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

the Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

, 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 an approximate harmonic oscillator: It swings back and forth in a precise time interval dep ...

, which had been invented by Dutch mathematician

Christiaan Huygens Christiaan Huygens, Halen, Lord of Zeelhem, ( , ; ; also spelled Huyghens; ; 14 April 1629 – 8 July 1695) was a Dutch mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor who is regarded as a key figure in the Scientific Revolution ...

(1629-1695). Coster died a sudden death in 1659. Christiaan Huygens invented the pendulum in December 1656 and Salomon Coster received the patent to create the clocks a year later. 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 language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...

, the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. Around the same time, John Fromanteel, the son of a London clockmaker named

Ahasuerus Ahasuerus ( ; , commonly ''Achashverosh''; , in the Septuagint; in the Vulgate) is a name applied in the Hebrew Bible to three rulers of Ancient Persia and to a Babylonian official (or Median king) first appearing in the Tanakh in the Book of ...

, 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