0:04

Hey, and welcome to Short Stuff, the Very

0:07

Brief podcast on Josh. There's Chuck,

0:09

that's Jerry. Let's get going. No

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time for laughing, Chuck. Welcome everybody,

0:14

And just as a very quick explanation,

0:17

Uh, we had this idea because we often

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come across cool, little interesting

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tidbits that certainly don't warrant

0:24

a forty five minute episode, and

0:27

everyone else on the planet is doing little, shorty

0:29

episodes on their podcast, and we thought, well,

0:31

hey, in your tin, why don't we give it a shot.

0:33

Yeah, let's try something new for once. Yeah,

0:35

so I hope you all like it. Great.

0:38

Well, we've just wasted a lot of time, Chuck. We

0:40

might not get to the end of this episode. Now.

0:42

I thought we agreed there was no ticking clock. So

0:46

you've seen a grandfather clock before, right? Uh?

0:49

Yeah, we we had, you know, not the what

0:51

is the like the smaller version called it hangs

0:54

on the wall. Actually I saw

0:56

those called wagon the wall clocks.

0:58

Those are the original ones. Okay, we we had

1:00

one of those growing up where it's just like an exposed

1:02

pendulum swinging back and forth. Yeah,

1:05

you know, three ish feet three

1:07

feet in length. Yeah, okay, I

1:09

thought you met like off the wall, like

1:12

that sounds dangerous, rigged

1:14

up a hovering mechanism. It was pretty advanced,

1:16

right, and the pendulum was super sharp, so you

1:18

better watch out. So um, but

1:21

you're you're familiar with like the kind

1:23

that are tall and standing on

1:25

the floor. Yeah, so those

1:27

are actually you know and you know and love

1:29

them as grandfather clocks. Sure, but the

1:31

name grandfather clock didn't come around

1:33

until about two hundred years after

1:37

grandfather clocks were invented. Yeah,

1:39

and it's funny when I saw this that they they

1:42

were invented about three d fifty years ago, and when

1:44

I saw that they were originally called long

1:46

case clocks, I immediately would

1:49

liked that name better, long

1:51

case better than grandfather. Okay, yeah, I think it's

1:53

cool. I'm ambivalent towards both because

1:57

I like the I do like cuckoo clocks for sure,

2:00

but the the the name grandfather

2:02

clock, we'll we'll find out where it came

2:04

from. But the grandfather clock itself,

2:07

or the long case clock, was actually

2:10

one of the first clocks. And it kind of makes

2:12

sense because if you think about it, when you start

2:14

out inventing something new, it's

2:17

it's huge, it's enormous, and

2:19

then as you get better at it over time and find

2:21

like workarounds and and shortcuts

2:24

and stuff, you can make it smaller and smaller.

2:26

So it makes sense that some of the

2:28

first actually precise clocks were

2:30

giant grandfather clocks. And again

2:33

they were originally they just had the pendulum

2:35

swinging back and forth. You could mount him on the

2:37

wall. They were called wag on the wall clocks.

2:40

And the first person who really tried to invent

2:42

this thing was none other than Galileo

2:45

Galilee. Yeah, he's the one that discovered,

2:47

Hey, a pendulum swings at a constant

2:50

rate regardless of its size. I

2:52

think we've got something here, boys. And

2:55

unfortunately he died before he could actually make a

2:57

legit clock. Yeah, but he tried for

2:59

like his whole life. That's what killed

3:01

him. It was the sharp pendulum,

3:05

and he's like, I regret everything. But

3:08

a Dutch astronomer named Christian Hugans

3:12

built the very first pendulum clock. Uh.

3:15

And then

3:17

and this is when like, apparently this is

3:19

the most accurate time piece ever

3:22

in the history of the world. Yeah. Before

3:24

that, it was clocks were accurate

3:26

within fifteen minutes every twenty four

3:29

hours. Sure,

3:31

for the for the early seventeenth century.

