K-Base: The Ancient History of Clocks

Clocks can be found almost everywhere. We notice them at train stations, in hallways, in hospitals, in living rooms and in offices. Clocks are part of our everyday lives. We use them to regulate our activities in various ways such as when to board the bus or return home from work. But have you ever wondered how clocks came into existence at all?

What we know of today as clocks has a long history. This time telling device is one of the most astonishing inventions ever created by man because throughout the ages he had wondered how he will know when to do what. You will appreciate this concern if you look at the origin of the word clock. The word clock comes from the Latin word Clocca which means a bell. A bell tells people when to stop or start doing something. It announces time. So clocks were developed to regulate human activities.

We are so used to modern wall clocks that we forget about the early attempts of man to design a time telling device. It is widely accepted that man's first effort to tell the time was to determine the position of the sun. He used the movement of the sun across the sky to denote what time of day it was. So he came up with terms such as sunrise when the sun was on the eastern horizon, midday when it was overhead and sunset when it was on the western horizon but all of these denotations were not accurate. For example if the sun was positioned somewhere between midday and sunset, what time was it? These difficulties resulted in renewed efforts to find a more suitable way to tell the time.

The first concrete attempt at was what we would call a clock was the sundial and it was first used in 3500 BC. This was a simple piece of equipment that used the shadow of the sun to point to dials on a disk, and thus tell the time of the day.

So you see how far wall clocks have come? Shortcomings in previous concepts led to innovations that led us to the accurate clocks we see today.

Jim Slate wrote this article on behalf of PebbleZ - manufacturers and retailers of a line of unique wall clocks made from various types of natural stone. These stone materials are diverse and exotic, mountain born and imported from countries around the world.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jim_Slate

K-Base

วันจันทร์ที่ 3 พฤษภาคม พ.ศ. 2553

The Ancient History of Clocks

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