Time piece inventors throughout recorded history have had one common objective.They have all tried to accurately measure time so that people could use it better. They have constructed a number of time measurement mechanisms.. Among them are sundials, stone structures like Stonehenge, pocket watches, and various clocks.
From the time that ancient Egyptians realized the dog star, now known as Sirius rose next to the sun every 365 days, they devised a calendar based on that annual arrival, which included the flooding of the Nile River. That was 4236 BC and is the first recorded year in history. From this many old clocks were developed to count the number of hours and days, as well as the lunar activity and rising and falling tides. Most of these old clocks were nothing more than sticks with holes in them that were manually advanced as the sun progressed through the sky.
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.
Old Alarm Clocks Came Preset
The first mechanical alarm clock was developed in 1787 in New Hampshire but had one major glitch. The bell on the alarm could only go off at four in the morning. It was not until 1876 that old clocks with an adjustable alarm were developed. The patent was held by Seth Thomas and is the basic for many mechanical alarms used 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.
Since many of the old clocks were operated by weights, the size was such that portability was a problem. Grandfather clocks became one of the most widely used type of old clocks followed by a smaller version that could fit on the mantle of a home’s fireplace or tabletop. The sizes and shapes of clocks have gone through many changes over the centuries with the only thing remaining constant is the human’s fascination with time.
