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
Mechanical energy nonconservative forces, like frictional forces, will be present, but often they are of negligible values and the mechanical energy's being constant can therefore be a useful approximation. In elastic collisions, the mechanical energy is conserved but in inelastic collisions, some mechanical energy is converted into heat. The equivalence between lost mechanical energy (dissipation) and an increase in temperature was discovered by James Prescott Joule. Many devices are used to convert mechanical energy to or from other forms of energy, e.g. an electric motor converts electrical energy to mechanical energy, an electric generator converts mechanical energy into electrical energy and a