Galileo Galilei to the biography by Vincenzo Viviani) that these began by watching the swings of the bronze chandelier in the cathedral of Pisa, using his pulse as a timer. Later experiments are described in his "Two New Sciences". Galileo claimed that a simple pendulum is isochronous, i.e. that its swings always take the same amount of time, independently of the amplitude. In fact, this is only approximately true, as was discovered by Christiaan Huygens. Galileo also found that the square of the period varies directly with the length of the pendulum. Galileo's son, Vincenzo, sketched a clock based on his father's
SS Galileo Galilei to the decline of ocean liners. "Galileo Galilei" returned to Genoa and repaired after she struck a reef off the coast of West Africa on 13 January 1975. "Galileo Galilei" continued to operate on the Italy–Australia run until April 1977, at which point she was withdrawn from service and laid up. Her lay-up was short, and in October 1977 she returned to her builders for a lengthy reconstruction into a cruise ship. On 24 March 1979 the "Galileo Galilei" finally started cruise service with Italia Crociere (owned by Italia Navigazione, who also owned Lloyd Triestino). However, already in September of