The gridiron pendulum was an improved clock pendulum invented by British clockmaker John Harrison around 1726. It didn't change its effective length with temperature, so its period of swing stayed constant with changes in ambient temperature. It consisted of alternating brass and iron rods arranged so that their different thermal expansions (or contractions) counteracted each other.
Read more about Gridiron Pendulum: How It Works, Disadvantages
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“The pendulum oscillates between these two terms: Suffering—that opens a window on the real and is the main condition of the artistic experience, and Boredom ... that must be considered as the most tolerable because the most durable of human evils.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
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