Inventing Clocks Elimated Counting Days
Throughout recorded history and possibly before humans had an infatuation with time, apparently never having enough of it. From Stonehenge and sundials to pocket watches and alarm clocks, the old clocks and new all share the same common goal of helping people know what time it is.
The star sirius appears near the sun every 365 days. The ancient Egyptians developed a calendar knowing this in the year 4236 BC. Old clocks, many made of sticks, were based on this calendar and lunar and tidal acitivity and were operated manually by moving the stick to align with the sun. Other indicators to help gauge the annual time included the flooding of the nile river.
During their brief popularity sundials told time based on the rotation of the Earth, but cloudy days and periods of darkness made them useless. Many primitive timepieces relied on the shifting of the sun to tell time and had to be modified seasonally to be better understood.
Alarm Clocks With One Setting
In 1787 in New Hampshire, the very first mechanical alarm was made. This alarm had one problem. The bell only went off at one time of the day, 4 am. Then in 1876 and alarm that was adjustable was made. Seth Thomas had the patent for that basic alarm and many of those manufactured today.
Before 1912 there were only two possible operating systems for old clocks. They either utilized a pendulum’s mechanical action or they kept time by winding a main spring. In 1912 the Warren Clock Company began to produce battery operated clocks. The first wrist watch was invented in the early 17th century when a French mathematician attached a string to a pocket watch. Wrist watches are now the most popular timepieces in the world.
The weights used in many old clocks made them difficult to move around. Grandfather style clocks were used frequently, and then a smaller version was created that could fit on top of a table. Throughout time, various sizes and shapes of clocks have been made to satisfy people’s interest in time.
