Water clocks, along with the sundials, are possibly the oldest time-measuring instruments, with the only exceptions being the vertical gnomon and the day-counting tally stick. 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 in 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.
The Greek and Roman civilizations are credited for initially advancing water clock design to include complex gearing, which was connected to fanciful automata and also resulted in improved accuracy. These advances were passed on through Byzantium and Islamic times, eventually making their way to Europe. Independently, the Chinese developed their own advanced water clocks, passing their ideas on to Korea and Japan.
I've always viewed being a clock fancier as a guy sort of thing -- all about mechanisms and such. In fact, both physics and religion were involved in the development of time measurement as the article indicates. But here I switch the subject over to appearances, else I wouldn't have worried about Blogger loading my pictures! Clocks are, to put it simply, great decorative objects! For example, what gardener wouldn't like to have the sundial that sits smack dab in the middle of the rose garden at the Sharlot Hall Museum. A memorial gift, it is.
But there are many more time pieces at the museum. Once I photographed the sun dial, I wandered over to the gift shop, where I found several more modern (i.e., battery-operated) clocks.
As well as this item in a box which looked as though it were not an operating time piece but rather a decorative period piece. Of course, these days it's difficult to tell, because mechanisms have shrunk to surprisingly small packages.
Another of the gift shop replicas.
I like this piece because it is so direct and spare. It recalls the clocks in the school rooms of my childhood. They were all operated from a central location by Western Union; just before a minute was up, the hand would click back a bit and then move forward to the next marker. When a class was boring or I should have been reading, a clock of this sort would catch my attention -- and hold it, especially when the class was nearly over.
It's hard to take this pair of clocks very seriously. Where do they belong? In the pool house, perhaps, or a whimsical bathroom? If you want one, they are currently at home at the strange Tuesday Morning shop.
The positional notation of the clock is so embedded in our culture that the numerals are not required (above); consider the rotary instruction, clockwise or in the 3 o'clock position. On the other hand, do you have the same impulse as I when you see a really moderne specimen such as the one below? I always want to give such an abstraction a 30 degree turn to the right or left as a reminder that designers can go one step over the line. (I might add here that Maverick Creations, where I lifted the picture, offers a huge variety of clock designs, from Western to UFO, at its web site.)
From my mantelpiece comes this curious reversal of what's important: the inner works are quite real, but the clock face itself is a Xerox copy of an old fashioned clock face. Made by the LH in his brief flirtation with horology, BTW.
Another assortment from my house: watches plus a teensy travel alarm that I could never figure out. The dainty gold watch in the center was given me by my paternal grandmother as a graduation gift. From it, I learned that I should never wear valuables because I forget them when I am swimming, showering or washing dishes! Not good. My solution: wall clocks plus watches carried in my backpack and handbag.
However, here is my pride and joy among the household timepieces -- a genuine Mao watch that was given to me on a trip in 1981 to a China that no longer exists. You would never dare to turn this one on its side.
Posts