3:34

But then Hugans comes along and his

3:36

was accurate within a minute

3:39

every twenty four hours. So finally

3:41

what he had produced was something that you could actually

3:43

use for like scientific purposes, which

3:46

again, as you said, it was an astronomer

3:48

and you need precise clocks

3:50

for astronomy. So he kind of made

3:52

a scientific instrument for himself more than

3:55

you know, let's let's make something that everybody

3:57

sets their watch too. Yeah, So his

3:59

wasn't It wasn't a long case clock though,

4:01

but because people are

4:04

um, people like to invent and build

4:07

on others work, of course he's got bigger

4:09

and bigger, and eventually in London, uh

4:12

and what like not even

4:14

two many years later, three or four years later, the

4:16

very first long case clocks started,

4:19

like six ft tall, started to be released into

4:21

uh for purchase. Yeah, and there

4:23

was a dude named Clement, I can't remember his first

4:26

name, but he added um. He he

4:28

basically made the pendulum

4:30

so precise that all of a sudden there was a

4:32

clock that was accurate within a second

4:35

over twenty four hours. And so they added

4:37

minute hands and second hands and really started to

4:39

show off. But at the time in

4:41

the late seventeenth early eighteenth

4:43

centuries, you had

4:45

to literally be um royalty

4:48

to afford a clock like this.

4:50

And then over time again they figured out

4:52

shortcuts and there were improvements in manufacturing.

4:55

You just had to be somewhat rich to

4:57

afford him. And they started to spread and they

5:00

started to kind of encase him

5:02

in would they They started

5:04

really kind of tricking him out and everything. They made the

5:06

pendulum look really beautiful, and then what

5:08

you know and love as a grandfather clock

5:10

really kind of was developed between

5:12

I think um up to about

5:15

eighteen fifty. I think right from

5:17

the late seventeenth century up to eighteen fifty.

5:21

And then that was like kind of the golden age of the grandfather

5:23

clock. And then they just stopped progressing and they said, this

5:25

is perfect. This is the Grandfather clock,

5:27

although we don't call it that yet, and

5:30

um, we're going to just leave it as is and

5:32

say we're happy with this model.

5:35

Yeah, so put a pin in that. And

5:38

then we switch on over to the story

5:40

of a man named Henry clay Work

5:43

who was born in Connecticut in eighteen

5:46

thirty two. He was a musician,

5:48

uh singer, songwriter, very

5:51

emo. From what I understand a little

5:53

bit. I got that too, And it

5:55

was back in the days when you would write like

5:57

war songs. Um,

6:00

that doesn't happen much today unless you count like Toby

6:02

Keith, whatever

6:04

work he's doing, whatever good work he's doing.

6:07

But he was a champion of the North.

6:10

And he had a song called Kingdom Coming, a

6:12

pro union ballad, which gave

6:14

him a music contract with a publishing

6:16

firm named Root and Katie or Caddie.

6:19

And he started pumping out hits over like

6:21

the next decade or so until

6:24

hard times fell. He he made some bad

6:27

financial moves. Two of his kids died

6:29

in the eighteen seventies, and so his

6:31

life he kind of fell on hard times, but

6:34

he would come back with a big, big hit called

6:37

Grandfather's Clock. Right,

6:39

And this is actually where the

6:41

name grandfather Clock comes from, is

6:43

from this guy's song. And it's a

6:45

pretty sweet song, actually

6:48

sad. He basically sings about

6:50

how his grandfather, his grand

6:52

his great grandparents bought a

6:55

long case clock on the day his grandfather

6:57

was born. What a great baby gift. Right

7:00

Exactly, here you go, kid, maybe someday

7:02

you'll be this tall. Here's a grandfather,

7:04

a long case clock. And a woobie exactly,

7:07

don't let it fall on you. But they

7:09

so they bought. Yeah, I guess now that you pointed

7:11

out as a weird baby gift. But um,

7:14

it was a great, sturdy, reliable clock

7:17

and it worked through the grandfather's whole life

7:19

until until the

7:21

day he died. And the day that the

7:23

grandfather died, the clock stopped

7:25

as well, and it still hasn't worked since.

7:28

Yeah, here's the lyric. My grandfather's clock

7:30

was too large for the shelf, so it stood

7:32

ninety years on the floor. It was bought

7:34

on the morn of the day he was born, and

7:37

was always his treasure and pride. But it

7:39

stopped short, never to go again when the

7:41

old man died. Yeah, and America

7:44

was like, oh God, this

7:46

is the greatest song anyone will ever write.

