Sundial information for children. Who invented time

The history of watch creation is several thousand years old. Since ancient times, man has tried to measure time, first by day and night luminaries and stars, then with the help of primitive devices and, finally, using modern high-precision complex mechanisms, electronics and even nuclear physics.

The history of watch development is a continuous improvement in the accuracy of time measurement. It is authentically known that in ancient Egypt time was measured in days, dividing it into two periods of 12 hours. There is also evidence that the modern sexagesimal measurement model came from the Kingdom of Sumer around 2000 BC.

Sundial.

It is generally accepted that the history of clock creation begins with the invention of the sundial or the gnomon. With such watches it was possible to measure only daytime, since the principle of their operation was based on the dependence of the location and length of the shadow on the position of the sun.

Water clock.

The history of the creation of water clocks begins in ancient Persia and China around 2500 - 1600 BC. And from there, quite likely with trade caravans, water clocks were brought to Egypt and Greece.

Fire watch.

Fire clocks were used about 3000 years ago in China, during the time of the first emperor of this country named Fo-hi. Fire watches were common in Japan and Persia.

Hourglass.

The creation of the hourglass dates back to around the 3rd century BC during the time of the scientist Archimedes. Ancient Greece has long been considered the place of their invention, but some archaeological finds suggest that the first hourglasses were created by the inhabitants of the Middle East.

Mechanical watches.

The history of the creation of the first mechanical watch begins in 725 AD in China and is a significant event in the history of watch development. Although, even earlier, presumably in the 2nd century BC in Ancient Greece, a mechanism was created that allows tracking the positions of celestial bodies with great accuracy. This mechanism consisted of 30 gears placed in a wooden case, on the front and back sides of which there were dials with arrows. This ancient mechanical calendar can be defined as the prototype of the first mechanical clock.

Electric clock.

With the discovery of electricity, the history of the electric clock, invented in the middle of the 19th century, begins. The creation and further development of electric clocks put an end to the inconvenience of synchronizing time in different parts of the world.

In 1847, the world was presented with an electric clock developed by the Englishman A. Bain, which was based on the following principle: a pendulum swinging by means of an electromagnet periodically closed the contact, and an electromagnetic counter, which was connected by a system of gears to the clock hands, read and summed up the number of oscillations.

Atomic clock.

In 1955, the history of watch development took a sharp turn. Briton Louis Essen announced the creation of the first atomic clock on cesium-133. They had unparalleled precision. The error was one second per million years. The device began to be considered a cesium frequency standard. The standard of atomic clocks has become the world standard of time.

Digital Watch.

The beginning of the 70s of the 20th century is the starting point for the history of the creation and development of electronic watches that show time not with hands, but with the help of LEDs, which, although invented in the mid-20s, found practical application only decades later.

The history of sundial already has more than one millennium, but when exactly people began to use them is not known for certain. It has been established that in ancient Egypt, Babylon and China, such devices were used earlier than a thousand years BC. The first mention of determining the time by the sun's rays using a special device dates back to 1306-1290. BC.

Any sundial has a dial with a scale and an hour hand called a gnomon. At the same time, according to their orientation, sundials are divided into horizontal, vertical and equatorial. There are many modifications of them, such as stepped, ring, plate, mirror, bifilar and others.

A sundial is not necessarily a disk having a perpendicular gnomon. So, the dial can be a hemisphere or a ring. The universal equatorial clock can be used at all latitudes. Their design involves two rings perpendicular to each other and a gnomon. To determine the time, you must set the latitude on the scale on one of the rings and set the date. Then the clock is rotated around a vertical axis until a point showing the time appears on the dial. At this moment, one ring is oriented north along the meridian, and the second is parallel to the plane of the equator.

In a horizontal sundial, the plane of the dial is not perpendicular to the gnomon, which should be parallel to the earth's axis, and also point to the north, that is, the angle between them is equal to the latitude of the area. The horizontal clock is convenient and easy to install. To use them at a different latitude, it is enough to change the angle and direct the gnomon to the north.

In ancient Egypt, different models of sundials were constructed, for example, with a horizontal scale that made an angle of 90 degrees with the plane of the local meridian, and their gnomons were obelisks, the height of which usually reached several meters. In order to find out the time from them, the direction indicated by the shadow from the gnomon was used. Another sundial, called "step", had two surfaces, tilted to the east and west, and divided into levels. When the sun moved, the shadow moved from one step to another, and time was determined by its length.

