Medieval clock mechanism

Reconstruction of a medieval clock made by the Steno Museum in Arhus, Denmark, and exhibited in the National Museum in Copenhagen. Interestingly, the clock face moves in a direction we now call counter-clockwise to display the hour. The information on the clock reads as follows: “In Denmark, there are no preserved clock mechanisms of this type, but they are mentioned in written sources. The earliest mention from what is now Denmark is from Ribe, where a clock was set up in the cathedral in 1401. While the large astronomical clock in Lund Cathedral (now in Sweden but then part of Denmark) is from the end of the 1300s, it has a new mechanism today. “A vertical verge escapement with a horizontal balance pin is the distinctive feature of the medieval clock mechanism. As a regulator, the pendulum gradually replaced it from the 1670s on.”