Cuckoo clock, a so-called Jagdstück, Black Forest, ca. 1900, Deutsches Uhrenmuseum, Inv. 2006-013

A cuckoo clock is a clock, typically pendulum driven, that strikes the hours using small bellows and pipes that imitate the call of the Common Cuckoo in addition to striking a wire gong. The mechanism to produce the cuckoo call was installed in almost every kind of cuckoo clock since the middle of the eighteenth century and has remained almost without variation until the present. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (589x1000, 98 KB) cuckoo clock, so-called Jagdstueck, Black Forest, ca. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (589x1000, 98 KB) cuckoo clock, so-called Jagdstueck, Black Forest, ca. ... For other uses, see Clock (disambiguation). ... A pendulum clock uses a pendulum as its time base. ... Big Ben, the tower clock of the Palace of Westminster in London, is a famous striking clock. ... Binomial name Cuculus canorus (Linnaeus, 1758) The Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) is a member of the cuckoo order of birds, the Cuculiformes, which also includes the roadrunners, the anis, the coucals, and the Hoatzin. ... A gong is one of a wide variety of metal percussion instruments. ...

Characteristics

The world's largest cuckoo clock in the shape of a Black Forest house

One of two Cuckoo pipes

Sound producer

The design of a cuckoo clock is now conventional. Most are made in the "traditional style" or "chalet" to hang on a wall. In the "traditional style" the wooden case is decorated with carved leaves and animals. Most now have an automaton of the bird that appears through a small trap door while the clock is striking. The bird is often made to move while the clock strikes, typically by means of an arm that lifts the back of the carving. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1503x2189, 794 KB) Summary The worlds largest cuckoo clock in Triberg im Schwarzwald, Germany. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1503x2189, 794 KB) Summary The worlds largest cuckoo clock in Triberg im Schwarzwald, Germany. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 237 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (241 × 610 pixel, file size: 24 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) My own work. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 237 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (241 × 610 pixel, file size: 24 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) My own work. ... common cuckoo This image is in the public domain in the United States and possibly other jurisdictions. ... common cuckoo This image is in the public domain in the United States and possibly other jurisdictions. ... This article is about a type of building. ... The Canard Digérateur of Jacques de Vaucanson, hailed in 1739 as the first automaton capable of digestion. ...

There are two kind of movement: a one-day movement and an eight-day movement. Some have musical movements, and play a tune on a Swiss music box after striking the hours and half-hours. The melody sounds only at full hours in the eight-day clocks and both at full hours and half hours in one-day clocks. Musical cuckoo clocks frequently have other automatisms which move when the music box plays. Cuckoo clocks are almost always weight driven; a very few are spring driven. The weights are made of cast iron in a pine cone shape. The "cuc-koo" sound of a cuckoo clock is created by two tiny gedackt (pipes) in the clock, with bellows attached to their bottoms. The clock's mechanism activates the bellows to send a puff of air into each pipe alternately when the clock strikes. A musical box (or music box) is a 19th century automatic musical instrument that produces sounds by the use of a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder so as to strike the tuned teeth of a steel comb. ... A cone (in formal botanical usage: strobilus, plural strobili) is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta (conifers) that contains the reproductive structures. ... Gedackt (also spelled gedeckt) is the name of a family of stops in pipe organ building. ...

In recent years, quartz battery-powered cuckoo clocks have been available. These do not have genuine cuckoo bellows. The cuckoo bird flaps its wings as it calls to the sound of running water in the background. The call is an actual recording of a cuckoo in the wild. During the cuckoo call the double doors open and the cuckoo emerges only at full hour, and they do not have a gong wire. One thing that is unique about the quartz cuckoos is that it has a light sensor, so when you turn your lights off at night, it automatically turns off the cuckoo call. The weights are conventionally cast in the shape of pine cones made of plastic, as well as the cuckoo bird and hands. The pendulum bob is often another carved leaf. The dial is usually small, and typically marked with Roman numerals. A quartz clock A quartz clock is a timepiece that uses an electronic oscillator which is made up by a quartz crystal to keep precise time. ... For other uses, see Pine (disambiguation). ... Mature female European Black Pine cone Male cones of a pine A cone (in formal botanical usage: strobilus, plural strobili) is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta (conifers) that contains the reproductive structures. ... For other uses, see Pendulum (disambiguation). ... Roman numerals are a numeral system originating in ancient Rome, adapted from Etruscan numerals. ...

History

Mechanical cuckoo, 1650

Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (654x1000, 136 KB) Cuckoo Mechanism. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (654x1000, 136 KB) Cuckoo Mechanism. ...

