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Tick Tock
by Hackchen Zahlen
http://www.filmclock.com
Essentially there are two main elements in a clock that
keep it ticking. One element is a regular movement at
definite intervals that measures the passage of time; and
the other is the manifestation of that movement. Every
clock has a way of measuring the passage of time and
showing it.
The idea of making clocks originated in the ancient
civilizations spread across the Middle East and North
Africa. Their aim was to make the maximum use of time so
that they could plan and organize their work, their
meetings and other events. This refers to the time when
only monthly and annual calendars were used to keep track
of time. It was the Egyptians who devised a system that
divided the day into parts. This device was made up of
obelisks, the four-sided pointed columns. Placed in
specific spots they projected shadows as the sun moved. By
observing and tracing the shadows the Egyptians were able
to identify the sections of the day. Thus they
distinguished between the morning and the afternoon.
A few years down the line saw the development of a portable
sundial by the Egyptians. Using the sundial, a sunny day
could be divided into 10 parts, and two twilight hours in
the morning and evening. Calculation of the afternoon hours
required the sundial to be turned by 180 degrees. Merkhet
was another time-keeping tool that was used to calculate
night hours. Besides these, several other timekeeping
devices were also developed, in which no celestial body
needed to be observed. Water clock was one such device.
It was made up of stone containers, whose slanting slides
permitted the water to drop at a constant pace from a small
opening in the base.
Water clocks led to sand glasses, which were popular in the
3rd century. They had two spherical glass containers,
connected to each other by a narrow hole. Sundials were
common in the Middle Ages. Much later pocket sundials were
developed in the 10th century. The spring-powered clock was
developed by Peter Henlein of Nuremberg in the first decade
of the 16th century. And it was in 1695 that the Dutch
scientist Christian Huggens manufactured the first pendulum
clock. It showed an error of one minute in twenty four
hours. George Graham improved upon this version and reduced
the error to one second only. Then came the quartz clocks
that were accurate and not so expensive to make because
they could be produced in large numbers. Subsequently the
atomic clocks that appeared in 1849, excelled all other
types of clocks.
These days one can find various types of clocks in the
market, including electric, atomic, digitals, alarm clocks,
and wrist clocks. The credit of developing the wrist clock
goes to the Swedish clockmaker Hans Wildorf. The need to
keep track of time has become more of a necessity in modern
times, and any discrepancy in the same can attract huge
losses. Such dependence on the accuracy of time calls for
the production of super accurate clocks.
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