In Central Europe, until the 15th century, wall-mounted vertical sundials, the gnomon of which was horizontal, were widely used. True, the accuracy of determining the time on them was low.

At the same time, there were several variants of road chronometers, for example, ring sundials. They were two rings, in one of which there was a hole for the passage of the sun's ray, and the scales of months and hours were applied to the other. There were also plate clocks, the constructive solution of which included two, sometimes three, identical plates, which had a rectangular shape and were fastened together, while a compass was installed on the bottom.

There is a description of medieval octagonal sticks with four through holes in the handles, into which metal rods had to be inserted to determine the time. Around the same time, window chronometers appeared. They were vertical. The principle of operation of the sundial was to use the window of the town hall or temple as a dial with a translucent scale applied. This made it possible to find out the time while being indoors. A mirrored sundial used a sunbeam reflected by a mirror, which they directed onto the wall of the building where the dial was located.

Photo 1 - tower clock in Zimmer, Belgium

When did mechanical watches appear?

Photo 2 - vintage mechanical clock

The first mention of the timing mechanism was found in a Byzantine manuscript of the end of the 6th century. In China, in the 8th century, mechanical designs were invented to increase the accuracy of the clock. In Europe, the first mechanical clock appeared in the 9th century in France.

How a mechanical watch works

Photo 3 - On the right - the devices of the first clock mechanisms with a pendulum. On the left is a diagram of the operation of a wooden shaft from the energy of a moving load.

Clockwork mechanisms of antiquity worked on the principle of uniform rotation of a wooden shaft, on which a gear wheel was mounted and a rope with a load was wound. The rope fell under the weight of the load, the teeth of the shaft wheel, coupled with the gear wheel, set the dial hands in motion.

Large mechanical clock.

Photo 4 - the oldest tower clock in Europe - Big Ben is located on the tower of the Palace of Westminster in London.

The energy of a weight moving downwards was the basis of the first tower clocks. The number of teeth on the wheels was calculated so that a full circle of the hour wheel measured one hour of time. A necessary condition for the operation of the mechanism was the continuous lifting of the load up after the rope was unwound.

Photo 5 - tower clock installed in a palace in Paris.

This is how the tower clock of the royal palace in Paris was arranged in 1370. The design of the watchmaker de Wit had a total height of more than 10 m. The rope with a 200 kg weight was lowered evenly, measuring 24 hours.

Photo 6 - Dutch physicist Huygens with the design of the clockwork.

The discovery of the law of constancy of the oscillation of the pendulum by the scientist Galileo Galilei in the 16th century was useful for improving the clock mechanism. In 1657, the Dutch physicist Huygens first used the pendulum as a regulator of clock accuracy. He managed to reduce the clock error to 10 seconds.

Photo 7 - tower clock on the Old Town Square in Prague.

Photo 8 - a fragment of the Old Town Clock.

The clock tower on the Old Town Square in Prague is still in operation. The masterpiece of Czech masters impresses with a theatrical performance every hour. Twelve apostles emerge from two windows above the dial. The figures of Death and people come into action, clearly showing the vanity of being and the fatal inevitability of life's end. The fight of the clock ends with the cock crow and the final blessing of the figure of Christ.

Photo 9 - Congressional hours Washington.

The transition to a wrist watch as a symbol of the owner's wealth occurred in 1500.

Photo 10 - old German pocket watch 1503.

In Germany, a spring pendulum was invented from a hardened steel, flexible tape.

Photo 11 - Rolling Ball Clock, 1808. Instead of a pendulum, the English master William Congreve used a ball rolling along the grooves of a plane. Reaching the end, the ball outweighs the platform and moves in the opposite direction.

The result was a revolutionary change in designs, a wide range of functional properties of watches.

Photo 12 - watch by master Thomas Tompion, 1690.

The English watchmaker Thomas Tompion, according to the drawings of Robert Hooke, made a new generation of watches for King Charles II.

Photo 13 - pocket watch.

The 17th century brought a new round of watchmaking improvement.

A breakthrough in watchmaking in the 17th century was the use of a spiral balancer. This increased the accuracy of the watch, opened up the possibility of combining the hour, minute, second hands on one dial. Significantly reduced the size of the mechanism. Easy-to-use pocket watches appeared.

Photo 14 - wrist watch - bracelet. Austria, 19th century.

The idea to adapt them to the hand came to the master Pierre Jacques Droz in 1790. He attached the case to a leather strap, solving two problems at once:

• quick time determination the clock was now in sight;
• original addition to the owner's costume.

Photo 15 - watch by master Louis Breguet commissioned by the Queen of Naples. 1810

In 1810, watchmaker Louis Breguet made a miniature ornate wristwatch for the Queen of Naples.

Wristwatches appeared in 1911 as an adornment and a purely feminine accessory.

Men drew attention to this accessory thanks to the Brazilian balloonist Alberto Santos-Dumont.

Photo 16 - Cartier's first men's watch from the Santos series.

In 1901, Louis Cartier created the "Santos" model for him. And the recognition and mass “introduction” into the everyday life of gentlemen received watches after the First World War.

Mechanical watches - gifts

Mechanical watches quickly gained popularity among European royal houses.

They became desirable offerings, an object of admiration, they fascinated by the diminutiveness of the mechanism, stunning functionality, and originality of jewelry.

The unique Peacock watch by James Cox was bought by Potemkin as a gift to Empress Catherine II.

Photo 17 - watch "Peacock" by master James Cox

Every hour a whole performance was played out, which began with the “awakening” of an owl. She continuously moved her head, paws, rolled her eyes to the melodic ringing of bells. The royal peacock tilted its head and spread its tail, symbolizing the rays of the sun. The bird slowly turned around its axis. From this angle, the silver surface of the feathers was the night. The ceremony ended with the crowing of a rooster.

Photo 18 - an hour disk with numbers turned in the slot of the mushroom cap

And the time was counted by the numbers on the slots of the cap of the largest mushroom. Here is such a surprise.

A meter high mantel clock was made in the workshop of the famous jeweler Carl Faberge, dating back to 1891.

Photo 19 - mantel clock by jeweler Carl Faberge, 1891.

This stunning gift from members of the royal family was commissioned for the twenty-fifth wedding anniversary of Emperor Alexander III.

The pocket watch was presented to the singer Fyodor Chaliapin by Emperor Nicholas II.

Photo 20 - pocket watch - a gift from Emperor Nicholas II.

The most unusual in the world are the watches of Russian craftsmen.

Photo 21 - a clock with a wooden mechanism craftsmen from the Bronnikov dynasty.

Absolutely unique watches with a wooden mechanism made by Russian craftsmen from the Bronnikov dynasty cause delight. Each element of the structure is made of different types of wood. The hands and dial are carved from mahogany or boxwood, the axles are made from bamboo, the case and gears are made from birch. The watch has no analogues in the world.

The first primitive concepts for measuring time (day, morning, day, noon, evening, night) were subconsciously suggested to ancient people by the regular change of seasons, the change of day and night, the movement of the Sun and Moon across the firmament. As time went. Methods for measuring time gradually improved. For a long period, people made do with the calendar measurement of time, counting the number of elapsed or coming days. Primitive devices for counting time were a strap with knots and a board with notches. By making a notch every day, a person could count the number of days that had passed; by untying a knot every day, it was possible to determine the number of days left before any expected event.

Since ancient times, the change of day and night (day) served as a unit of measurement for relatively small intervals of time. The position of the Sun in the sky was used as the hour hand by which people determined the time in the daytime. It was the movement of the sun that formed the basis of the sundial, which appeared about 5.5 thousand years ago. The principle of operation of a sundial is based on the movement of the shadow cast by a fixed landmark during the day.

A sundial consists of a pointer that casts a shadow and plays the role of an arrow, as well as a dial with divisions printed on it, indicating the hours of the day. Moving the arrow-shadow, reflecting the daily rotation of the Earth, allows you to determine the time.

Sundial - "Gnomon"

A sundial is the simplest device for counting time; it is customary to call them by the ancient Greek name - Gnomon.

By such a clock it was possible to determine the time to the nearest hour. Of course, such watches could only be used during daylight hours. The first gnomons were complex architectural structures in the form of high obelisks, covered by a semicircle of stone pillars, which were a landmark for determining the time. Then the sundial became more perfect, decreased in size, received a dashed scale. Even pocket sundials were known. Many of the first watches served a long time and faithfully to a person, but new, more convenient models appeared. The main drawback of the sundial was its absolute uselessness on a cloudy day or at night. Attempts to measure nighttime led to the creation of fire clocks.