The first cuckoo clocks

In 1629, many decades before clockmaking was established in the Black Forest, an Augsburg nobleman by the name of Philipp Hainhofer (1578-1647) penned the first known description of a cuckoo clock. The clock belonged to Prince Elector August von Sachsen. For other meanings for Augsburg: See Augsburg (disambiguation) , Augsburg is a city in south-central Germany. ... Philipp Hainhofer (21 July 1578–1647) was a merchant, banker, diplomat and art collector in Augsburg. ...

In a widely known handbook on music "Musurgia Universalis" (1650), the scholar Athanasius Kircher describes a mechanical organ with several automated figures, including a mechanical cuckoo. This book contains the first documented description -in words and pictures- of how a mechanical cuckoo works. We must assume that Kircher did not invent the cuckoo mechanism, because this book, like his other works, is a compilation of known facts into a handbook for reference purposes. The engraving clearly shows all the elements of a mechanical cuckoo. The bird automatically opens its beak and moves both its wings and tail. Simultaneously, we hear the call of the cuckoo, created by two organ pipes, tuned to a minor or major third. There is only one fundamental difference from the Black Forest-type cuckoo mechanism: The functions of Kircher´s bird are not governed by a count wheel in a strike train; a pinned program barrel synchronizes the movements and sounds of the bird. Athanasius Kircher ( ) (sometimes erroneously spelled Kirchner) was a 17th century German Jesuit scholar who published around 40 works, most notably in the fields of oriental studies, geology and medicine. ...

In 1669 Domenico Martinelli, in his handbook on elementary clocks "Horologi Elementari", suggests using the call of the cuckoo to indicate the hours. Starting at that time the mechanism of the cuckoo clock was known. Any mechanic or clockmaker, who could read Latin or Italian, knew after reading the books that it was quite doable to have the cuckoo announce the hours.

Subsequently, cuckoo clocks appeared in regions that had not been known for their clockmaking.

A few decades later, people in the Black Forest started to build cuckoo clocks.

The first cuckoo clocks made in the Black Forest

It is not clear who built the first cuckoo clocks in the Black Forest but there is unanimity that the unusual clock with the bird call very quickly conquered the Black Forest. Already by the middle of the eighteenth century, several small clockmaking shops produced cuckoo clocks with wooden gears. So the first Black Forest cuckoo clocks were made in the middle of the 18th century. They had hand-painted shields. A map of Germany, showing the Black Forest in red. ...

It is hard to judge how large the proportion of cuckoo clocks was among the total production of modern movement Black Forest clocks. Based on the proportions of pieces surviving to the present, it must have been a small fraction of the total production.

About its murky origins, there are two main fables from the first two chroniclers of Black Forest horology which tell contradicting stories about the origin of the cuckoo clock:

The first is from Father Franz Steyrer, written in his "Geshichte der Schwarzwälder Uhrmacherkunst" (History of Clockmaking in the Black Forest) in 1796. He describes a meeting between two clock peddlers from Furtwangen (Black Forest) who met a travelling Bohemian merchant who sold wooden cuckoo clocks. Both the Furtwangen traders were so excited that they bought one. On bringing it home they copied it and showed their imitation to other Black Forest clock traders. Its popularity grew in the region and more and more clockmakers started producing them. Michael Dilger in Neukirch and Matthäus Hummel in Glashütte (Waldau) are said to have started making cuckoo clocks based on these samples. The second story is related by another priest, Markus Fidelis Jäck, in a passage from his report "Darstellungen aus der Industrie und des Verkehrs aus dem Schwarzwald" (Description of Industry and Commerce of the Black Forest), (1810): "The cuckoo clock was invented (in 1730) by a clock-master (Franz Anton Ketterer) from Schönwald (Black Forest). This craftsman adorned a clock with a moving bird that announced the hour with the cuckoo-call. The clock-master got the idea of how to make the cuckoo-call from the bellows of a church organ". As time went on, the second version became the more popular, and is the one generally related today. Unfortunately, neither Steyrer nor Jäck quote any sources for their claims, making them unverifiable.

