How the balance spring improved pocket-watch accuracy

A spring made pocket watches far more accurate

≈30 min/day lost before it

Before the balance spring, a pocket watch could lose about half an hour in a day. Adding the spring cut the error to only a few minutes and made useful minute and second hands possible in ordinary watches.

Britain gave a trading company powers normally reserved for governments

The English East India Company began as a commercial enterprise, but royal charters granted it extraordinary authority overseas. In territories under its control, it could administer justice, maintain armed forces, mint money and negotiate with other powers. A private company could therefore operate simultaneously as a merchant, military force and government.

Locke argued that animals can remember

John Locke said animals, including oysters and cockles, can perceive and remember. He distinguished those abilities from abstract reasoning, which he saw as specific to humans. In his view, minds differ by degree across species rather than being an exclusively human capacity.

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How the balance spring improved pocket-watch accuracy

A spring made pocket watches far more accurate

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