Uses[edit]
During the 1800s, conical pendulums were used as the timekeeping element in a few clockwork timing mechanisms where a smooth motion was required, as opposed to the unavoidably jerky motion provided by ordinary pendulums.[4] Two examples were mechanisms to turn the lenses of lighthouses to sweep their beams across the sea, and the location drives of equatorial mount telescopes, to allow the telescope to follow a star smoothly across the sky as the Earth turns.[3]
One of the largest use of the conical pendulum was in the flyball governor (centrifugal governor) invented by James Watt in 1788 which regulated the speed of steam engines during the Steam Age in the 1800s. The playground game tetherball uses a ball attached to a pole by a cord which functions as a conical pendulum, although the pendulum gets shorter as the cord wraps around the pole. Some amusement park rides act as conical pendulums.