Escapement of clocks, points to the late 13th century as the most likely date for the development of the modern clock escapement. Astronomer Robertus Anglicus wrote in 1271 that clockmakers were trying to invent an escapement, but hadn't been successful yet. On the other hand, most sources agree that mechanical escapement clocks existed by 1300. Actually, the earliest description of an escapement, in Richard of Wallingford's 1327 manuscript "Tractatus Horologii Astronomici" on the clock he built at the Abbey of St. Albans, was not a verge, but a variation called a "strob" escapement. It consisted of a pair of escape wheels
Escapement is made from a special steel alloy with 36% nickel called Invar whose length changes very little with temperature, swings as free of external influence as possible sealed in a vacuum chamber and does no work. It is in mechanical contact with its escapement for only a fraction of a second every 30 seconds. A secondary "slave" pendulum turns a ratchet, which triggers an electromagnet slightly less than every thirty seconds. This electromagnet releases a gravity lever onto the escapement above the master pendulum. A fraction of a second later (but exactly every 30 seconds), the motion of the master