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History of the Cuckoo Clock
By Jara Anton
The cuckoo clock is a timeless tradition. Every hour, on the hour, a little cuckoo bird announces the time with its patented call. Though they seem to embody the entire classic American tradition, cuckoo clocks are more than meets the eye.
The cuckoo clock has been around since 1629. The first cuckoo clock builder is debatable. Many decades before clock making was established in the Black Forest, a nobleman by the name of Hainhofer authored the first known description of a cuckoo clock. The clock belonged to Prince Flector August von Sachsen.
Soon after this sighting, a music scholar named Kirchner outlined the prospect of a mechanical organ with several automated figures, including a mechanical cuckoo. In his book, he discussed the first documented description in words and pictures of how a mechanical cuckoo clock works.
We must know that Kircher did not invent the cuckoo mechanism, because his book, like his other works, is merely a compilation of known facts into a handbook for reference purposes. His engraving clearly shows all the elements of a mechanical cuckoo. Systematically, the tiny bird opens its beak and moves both its wings and tail. At the same time, 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, but a pinned program barrel synchronizes the movements and sounds of the bird.
There is a lot of scandal about who built the first cuckoo clocks in the Black Forest. There is, however, a general agreement that the clock with the bird call sweept the region. Now, in the middle of the eighteenth century, several small clock making shops produced cuckoo clocks with wooden gears. So the first Black Forest cuckoo clocks were created between 1740 and 1750. They had hand-painted shields.
Other styles include the chalet style, the Bahnhäusle clock, a design of the century from Furtwangen, and contemporary styles. The legend that the cuckoo clock was invented by a clever Black Forest mechanic in 1730 is the popular wives' tale. Simply not true.
The cuckoo clock is much older than clock making in the Black Forest. As early as 1650 the bird with the distinctive call was part of the reference book knowledge recorded in handbooks. It took nearly a century for the cuckoo clock to find its way to the Black Forest, where for many decades it remained an exclusive kitsch product of the area.
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 clock making 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.
The functionality of the cuckoo mechanism has remained basically unchanged, but the appearance has changed as case designs and clock movements evolved in the Black Forest. The 19th century the traditional Black Forest design, termed the "Schilduhr" (Shield-clock) was characterized by a flat painted square wooden face behind the attached clockwork.
At the top, a semicircle of highly decorated wood contained the door for the cuckoo. There was no cabinet in this model. This design was insanely popular during the 19th century. Interestingly, the clocks were largely door to door by "Uhrenträger" (Clock-peddlers). These clock peddlers carried the dials and movements on their backs in enormous backpacks.