Early cuckoo clock, Black Forest, 1760-1780 (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum, Inv. 03-2002)

On the other hand R. Dorer pointed out, in 1948, that Franz Anton Ketterer (1734 - 1806) could not have been the inventor of the cuckoo clock in 1730 because he hadn't then been born. Gerd Bender in the first volume of his work "Die Uhrenmacher des hohen Schwarzwaldes und ihre Werke" (The Clockmakers of the High Black Forest and their Works) (1998) wrote that the cuckoo clock was not native to the Black Forest. Schaaf in "Schwarzwalduhren" (Black Forest Clocks) (1995), provides his own research which leads to the earliest cuckoos being in the "Franken-Niederbayern" area (East of Germany), in the direction of Bohemia (a region of the Czech Republic), which he notes, lends credence to the Steyrer version. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1000x682, 81 KB) Early wooden cuckoo clock, Black Forest, 1760-1780, Deutsches Uhrenmuseum Furtwangen, Inv. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1000x682, 81 KB) Early wooden cuckoo clock, Black Forest, 1760-1780, Deutsches Uhrenmuseum Furtwangen, Inv. ... Flag of Bohemia Bohemia (Czech: ; German: ) is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western and middle thirds of the Czech Republic. ...

The legend that the cuckoo clock was invented by a clever Black Forest mechanic in 1730 keeps being told over and over again. But all of this is not true. The cuckoo clock is much older than clockmaking in the Black Forest. As early as 1650 the bird with the distinctive call was part of the reference book knowledge recorded in handbooks.

Although the idea of placing a cuckoo bird in a clock did not originate in the Black Forest, it is necessary to emphasize that the cuckoo clock as we know it today, comes from this region located in southwest Germany whose tradition of clockmaking started in the late seventeenth century. The Black Forest people who created the cuckoo clock industry developed it, and still come up with new designs and technical improvements which have made the cuckoo clock a valued work of art all over the world. The cuckoo clock history is linked to the Black Forest.

Although the functionality of the cuckoo mechanism has remained basicaly unchanged, the appearance has changed as case designs and clock movements evolved in the Black Forest. In the beginning of the 19th century the now traditional Black Forest clock design, the "Schilduhr" (Shield-clock), which had a painted flat square wooden face, behind which all the clockwork was attached. On top of the square was usually a semicircle of highly decorated wood which contained the door for the cuckoo. There was no cabinet surrounding the clockwork in this model. This design was the most prevalent between the end of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century. These clocks were typically sold from door to door by "Uhrenträger" (Clock-peddlers) who would carry the dials and movements on their backs displayed on huge backpacks.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, there were also cuckoo mechanisms combined with the "Rahmenuhr" (Framed-clock). As the name suggests, this clock consisted of a picture frame, usually with a typical Black Forest scene painted on a wooden background or a lithograph. The cuckoo was usually included in the scene, and would pop out in 3D, as usual, to announce the hour.

But the popular house-shaped Bahnhäusleuhr (railroad house clock) virtually forced the discontinuation of other designs within a few years.

1850 – The Bahnhäusle clock, a design of the century from Furtwangen

Left: Railway-house clock by Friedrich Eisenlohr, 1850-1851; right: Kreuzer, Glatz & Co., Furtwangen, 1853-1854 (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum, Inv. 2003-081)

In 1850 the first director of the Grand Duchy of Baden Clockmakers School in Furtwangen, Robert Gerwig, launched a public competition to submit designs for modern clockcases, which would allow homemade products to attain a professional appearance. Friedrich Eisenlohr (1805-1854), who as an architect had been responsible for creating the buildings along the then new and first railroad line, submitted the most far-reaching design. Eisenlohr enhanced the facade of a standard railroad-guard’s residence, as he had built many of them, with a clock dial. His "Wallclock with shield decorated by ivy vines," as it is referred to in a surviving, handwritten report from the Clockmakers School from 1851 or 1852, became the prototype of today’s popular Souvenir cuckoo clocks. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1000x668, 64 KB) The original design of the Bahnhaeuseluhr, drawing by Friedrich Eisenlohr (left), 1850-1851, realized by Kreuzer, Glatz and Co. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1000x668, 64 KB) The original design of the Bahnhaeuseluhr, drawing by Friedrich Eisenlohr (left), 1850-1851, realized by Kreuzer, Glatz and Co. ... Aerial view of the inner city Furtwangen is a small city located in the Black Forest region of south western Germany. ...

Eisenlohr was also up-to-date stylistically. He was inspired by local images; rather than copying them slavishly, he modified them. Contrary to most present-day cuckoo clocks, his case features light, unstained wood and is decorated with symmetrical, flat fretwork ornaments.

Eisenlohr´s idea became an instant hit, because the modern design of the Bahnhäusle clock appealed to the decorating tastes of the growing bourgeoisie and thereby tapped into new and growing markets.

Characteristically, the makers of the first Bahnhäusle clocks deviated from Eisenlohr´s sketch in only one way: the left out the cuckoo mechanism. Unlike today, the design with the little house was not synonymous with a cuckoo clock in the first years after 1850. This is another indication that at that time cuckoo clocks could not have been an important market segment.

