Clocks and Ways to Measure the Time Through History

The word clock was used for the first time in the 14^th century, and derives from the Latin word for bell, "cloche". Ways to measure the time has however been used a long time before this, and I'll give a brief description in this article.

Looking at the sun to know what time it is, is a method that's been around for as long as people have walked this planet. It's pretty simple to tell the time; when the sun is positioned right overhead on the sky its noon. When the sun is close to the horizon it's either sunrise or sunset depending on if it's east or west. The times in between you have to use a feeling for to tell, but it's not very accurate.

About 5.500 years ago people created what's called a sun clock, or a sundial clock. It's a circular disk with numbers, and a metal bar on it, and when it's put outside in the right position you can use the shadow from the metal bar to tell the time. These clocks are still popular to have in the garden or outside, and are pretty accurate as long as the sun is up.

A little later the Egyptians invented the water clock. It contains two containers of water, with marks to tell the water level. As water passes from one container through a tube to the other, you can look at the marks to tell the time. The Greek took this several steps up, creating a stick with notches that would turn gears as the water level rose and thereby moving a hand that would point to the time. More information and pictures can be seen here.

The minute hand was created in 1577, tells about.com. Jost Burgi was the inventor, and originally created it for Tycho Brahe, an astronomer who needed an accurate clock for watching the stars. Then a few decades later Christian Hygens created the pendulum in 1656, after Galileo Galilei's designs. The pendulum clock has a pendulum that swings left and right, each time turning a wheel. This made clocks more accurate and trustworthy than ever before. Huygens later developed the balance wheel and spring assembly, for use in wrist watches.

In the 1930s and 1940s clocks that used quartz crystals got more and more popular. When an electric field is applied to the crystal, it changes its shape. This means that when it's put in an electronic circuit, the crystal will vibrate so a constant frequency electric signal is generated and thereby making it possible to use it to operate an electronic clock display. Quartz clocks are inexpensive and accurate, and they have a large domination of the clock market today.