Who Invented The Clock ?
The etymology of The Clock
Origin of the word Clock
Horology
Historians do not know who or when mankind "invented" a time-keeping device or "clock".
Probably thousands of years ago when someone stuck a stick in the ground
and saw the shadow of the sun move across the ground, known as a
Sundial.
In ancient Egypt
Water Clocks were used to keep time.
Candle Alarm Clock
Hourglass - Sandclock
Clock Parts - Weight Parts - Spring Parts
Clock Gear Train
Tuning Fork Clock
Clock Wheels
Verg - Foliot - Balance
Pendulum with Escape Gear
The civil day in ancient cultures
was made up of
WATCHES. The length of the
Watch varied with the season, and were called seasonal or temporal hours.
The word CLOCK came into use in the
14th century AD.
The science or art of measuring time
or making timepieces
is known as HOROLOGY
The name CLOCK, which originally meant BELL, came into use when there were very large mechanical time indicators installed in bell towers
in the late Middle Ages.
These Clocks were not accurate.
The origin of the word Clock
Clokke = Middle English
Clocca = Medieval Latin
Cloc = Celtic and Old Irish
Clugge = Old English
Glocka = Old High German
The word Bell has been used meaning to:
chime, cry out, sound off, clamor
Why do the hands of our
clock rotate clockwise ??
The first mechanical clocks with hands were built to imitate the path of
a sundial shadow. In the northern hemisphere, where sundials were in use for centuries,
the shadow moves in a west to north to east rotation, which is what we call clockwise.
How We Keep Time
Our clock and calendar measure the movement of the Sun, the Moon and the Stars as seen from Earth. That's how mankind keeps time and how we became timekeepers.
A day comes from the rotation of the earth on its axis, which takes about 24 hours, and the time of day comes from the Sun appearing to travel across the sky at about 15 degrees every hour.
The cycles of the Moon's phases is used to measure a Month. The moon takes 29.5 days to return to the same point in the sky, as referenced to the Sun, this is called a synodic month. There are about 7 lunar phases as observed from the Earth.
One year is the time taken for Earth to complete one orbit around the Sun relative to the stars, and is called a sidereal year. However, we measure a year to be the period between two successive spring equinoxes known as the Vernal Equinox and is on or about March 21, and this period is called a tropical year. The tropical year is about 20 minutes shorter than the sidereal year.
•How fast is the Earth spinning?
about 1040 miles/hr - 1670 km/hr - 0.5 km/sec
•How fast is the Earth revolving around the Sun?
about 18.5 miles/sec - 30 km/sec - 30 km/sec
•How fast is the Earth,
along with the Solar System
moving around the Milky Way Galaxy?
about 155 miles/sec - 250 km/sec
•How fast is our Milky Way Galaxy moving through space?
about 185 miles/sec - 300 km/sec
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Comments & Awards
For the History of the Clock
Go Here
History of Time Keeping and the Clock
Water, Clepsydras, Sand, Bell Ringing
Candle, Sun Dial, Hour Glass, Mechanical,
Electronic, Quartz, Atomic Clocks, Space Clocks