Only in December 1854, Johann Baptist Beha, the best known maker of cuckoo clocks of his time, sold two cuckoo clocks, with an oil paintings on their fronts, to a Furtwangen dealer. More than a year later, on January 20, 1856, another respected Furtwangen-based cuckoo clockmaker, Theodor Ketterer, sold one to Joseph Ruff in Glasgow (Scotland).

Concurrently with Beha and Ketterer, other Black Forest clockmakers must have started to equip Bahnhäusle clocks with cuckoo mechanisms to satisfy the rapidly growing demand for this type of clock. Starting in the mid-1850s there was a real boom in this market.

By 1860, the Bahnhäusle style had started to develop away from its original, “severe” graphic form, and evolve, between other designs, toward the well-known case with three-dimensional woodcarvings, like the "Jagdstück" (Hunt piece, design created in Furtwangen in 1861), a cuckoo clock with carved oak foliage and hunting motives, such as trophy animals, guns and powder pouches. By 1862 Johann Baptist Beha started to enhance his richly decorated Bahnhäusle clocks with hands carved from bone and weights cast in the shape of fir cones. Even today this combination of elements is characteristic for cuckoo clocks, although the hands are usually made of wood. Only ten years after its invention by Friedrich Eisenlohr, all variations of the house-theme had reached maturity.

The basic cuckoo clock of today is the railway-house (Bahnhäusle) form, still with its rich ornamentation, and these are known under the name of "traditional"; which display carved leaves, birds, deer heads (like the Jagdstück design), other animals, etc. The richly decorated Bahnhäusle clocks have become a symbol of the Black Forest that is instantly understood anywhere in the world.

Even today is a favourite souvenir of travelers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The centre of production continues to be the Black Forest region of Germany, in the area of Triberg and Titisee-Neustadt, where there are several dozen firms making the whole clock or parts of it. The cuckoo clock is often wrongly associated with Switzerland, as in the movie The Third Man. In the USA, this error is probably due to a story by Mark Twain in which the hero depicts the Swiss town of Lucerne as the home of cuckoo clocks. Triberg is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, located in the Schwarzwald-Baar district in the Black Forest. ... Titisee-Neustadt is a city in southwest Baden-Württemberg, in the Freiburg administrative region. ... This article is about motion pictures. ... The Third Man (1949) is a British film noir directed by Carol Reed. ... Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910),[1] better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American humorist, satirist, lecturer and writer. ... For other uses, see Lucerne (disambiguation). ...

The cuckoo clock became successful and world famous after Friedrich Eisenlohr contributed the Bahnhäusle design to the 1850 competition at the Furtwangen Clockmakers School.

The "Chalet" style, the Swiss contribution

The "Chalet" style originated at the end of the nineteenth century in Switzerland, at that time they were highly valued as Swiss souvenirs. There are currently three basic styles, according to the different traditional houses depicted: Black Forest chalet, Swiss chalet (with two types the "Brienz" and the "Emmenthal") and finally the Bavarian chalet. Commonly found in the latter type of clock, is the incorporation of a Swiss music box, the most popular melodies are "The Happy Wanderer" and "Edelweiss" which sound alternately. Along with the common projecting cuckoo bird, this style of clock may also display other types of animated figurines as well, examples include woodcutters, moving beer drinkers and turning water wheels. Some "traditional" cuckoo clocks feature a music box and dancing figurines as well. The song The Happy Wanderer (Der fröhliche Wanderer or Mein Vater war ein Wandersmann) is often mistaken for a German folk song, but it is actually an original song by Friedrich-Wilhelm Möller, written shortly after WW2. ... Edelweiss is a Rodgers and Hammerstein song from musical and film The Sound of Music. ...

Literature

• Richard Mühe, Helmut Kahlert, Beatrice Techen: Kuckucksuhren. München 1988.
• Helmut Kahlert: Erinnerung an ein geniales Design. 150 Jahre Bahnhäusle-Uhren. In: Klassik-Uhren 2002, H. 4, S. 26-30.
• Johannes Graf: The Black Forest Cuckoo Clock. A Success Story. In: NAWCC Bulletin, December 2006.

External Links

• An article about the "Bahnhäusle" style history, by Dr. Helmut Kahlert:
  1. The Anniversary of a Grand Design -150 Years of Black Forest Bahnhäusle Clocks (1)
  2. The Anniversary of a Grand Design -150 Years of Black Forest Bahnhäusle Clocks (2)

Cuckoo clock manufacturers

Some cuckoo clock manufacturers of the Black Forest (except Harzer & Lötscher). In alphabetical order: