Cuckoo Clock - Precedents, Clocks With Automaton Birds

Precedents, Clocks With Automaton Birds

Since antiquity there have been timepieces with an automaton bird. The first one is credited to the Greek mathematician, Ctesibius of Alexandria (ca.285-222 BC), who in the 2nd century BC "used water to sound a whistle and make a model owl move. He had invented the world's first "cuckoo" clock". Ctesibius may indeed lay claim to the first known "singing" clock which might be considered the ancestor of the modern cuckoo clocks.

Later, in the Middle Ages, in 797 (or possibly 801), the caliph of Baghdad, Harun al-Rashid, presented Charlemagne with an Asian elephant named Abul-Abbas and a clock, out of which came a mechanical bird to announce the hours. The maker of this clock remains unknown.

On the other hand, the elephant clock, invented by the Arab inventor Al-Jazari, featured a humanoid automaton in the form of a mahout striking a cymbal and a mechanical bird chirping after every hour or half-hour.

Finally, in Europe during the Late Middle Ages and later, roosters were used to crow the hours in certain clocks, like the first astronomical clock in Strasbourg Cathedral.