Christiaan Huygens - Clock - Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam - 2

Salomon Coster (c. 1620–1659) was a Dutch clockmaker of

the Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

, who in 1657 was the first to make a

pendulum clock A pendulum clock is a clock that uses a pendulum, a swinging weight, as its timekeeping element. The advantage of a pendulum for timekeeping is that it is a harmonic oscillator: It swings back and forth in a precise time interval dependent on it ...

, which had been invented by

Christiaan Huygens Christiaan Huygens, Lord of Zeelhem, ( , , ; also spelled Huyghens; la, Hugenius; 14 April 1629 – 8 July 1695) was a Dutch mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor, who is regarded as one of the greatest scientists of ...

(1629-1695). Coster died a sudden death in 1659. Coster's earliest pendulum clocks were signed "Samuel Coster - Haghe met privilege", indicating that he had been authorized by the inventor (Huygens) to make such clocks. This clock design was heralded as a new beginning in the clockmaking industry, due to its level of timekeeping accuracy which was previously unheard of. The oldest extant pendulum clock, signed by Coster in 1657, is on display at the Boerhaave Museum in

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

.Hans van den Ende, "Huygens's Legacy, The Golden Age of the Pendulum Clock", Fromanteel Ltd., 2004 Around the same time, John Fromanteel, the son of a London clockmaker named

Ahasuerus Ahasuerus ( ; , commonly ''Achashverosh'';; fa, اخشورش, Axšoreš; fa, label=New Persian, خشایار, Xašāyār; grc, Ξέρξης, Xérxēs. grc, label=Koine Greek, Ἀσουήρος, Asouḗros, in the Septuagint; la, Assuerus ...

, went to work for Coster. He was one of many foreign clockmakers to soon make pendulum clocks following the prototype by Huygens and Coster. A contract was signed on 3 September 1657 between Salomon Coster and John Fromanteel which allowed Fromanteel to continue making the clocks.

References

* * * * R. Memel en V. Kersing: Salomon Coster, de Haagse periode; het Tijdschrift 2014-4 en 2015-1

External links

ScienceMuseum.org.ukAntique-horlogy.orgFormanteel.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coster, Salomon 1620s births 1659 deaths Dutch scientific instrument makers Dutch clockmakers Place of birth missing Christiaan Huygens