism

  • The rolling ball takes a specific time to traverse the track
  • The tilting of the track provides the impulse to the train
  • Technically fascinating but historically inaccurate

Identification

  • Tilting table with a zig-zag groove
  • Steel ball
  • Housed in a glass case

Terminology

  • Rolling ball
  • Tilting plate
  • Zig-zag

Known variations

  • Modern reproductions and original versions

Collecting notes

Condition and originality are paramount. For technical clocks like regulators or atmospheric clocks, the completeness of the original mechanism is more important than case condition. For decorative clocks (Boulle, Empire), the quality of the case craft is central.

Related photographs

Great Wheel Skeleton Clock
Great Wheel Skeleton Clock — Rauantiques, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikimedia Commons file page
Clock, skeleton (AM 2583-1)
Clock, skeleton (AM 2583-1) — Unknown authorUnknown author, CC BY 4.0. Wikimedia Commons file page

No confidently matched photograph of this subject has been found yet. These photographs show a closely related record, and are not examples of the type described on this page.

Sources & references

  1. Britten, F. J., Old Clocks and Watches and Their Makers
  2. Loomes, B., The Early Clockmakers of Great Britain
  3. Roberts, D., British Skeleton Clocks
  4. Museum catalogue records

Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.