Fire (fire) clocks measured time by the amount of oil burned in a lamp, or wax in a candle. The prevalence of fiery clocks was so great that a candle became the unit of measurement of time. To the question: - "What time is it?" the answer followed: - "Two candles"; which corresponded to about three o'clock in the morning, since the whole night was divided into three candles. Such clocks were cheap and convenient, but inaccurate. It was during these years that the alarm clock was first invented. Of course it was fiery. The disadvantage of such watches was the unprofitability of their use in the daytime, and in addition, the accuracy of their readings was low due to the different burnout rates of oil and wax for different lamps and candles.

Water clock - "Clepsydra"

Sun and fire clocks were replaced by water clocks 2500 years ago. They were more accurate and perfect. This watch worked reliably both day and night. Their device was simple: a vessel with a hole in the bottom and divisions on the walls, which can be used to monitor the fall in the water level. The vessel was made, as a rule, of metal, clay or glass, filled with water, which slowly, drop by drop, flowed out, lowering the water level, and the divisions on the vessel determined the hour.

Water clocks quickly became popular. They were used both at home and in the army, government offices, and schools. They were at hippodromes, stadiums and judicial offices.

The water clock was called "Clepsydra", which in Greek means "Snatcher." It is the clepsydra that we owe the appearance of the expression - "The passage of time."

In the richest trading city of Egypt - Alexandria, clepsydra received the greatest development. It was in Alexandria that the world's first watch workshops were opened that produced a variety of clepsydras. The production of clepsydra was carried out by artisans, who were called masters of automatic water clocks. Most clepsydras were complex automatic devices, equipped with signaling mechanisms and various moving figures that produced various movements at a certain hour. From that moment on, interest in water clocks intensified, as the clock began to carry an entertaining function. The Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) developed the technical and cultural traditions of antiquity, and automatic water clocks decorated many rooms of the imperial palace in Constantinople.

The hourglass consists of two communicating vessels fixed in a wooden frame. The work of an hourglass is based on pouring accurately calibrated river sand from one vessel to another through a narrow hole, into one grain of sand at regular intervals, the principle of operation is identical to a water clock, but not water but sand runs from vessel to vessel.

The halves of the glass vessel had the shape of a bowl and were intended to measure small periods of time. Such watches could measure various periods of time from 15 minutes to several hours, depending on the capacity of the vessels and the size of the opening between them. The disadvantage of these clocks is the need to turn the hourglass after pouring sand from the upper vessel into the lower one.

tower clock

Mechanical clocks, reminiscent of modern ones, appeared in the 14th century.

These were huge heavy mechanisms of tower clocks, which were powered by a weight suspended on a rope to the drive shaft of the mechanism. The regulator of this watch was the so-called spindle, which is a yoke with heavy loads, mounted on a vertical axis and driven alternately to the right, then to the left rotation. The inertia of the weights had a braking effect on the clock mechanism, slowing down the rotation of its wheels. The accuracy of such watches with a spindle regulator was low, and the daily error exceeded 60 minutes.

For the further improvement of the clock, the discovery of the laws of pendulum oscillation made by Galileo, who came up with the idea of ​​​​creating a mechanical pendulum clock, was of great importance. The real design of such clocks appeared in 1658 thanks to the talented Dutch inventor and scientist Christian Huygens (1629-1695). He also invented the balance regulator, which made it possible to create pocket and wrist watches. Moreover, the principal design scheme of which has been preserved in modern watches almost unchanged.

The first pocket watch appeared in 1500 after the invention of the mainspring by the famous Nuremberg watchmaker Peter Henlein, but these first pocket watches had a spindle regulator and were of poor accuracy. It was only after the invention of balance that the pocket watch turned from a fashionable, expensive and useless toy into an accurate and functional item.

The seventeenth century was the century of the rapid development of watchmaking. Since the invention of the helical balancer spring, the torsion pendulum has completely replaced the conventional pendulum in wearable watches. After the introduction of a horizontal escapement, the accuracy of the wearable watch increased significantly, which led to the need to add minute and later second hands to the mechanism.

Since its inception, pocket watches have become a luxury item, and their design is sophisticated. Cases were made in the form of animals and various geometric figures, and enamel began to be used to decorate the dial. It was at that time that the dial of a pocket watch was covered with glass for the first time.

With the development of science, the clock mechanism became more complicated, and the accuracy of the movement increased. Thus, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, ruby ​​and sapphire bearings were first used for the balance wheel and gears, which made it possible to increase accuracy and power reserve and reduce friction. Gradually, pocket watches were supplemented with more and more complex devices and some samples had a perpetual calendar, automatic winding, an independent stopwatch, a thermometer, a power reserve indicator, a minute repeater, and the work of the mechanism made it possible to see the back cover made of rock crystal.

The invention of A. Breguet tourbillon is still considered the greatest achievement in the watch industry. By rotating the oscillatory system of the watch with it, it is possible to compensate for the effect of gravity on the accuracy of the movement. Creating quality watches has become an art.

Watches continue to amaze and delight their owners with unique qualities and functions, as well as original design. Any person today can not only know the time to the nearest second, but also decorate his wardrobe with a magnificent copy of famous watch companies.

A watch today is not only a device necessary to determine the time of day, but also a sign of prestige and dignity, a style that has a symbolic meaning. Watches have long ceased to fulfill their main function, indicating the time - they defend the right to aesthetic appeal and personal respect.

p.s. But this is just a small part of the history of development and the history of inventions of time devices. .

The most complex and interesting mechanism created in the Middle Ages was the mechanical clock. Who invented the mechanical watch? There are sources claiming that such watches first appeared in Western Europe. And yet, the first mechanical watch was invented in China and created by a monk, and now let's talk about everything in order.

In 723, the Buddhist monk and mathematician Yi Xing designed a clock mechanism, which he called "a spherical map of the sky from a bird's eye view", driven by water. Water was a source of energy, but the movement was regulated by mechanisms. These watches had a kind of escapement that delayed the rotation of the water wheel until each of its buckets was filled to the top in turn, and then allowed it to turn at a certain angle, and this is how the history of mechanical watches began.

Invention of the mechanical clock in Europe

It is difficult to say when mechanical watches were invented in Europe. In the XIII century. they, at any rate, they already existed. Dante, for example, mentions a chiming wheel clock. It is known that in 1288 a tower clock was installed in London's Westminster. They had one hand, which marked only the hours (minutes were not measured then). There was no pendulum in them, and the move was not accurate.

Tower wheel clocks were not only time meters, but often represented a true work of art, being the pride of cathedrals and cities. For example, the tower clock of the Strasbourg Cathedral (1354) showed the moon, the sun, parts of the day and hours, celebrated the holidays of the church calendar, Easter and related days. At noon, three wise men bowed before the figure of the Mother of God, and the rooster crowed and beat its wings. A special mechanism set in motion small cymbals that struck the time. Only the rooster has remained from the Strasbourg clock to the present day.

Mechanical clock in the Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, time was not accurately measured in practice. It was divided into approximate periods - morning, noon, evening - without clear boundaries between them. The French king Louis IX (1214-1270) measured the elapsed time at night by the length of a constantly shortening candle.

The only place where they tried to streamline the counting of time was the church. She divided the day not according to natural phenomena (morning, evening, etc.), but in accordance with the cycle of worship, which is repeated daily. The countdown began with matins (towards the end of the night), and with dawn the first hour was celebrated and then sequentially: the third hour (in the morning), the sixth (at noon), the ninth (afternoon) in the evening and the so-called “final hour” - the time when the daily worship. But the names of the services marked not only time intervals, but the beginning of certain stages of daily worship, which fell on different “physical” times in different seasons.

The church countdown was pushed back in the XIV century, when the tower clock with a fight began to be erected on city buildings. It is interesting that in 1355 the inhabitants of a French town were given permission to build a city bell tower so that its bells would not chime the church clock, but the time of commercial transactions and the work of cloth makers.

In the XIV century. people begin to diligently count the time. Striking mechanical clocks became widespread, and with them the idea of ​​dividing the day into 24 equal hours firmly entered the consciousness. Later, in the 15th century, a new concept was introduced - the minute.

In 1450, spring clocks were invented, and by the end of the 15th century. portable watches came into use, but still too large to be called pocket or manual. In Russia, tower clocks appeared in 1404 and in the 15th-16th centuries. spread throughout the country.