All Topics  
Water clock

 
Water Clock

   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link






 

Water clock



 
 
A water clock or clepsydra (Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 kleptein, to steal; hydro, water) is any timekeeper operated by means of a regulated flow of liquid into (inflow type) or out from (outflow type) a vessel where the amount is then measured.

Water clocks, along with sundials, are likely to be the oldest time-measuring instruments, with the only exceptions being the vertical gnomon
Gnomon

The gnomon is the part of a sundial that casts the shadow. Gnomon is an ancient Greek word meaning "indicator", "one who discerns," or "that which reveals."...
 and the day-counting tally stick.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Water clock'
Start a new discussion about 'Water clock'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


A water clock or clepsydra (Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 kleptein, to steal; hydro, water) is any timekeeper operated by means of a regulated flow of liquid into (inflow type) or out from (outflow type) a vessel where the amount is then measured.

Water clocks, along with sundials, are likely to be the oldest time-measuring instruments, with the only exceptions being the vertical gnomon
Gnomon

The gnomon is the part of a sundial that casts the shadow. Gnomon is an ancient Greek word meaning "indicator", "one who discerns," or "that which reveals."...
 and the day-counting tally stick. Given their great antiquity, where and when they first existed are not known and may be unknowable. The bowl-shaped outflow is the simplest form of a water clock and is known to have existed in Babylon
Babylon

Babylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, sometimes considered an empire, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad....
 and in Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
 around the 16th century BC. Other regions of the world, including India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
 and China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, also have early evidence of water clocks, but the earliest dates are less certain. Some authors, however, write about water clocks appearing in China as early as 4000 BC.

The Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 and Roman
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
 civilizations are credited for initially advancing water clock design to include the inflow clepsydra with the earliest feedback system and complex gearing, which was connected to fanciful automata
Automata

Automata may refer to* Automata theory, in theoretical computer science, the study of abstract machines* The plural form of Automaton, a self-operating machine....
 and also resulted in improved accuracy. These advances were passed on through Byzantium
Byzantium

Byzantium was an Ancient Greece city, which was founded by Greeks colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas or Byzantas ....
 and Islamic times, eventually making their way to Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
. Independently, the Chinese developed their own advanced water clocks, passing their ideas on to Korea
Korea

Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries, a civilization, and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia....
 and Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
.

Some water clock designs were developed independently and some knowledge was transferred through the spread of trade. It is important to point out that the need for the common person to 'know what time it is' largely did not exist until the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, production, and transportation had a profound effect on the socioeconomics and cultural conditions in United Kingdom....
, when it became important to keep track of hours worked. In the earliest of times, however, the water
Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
 clock
Clock

A clock is an instrument used for indicating and maintaining the time and passage thereof. The word clock is derived ultimately from the Celtic languages words clagan and clocca meaning "bell"....
s were mainly used for astronomical and astrological purposes. These early water clocks were calibrated with a sundial
Sundial

A sundial is a device that measures time by the position of the Sun. In common designs such as the horizontal sundial, the sun casts a shadow from its style onto a flat surface marked with lines indicating the hours of the day....
. Through the centuries, water clocks were used for timing lawyer
Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an Attorney at law, counsel or solicitor; a person licensed to practice fraud." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain stability, and deliver justice....
's speeches during a trial, labors of prostitutes, night watches of guards, sermons and Masses in church, to name only a few. While never reaching a level of accuracy comparable to today's standards of timekeeping, the water clock was the most accurate and commonly used timekeeping device for millennia, until it was replaced by more accurate pendulum clock
Pendulum clock

A pendulum clock is a clock that uses a pendulum, a swinging weight, as its timekeeping element. From its invention in 1656 by Christiaan Huygens until the 1930s, the pendulum clock was the world's most accurate timekeeper, accounting for its widespread use....
s in 18th century Europe.