7:48

We can just stop, we can stop improving

7:50

on grandfather clocks, we can stop writing

7:52

songs now. And the two come together in

7:55

the U in this writing by work

7:57

or this song by Henry Clay work. Right. Yeah, it was

7:59

a big, big hit. He sold uh close

8:02

to a million copies, made the

8:04

equivalent of about nine dollars

8:07

on the song. Johnny Cash would record it

8:10

Prairie Home Companions spoofed it. I think scrillis.

8:14

I'm just kidding. It

8:16

was in a video game called Five Nights at Freddie's.

8:20

Yeah, and if you look it up in the O E. D. The

8:22

Oxford English Dictionary, if you look

8:24

up grandfather clock, it attributes the

8:27

etymology of that term to um

8:30

to Work, Henry clay

8:32

Work. That his name does not stick to

8:34

the brain. No, even

8:37

having Henry clay in it. I know you think that

8:39

would do it for us, Yeah, but Henry clay

8:41

Work, it just does not stick. So it

8:43

was a huge deal, and there's it's pretty much

8:45

undisputed. I think it's a percent on disputed

8:48

that Henry clay Work was the person who

8:50

came up with the song that later became

8:52

the name for long Case Clock's grandfather

8:55

Clocks. Right, So we're gonna take

8:57

a very short break and we're gonna come back and tell

8:59

you about what in bird work to write that song

9:01

himself. Alright,

9:18

Chuck. So that

9:20

was a pretty good cliffhanger. So because

9:23

you think, like sure, Henry clay Work

9:25

came up with this song and it

9:27

had the effect of renaming

9:30

the long case clock the grandfather clock. But

9:32

anyone, anythinking person's brain

9:35

is going to keep going and say, but wait a minute, where

9:37

did Henry clay Work get

9:39

the inspiration for this song? And

9:42

there's actually two stories for that. Yeah,

9:44

so uh. One of them is there's a hotel

9:46

called the George Hotel in uh

9:49

of. I'm sorry, the full name is the George Hotel

9:51

of pierce Bridge in North

9:53

Yorkshire, England. And they said, and

9:55

they still claim, that dude wrote this in

9:57

the lobby he stayed here in

10:00

eighteen seventy four, saw

10:02

our long case clock, sat down

10:04

and started writing a song about it,

10:06

because our clock is frozen in

10:09

time at eleven oh five, with a uh,

10:12

with a story that is likely what I

10:14

call bs and what others would call folklore.

10:16

Well, I don't if if it's not B, yes, then

10:19

I would say, yes, these people are. They have

10:21

the claim to inspiring the Henry clay

10:23

Works song because it has basically

10:25

the same story. There was a clock bought for

10:27

the hotel owners sons um

10:30

and when the first son died, the clock started

10:32

to slow, and when the second son died it stopped

10:34

altogether. And if Henry clay

10:36

Work stayed at that hotel, heard that story

10:38

in it's

10:40

so effactive it's done. But yes, there is a lot

10:43

of a lot of people are like those

10:45

people are lying, lying through their teeth,

10:48

and um there there people

10:50

in their town won't speak to them actually because they

10:53

so detest the lie. That's right.

10:56

Uh. And the other version of the story, of course, has

10:58

to do with the family. But his family,

11:00

his wife's family, Sarah Parker, they

11:03

said, no, no, no, no, no, that's we

11:05

have the clock. Uh. And then he wrote

11:07

the song about our clock. And

11:09

he wrote it because you know, he married our

11:12

daughter, and we have this great long case clock

11:14

that belonged to Sarah's grandfather. And

11:17

it really has nothing to do with um

11:19

a haunted clock that stops when people die, right,

11:22

but it did, it doesn't work

11:25

anymore, sure, So you

11:28

know, there you go. And

11:30

then when people ask the family do you have the clock,

11:32

they just say yes and

11:34

then leave it at that. All right, And

11:37

there's our story. I've got one more thing.

11:40

There's actually, um,

11:42

there's actually different. So a grandfather

11:44

clock is seven feet, a

11:47

six footer is called the grandmother clock.

11:50

Five fter is called the granddaughter clock.

11:52

That's cute. So there you go, chuck.

11:54

And anything shorter is called you're

11:57

not even a family member. Clock, that's right.

12:00

I guess that's it. Yeah, if you want to

12:02

find us, you can find us on the web, and we're both

12:04

at stuff you should know dot com. So look us up

12:07

and we'll see you next time. Right, that's

12:09

right.