Keeping Track

No, this is not zoo-related.... I thought I'd just stash this info here.

I just ordered a pedometer today, to replace another I had for a couple of years but which broke. I was given another one but it was too hard to set up and I never got comfortable with it. Buying the pedometer got me thinking about the history of the device and if one were to just look about the net a bit, one might come to the conclusion that it's an item invented by Thomas Jefferson. However, this is not the case. That's not to say that Jefferson didn't have his own pedometer. Apparently he did, having acquired it in France. In some February 1786 correspondence with James Madison, after having offered to purchase a watch for him for 24 louis, Jefferson goes on to say "For 12 louis more you can have in the same cover, but on the back side & absolutely unconnected with the movements of the watch, a pedometer which shall render you an exact account of the distances you walk. Your pleasure hereon shall be awaited." It took over a year for Jefferson to write that "By the next packet I shall be able to send you some books as also your watch & pedometer. The two last are not yet done." However, a couple of months later a P.S. was added to another letter saying the items were still not ready.
(Maybe Jefferson's pedometer was made by Breguet or Recordon?? See: this page.)


A number of websites give Leonardo DaVinci the credit for designing the first pedometer. Apparently after earlier developing a wheeled device which would drop a pebble into a box with every revolution, he improved it so that it only dropped a pebble once every mile. This led him to a device which used a pendulum resting on the thigh to keep track of the number of steps taken. It could be used not only on humans but on horses as well. And in the 21st Century there is at least one company that sells Petometers, designed to keep track of your dog's activity.

A number of pedometers from the 16th century and forward are listed in the Online Register of Scientific Instruments, with those from the Museum of the History of Science at Oxford having pictures.

Surprisingly there is no mention of pedometer in the index of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and no discussion of its history in Wikipedia. Someone has come up with an online pedometer based on Google Maps.