It is common to look at the pedometer and think that it is a recent invention. After all, it is complicated technology that allows us to track our own motion and count our steps by just slapping a wristwatch on our arm. However, the pedometer is not recent at all. In fact, the technology behind our humble pedometer watches is over 200 years old and better yet the concept in play can be dated back to the early Roman Empire.

“It can’t be over 200 years old” you might say. “Where did it all start from?” Well, like most oddball inventions it started with one of the United States’ founding fathers. Thomas Jefferson was not just a congressman, not just an author, not just a diplomat; he was also a renaissance man and inventor of things.

The author of the declaration did not patent most of his inventions so it is difficult to track them all but such things as macaroni and cheese, the dumbwaiter, the swiveling chair and of course the pedometer can be traced back to his Virginia home. Ben Franklin wasn’t the only one who could dabble in politics as well as science.

The debate goes on about whether Thomas Jefferson actually did invent the pedometer as he kind of just showed up with it one day after coming back from France. It is widely believed that he acquired it there and then perhaps made some modifications to it so that he could bring it to the Americas but either way, the story starts with him… or does it?

The history of the pedometer stretches all the way back into Ancient Rome. The Romans measured distance through steps (one mile being 1,000 paces and a pace being two steps) and they would calibrate their distance in the military using odometer technology. They didn’t exactly have a pedometer but the concept was there. Track someone’s footsteps and you’ll know how far they went.

As you can see, the pedometer is not a recent invention at all. It is one of the older technologies of our day. It has improved quite a bit since the time Jefferson first introduced it but the same mechanical principles are the same. The pedometer counts steps by detecting the motion of the user’s hips. Inside of it is an electromechanical pendulum that acts as a motion detector. Whenever the pendulum moves enough to match the original calibration, it counts a step.

The pedometer is not the most accurate piece of equipment . . . → Read More: What is a Pedometer Watch?]]> http://thepedometerwatch.com/what-is-a-pedometer-watch/feed/ 0