Page 34 - All About History - Issue 16-14

Through History

TIMEKEEPING

Humankind has always tried to master time, building increasingly
ingenious devices in which to record it. Here we take a look at some

of timekeeping’s most important milestones

SUNDIAL 2500 BCE CANDLE CLOCK 500 BCE
The sundial charted the passage of time This early timekeeping device
by harnessing the power of the Sun. allowed rough time increments to
Originating in Ancient Egypt’s Old Kingdom be measured through the use of
– where obelisk structures were used as the simple candle. This could be set
oversized shadow markers – the sundial up in various ways, but the most
quickly evolved from a device that marked common was to place a scored set of
unequal and inconsistent hours to a smaller candles within a protective casing,
system that had its gnomon (the projecting which was typically made from
piece on a sundial that shows the time by wood. Each candle, being of
the position of its shadow) aligned parallel the same regimented
Sung Su’s astronomical water
to Earth’s axi This ensured that its lock was renowned for its size height and thickness,
y Christiaan would burn away
Huygens in a set period of
DUTCH 1629-1695
Dutch polymath Christiaan Huygens time (for example,
The sundial was one of the was also a renowned horologist, after four hours)
original forms of timekeeping ATER CLOCK 1600 BCE inventing the famous pendulum once lit, thereby
clock during his career. He also built
th the earliest forms of water clock numerous clocks – each boasting allowing its
own as a clepsydra) consisting of an accuracy exceeding those keeper to chart the
wl or jug-shaped containers filled available in his day. progression of time.
with water that gradually deposited
water into another container, this type
of timekeeping device was incredibly popular
in the ancient world. By the turn of the first PENDULUM
millennium CE, the water clock had evolved
dramatically into a timepiece that included CLOCK 1657
mechanisms such as water wheels, armillary
pheres and escapement systems. Chinese First introduced by
ymath Su Song’s astronomical clock tower, built Christiaan Huygens
088, was a prime example of the type. 1650s, the pendulum
which works throug
oscillating timekeep
element (the swingi
MECHANICAL CLOCK 990 CE pendulum), quickly
True mechanical clocks began to arrive became the most
in Europe in the late-10th century. These accurate type of cloc
mechanical clocks – built by monks and in existence, reducin
installed in Christian churches – at first did accuracy slippage fro
not have clock faces or hands, with their roughly 15 minutes
mechanisms purely designed to strike a day down to 15 seco
bell at set intervals. These intervals were Initially, pendulum c
calibrated to the religious day, rather than on were large and had v
an hourly basis, identifying when set tasks, wide pendulum swi
such as praying, needed to be undertaken. By of up to 100 degrees
the 14th century mechanical clocks evolved they quickly evolved
to sport faces and hands, as well as chiming into smaller, wall-
on the hour mark. Mechanical clocks were first mounted varieties An exposed pendulum clock
introduced in the West by in the 18th century. dating from 1883
Christian monks
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