L’horloge de Christiaan Huygens, un instrument générique ?

Abstract

The pendulum clock invented by Christiaan Huygens emerged as a generic instru - ment in the 17 th century. Following Terry Shinn’s sociological propositions, it is pos - sible to characterise Huygens’ clock by its genericity, its modularity, and the theo - retical foundations on which its operation is based. Similarly, Huygens invested an interstitial socio-epistemic space to produce his instrument: at the crossroads of craft and academic practices. The ability of the pendulum clock to circulate in the disciplinary regime (notably in astronomy and nautical sciences), the utilitarian regime (through its commercial value) and the regulatory regime (through the political support that the object received) characterises a technico-instrumental regime capable of integrating a generic instrument with multiple uses.