God's clockmaker

John D North

Why I looked at this book

We take clocks for granted nowadays, but when they first became widespread they must have had quite an impact. On thing that interests me is whether the development of clock mechanism suggested that other things could be mechanised in the same way. Another is whether having reasonably accurate clocks changed the way we think about time.

First impressions

"Richard of Wallingford was the most original British scientist of the later middle ages" That is the first sentence of the book. So why has Richard become largely forgotten by history? North starts the book with some explanations of this, and with this book clearly hopes to bring his subject to a wider audience. The clock is no longer there, but a detailed description was discovered a few decades ago (which North has studied extensively). So far the book seems easy to read, although the length seems a bit intimidating.