A Brief History Of Clocks

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The word clock, from the Latin word clocca, "bell," which gradually supersedes "horologe", suggests that it was the sound of bells which also characterized the prototype mechanical clocks that appeared during the 13th century in Europe.

Between 1280 and 1320, there is an increase in the number of references to clocks and horologes in church records, and this probably indicates that a new type of clock mechanism had been devised. Existing clock mechanisms that used water power were being adapted to take their driving power from falling weights. This power was controlled by some form of oscillating mechanism, probably derived from existing bell-ringing or alarm devices. This controlled release of power - the escapement - which marks the beginning of the true mechanical clock.

Sundials And Other Clock-Type Devices

The sundial which measures the time of day by the direction of shadows cast by the sun, was widely used in ancient times to tell the time of day. A well-designed sundial can measure local solar time with reasonable accuracy, and sundials continued to be used to monitor the performance of clocks until the modern era.  However, its practical limitations - it requires the sun to shine and does not work at all during the night - encouraged the use of other techniques for measuring time.

Candle clocks and sticks of incense that burn down at, approximately, predictable speeds have also been used to estimate the passing of time.  In an hourglass, fine sand pours through a tiny hole at a constant rate and indicates a predetermined passage of an arbitrary period of time.

Water Clocks

Water clocks, also known as Clepsydrae(sg: Clepsydra), along with the sundials, are possibly the oldest time-measuring instruments, with the only exceptions being the vertical gnmon and the day-counting tally sick. Given their great antiquity, where and when they first existed are not known and perhaps unknowable. The bowl-shaped outflow is the simplest form of a water clock and is known to have existed n Babylon and in Egypt around the 16th century BC. Other regions of the world, including India and China, also have early evidence of water clocks, but the earliest dates are less certain. Some authors, however, write about water clocks appearing as early as 4000 BC in these regions of the world.

Early Clocks

In 797 (or possibly 801), the Abbasid caliph of Baghdad, Harun al-Rashid, presented Charlemagne with an Asian Elephant named Abul-Abbas together with a "particularly elaborate example" of a water clock.

None of the first clocks survived from 13th century Europe, but various mentions in church records reveal some of the early history of the clock.

Medieval religious institutions required clocks to measure and indicate the passing of time because, for many centuries, daily prayer and work schedules had to be strictly regulated. This was done by various types of time-telling and recording devices, such as water clocks, sundials and marked candles, probably used in combination. Important times and durations were broadcast by bells, rung either by hand or by some mechanical device such as a falling weight or rotating beater.

Today's Clocks

As one can see, the clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to consistently measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units, the day, the lunar month, and the year. Such measurement requires devices.  Devices operating on several different physical processes have been used over the millennia, culminating in the clocks of today, including, but not limited to, Antique Clocks along with the Grandfather, Cuckoo, Mantle, Wall, Digital and more.

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