Christiaan Huygens Christiaan Huygens was one of the leading Dutch mathematicians and scientists of his day. His work included early telescopic studies of the rings of Saturn and establishing the wave theory of light. He also published major studies on mechanics and optics throughout his lifetime. Christiaan was born into a prestigious Dutch family in The Hague on April 14th 1629. His parents were Constantin Huygens, a diplomat and adviser to the House of Orange, and Suzanna van Baerle. In May 1645 Christiaan travelled from The Hague to Leiden to study Mathematics and Law at the University, until he transferred to the newly founded College of Orange, in Breda in 1647. Christiaan’s father Constantin was a curator at the College of Orange and had hoped that his son would follow him into a career as a diplomat, but after finishing his studies in 1649, it was clear that Christiaan’s interests lay in the world of mathematics and science. Furthermore, by 1650 the House of Orange was not in power and Constantin’s influence was removed, consequently providing Christiaan with the opportunity to follow another career path. Meanwhile, copies of Galileo Galilei’s pendulum clock drawings were circulating the courts and scientific communities of Europe. As his father was a friend of Galileo’s it is likely that he was able to obtain a copy of such a drawing. As a keen astronomer, Huygens was aware of the need for accurate time measurement, and this inspired him to manufacture a timekeeper using Galileo’s design. Huygens pendulum clock was prototyped in 1656, and by 1657 he had contracted the manufacture of such designs to Salomon Coster in The Hague with a local patent. The oldest Huygens-style pendulum clock produced by Salomon Coster is dated 1657 and is in the Museum Boerhaave in Leiden. See also Coster's Box Clock with movement probably designed by John Fromanteel, c1657 (coming soon to Clocktime). Throughout his life Huygens made several trips to London, and in 1663 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society in London. It was here that he met influential scholars such as Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle. In 1666 Huygens moved to Paris where he became one of the founding members of Louis XIV’s new French Academy of Sciences. While in France he used the Paris Observatory to continue his astronomical work, corresponding frequently with the Royal Society. However, after the outbreak of the Franco-Dutch War in 1672, and England’s involvement, Huygens relations with the Royal Society became difficult. In 1673 Huygens published Horlogium Oscillatorium sive de motu pendulorum, his major work on the theory and design of pendulum clocks. In it he addresses many of the problems raised by previous scientists regarding the period of the pendulum’s swing. In this work Huygens makes mention of other pendulum clocks that he has seen outside of The Hague, but not exactly where he saw them. It is possible that these clocks were observed in England in the workshop of Ahasuerus Fromanteel. In fact, Fromanteel’s son, John, was sent to The Hague in 1657 to work under contract with Salomon Coster to aid the production of Huygens’ pendulum clocks. Huygens moved back to The Hague in 1681 after suffering from a serious bout of depression, an illness that plagued him throughout his entire life. He attempted to return to France in 1685, but the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which allowed French Protestants the freedom to practice their religion, barred him from doing so. During his final years he made one last trip to England in 1689 where he met with Sir Isaac Newton for an exchange of ideas on motion and optics. Huygens died in The Hague on July 8th 1695, after suffering ill health. He was buried in the Grote of Sint-Jacobskerk (St James Church) a landmark Protestant church in The Hague.
