The Evolution of Clocks - Clocks And Science

 

The evolution of clocks is a study in time ... how clocks and science merged over time to bring us to the point where every second of every day is measured in precision... allowing us to define each day down to each second.

 

Those first clocks were developed when the Egyptians in 3500 BC decided they needed to organize their days in a better manner to keep track of all their social doings.

 

To do this .. they developed a shadow clock. They built a tall obelisk ... a four sided tower and marked the day by the shadow it made as the sun moved across the sky.

 

These sun clocks could tell the longest to the shortest days of the year by the length of the shadows it reflected. As time went on, they realized they could mark more time off during each day by putting markers at the base of the obelisk.

 

It wasn't until about 1500 BC that the Egyptians started using the sundial. They evolved over the years in design but remained basically the same and were the main time keepers for years.

 

In fact .. they did that until but 325 BC.

 

This is when water clocks stepped in.

 

All one had to do was fill a marked bowl that had a small hole in it and fill it with water. The water dripped out drop by drop ... and markings on the inside of the bowl checked of the intervals of time in each day as the water ran out.

 

A second type of water clock was one that had water dripping into it ...a reverse of the first type.

 

Another type was just a heavy bowl placed in a container filled with water. The bowl sitting in the water had a small hole in it and as the water filled the bowl, the bowl sank, marking one part of the day off.

 

As you can guess, these clocks were not very accurate ... but they provided what those societies needed ... a way to mark the day into regular parcels of time so they could organize their social obligations effectively.

 

The next step in the evolution of clocks was the first mechanical clock ... put together using a setup of weights and a rope on a gear that moved back and forth as the weights moved the beam.

 

These were more efficient than water ... but not by much... as they depended on the force and friction put on the rope and beam by the weights which was never very uniform.

 

Spring loaded clocks were the next step in the clock evolution. Since the spring drive took up much less space than any of the previous clocks ... people loved them. They could place them on their tables and mantles ... or in their pockets.

 

They made for a great addition to the home decor beginning sometime around 1510.

 

The first really accurate timekeeper was the pendulum clock.

 

From clocks that lost a minimum of 15 minutes a day to one that ultimately lost less than .01 minutes a day was a huge jump in accuracy.

 

Still more accurate ... and the clocks that are most popular today ... were the quartz clocks.

 

They came around in the 1920's and are still heavy in the market today because of their accuracy and their price ... which is low as they are not expensive to manufacture.

 

It is the atomic clock that is getting a hand in the market today ... by far the most accurate of all the clocks to date.

 

In the past ... a second was always determined by the movements of the earth.

 

The atomic clock has determined the second to be exactly 9,192,631,770 oscillations of the atom cesium's frequency ... the element upon which standard atomic time is based.

 

So ... from a time when there was no seemly reason to mark time ... to a time when every second of every day is marked with precision ... with transactions in life dependent on that marking of seconds ... the clock has evolved into being the one bit of technology the whole world depends on infinitely ... from second to second to second.

 

Browsing through vintage clocks is a reminder of times when perhaps the intensity of life was less and we would all have had more time to smell the roses ... and just listen to those seconds tick by.