Egypt

The oldest water clock of which there is physical evidence dates to c. 1417-1379 BC, during the reign of Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III

Amenhotep III was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1391 BC-December 1353 BC or June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC after his father Thutmose IV died....
 where it was used in the Temple of Amen-Re at Karnak. The oldest documentation of the water clock is the tomb inscription of the 16th century BC Egyptian court official Amenemhet, which identifies him as its inventor. These simple water clocks, which were of the outflow type, were stone vessels with sloping sides that allowed water to drip at a nearly constant rate from a small hole near the bottom. There were twelve separate columns with consistently spaced markings on the inside to measure the passage of "hours" as the water level reached them. The columns were for each of the twelve month
Month

The month is a unit of time, used with calendars, which is approximately as long as some natural Orbital period related to the motion of the Moon; month and Moon are cognates....
s to allow for the variations of the seasonal hours. These clocks were used by priests to determine the time at night so that the temple rites and sacrifices could be performed at the correct hour. These clocks may have been used in daylight as well.

Babylon

In Babylon, water clocks were of the outflow type and were cylindrical in shape. Use of the water clock as an aid to astronomical calculations dates back to the Old Babylonian period (c. 2000 BC–c. 1600 BC).

While there are no surviving water clocks from the Mesopotamian region, most evidence of their existence comes from writings on clay tablets. Two collections of tablets, for example, are the Enuma-Anu-Enlil (1600–1200 BC) and the MUL.APIN
MUL.APIN

MUL.APIN is a general compendium that deals with many diverse aspects of Babylonian astrology. The text lists the names of 66 stars and constellations and further gives a number of indications, such as rising, setting and culmination dates, that help to map out the basic structure of the Babylonian star map....
 (7th century BC). In these tablets, water clocks are used in reference to payment of the night and day watches (guards).

These clocks were unique, as they did not have an indicator such as hands (as are typically used today) or grooved notches (as were used in Egypt). Instead, these clocks measured time "by the weight of water flowing from" it. The volume was measured in capacity units called qa. The weight, mana (the Greek unit for about one pound), is the weight of water in a water clock.

It is important to note that during Babylonian times, time was measured with temporal hours. So, as seasons changed, so did the length of a day. "To define the length of a 'night watch' at the summer solstice, one had to pour two mana of water into a cylindrical clepsydra; its emptying indicated the end of the watch. One-sixth of a mana had to be added each succeeding half-month. At equinox, three mana had to be emptied in order to correspond to one watch, and four mana were emptied for each watch of the winter solstitial night."

India

N. Kameswara Rao suggests that pots excavated from Mohenjodaro might have been used as water clocks; they are tapered at the bottom, have a hole on the side, and are similar to the utensil used to perform abhishekam (pour holy water) on shivalingam.

N. Narahari Achar and Subhash Kak
Subhash Kak

Subhash Kak is an Indian American computer scientist.He has published material related to cryptography and quantum information. He is notable for publications outside of his field, from an India-centric "Indigenous Aryans" ideology, including history of science and philosophy of science, History of astronomy, and history of mathematics....
 suggest that the use of the water clock in ancient India
Ancient India

Ancient India may refer to:*The ancient History of India, which generally includes the ancient history of the whole Indian subcontinent ...
 is mentioned in the Atharvaveda
Atharvaveda

The Atharvaveda is a sacred text of Hinduism, and one of the four Vedas, often called the "fourth Veda".According to tradition, the Atharvaveda was mainly composed by two groups of rishis known as the Atharvanas and the Angirasa, hence its oldest name is ....
 from the 2nd millennium BC.

Ghati or Kapala (clepsydra or water clock) is referred to in Jyotisha
Jyotisha

is the Hindu system of astrology .Traditionally, it has three branches:* 'Siddhanta': , which is traditional Indian astronomy.* 'Samhita': also known as Medini Jyotisha , predicting important events based on analysis of astrological dynamics in a country's horoscope or general transit events such as war, earthquakes, poli...
 Vedanga
Vedanga

The Vedanga are six auxiliary disciplines for the understanding and tradition of the Vedas.#Shiksha : phonetics and phonology #Chandas : Meter ...
, where the amount of water that measures a nadika (24 minutes) is mentioned. A more developed form of the clepsydra is described in chapter xiii, 23 of the Suryasiddhanta.

At Nalanda
Nalanda

Nalanda is the name of an ancient university in Bihar, India.The site of Nalanda is located in the States and territories of India of Bihar, about 55 miles south east of Patna, and was a Buddhism center of learning from 427 to 1197 CE....
, a Buddhist university, four hours a day and four hours at night were measured by a water clock, which consisted of a copper bowl holding two large floats in a larger bowl filled with water. The bowl was filled with water from a small hole at its bottom; it sank when completely filled and was marked by the beating of a drum at daytime. The amount of water added varied with the seasons and this clock was operated by the students of the university.

The description of a water clock in astrologer Varahimira's Pancasiddhantika (505) adds further detail to the account given in the Suryasiddhanta. The description given by mathematician Brahmagupta
Brahmagupta

Brahmagupta was an Indian Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy....
 in his work Brahmasphutasiddhanta matches with that given in the Suryasiddhanta. Astronomer Lallacharya describes this instrument in detail. In practice, the dimensions were determined by experiment.

China


In China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, as well as throughout eastern Asia, water clocks were very important in the study of astronomy
Astronomy

Astronomy is the science of Astronomical object and Phenomenon that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere . It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the physical cosmology....
 and astrology
Astrology

Astrology is a group of systems, traditions, and beliefs which hold that the relative positions of astronomical object and related details can provide useful information about personality, human affairs, and other terrestrial matters....
. The oldest reference dates the use of the water-clock in China to the 6th century BC. From about 200 BC onwards, the outflow clepsydra was replaced almost everywhere in China by the inflow type with an indicator-rod borne on a float.

Huan Tan (40 BC–AD 30), a Secretary at the Court in charge of clepsydrae, wrote that he had to compare clepsydras with sundials because of how temperature and humidity affected their accuracy, demonstrating that the effects of evaporation, as well as of temperature on the speed at which water flows, were known at this time. In 976, Zhang Sixun
Zhang Sixun

Zhang Sixun was a Chinese astronomer and military engineer from Bazhong during the early Song Dynasty . He is credited with creating an armillary sphere for his astronomical clock tower that employed the use of liquid mercury ....
 addressed the problem of the water in clepsydrae freezing in cold weather by using liquid mercury instead. Again, instead of using water, the early Ming Dynasty
Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty , or Empire of the Great Ming , was the ruling Dynasties in Chinese history of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty....
 engineer Zhan Xiyuan (c. 1360-1380) created a sand-driven wheel clock, improved upon by Zhou Shuxue (c. 1530-1558).

The use of clepsydrae to drive mechanisms illustrating astronomical phenomena
Armillary sphere

An armillary sphere is a model of the celestial sphere....
 began with Zhang Heng
Zhang Heng

Zhang Heng was an Chinese astronomy, Chinese mathematics, List of Chinese inventions, Chinese geography, History of cartography#China, Chinese art, Chinese poetry, Government of the Han Dynasty, and Chinese literature from Nanyang, Henan, Henan, and lived during the Eastern Han Dynasty of China....
 (78-139) in 117, who also employed a waterwheel. Zhang Heng was the first in China to add an extra compensating tank between the reservoir and the inflow vessel, which solved the problem of the falling pressure head
Pressure head

Pressure head is a term used in fluid mechanics to represent the internal energy of a fluid due to the pressure exerted on its container. It may also be called static pressure head or simply static head ....
 in the reservoir tank. Zhang's ingenuity led to the invention by Yi Xing
Yi Xing

Yi Xing , born Zhang Sui , was a China astronomer, mathematician, mechanical engineering, and Buddhist monk of the Tang Dynasty . His astronomical celestial globe was the first to feature a clockwork escapement mechanism, the first in a long tradition of Chinese astronomical clock....
 (683–727) and Liang Lingzan in 725 of a clock driven by a waterwheel linkwork escapement
Escapement

In mechanical watches and clocks, an escapement is a device which converts continuous rotational motion into an Oscillatory or back and forth motion....
 mechanism. The same mechanism would be used by Su Song
Su Song

Su Song was a renowned Chinese people Scholar-bureaucrat, Chinese astronomy, History of cartography#China, horology, Traditional Chinese medicine, mineralogy, zoology, botany, mechanics and Chinese architecture, Chinese poetry, antiquarian, and Foreign relations of Imperial China of the Song Dynasty ....
 (1020-1101) in 1088 to power his astronomical clock
Astronomical clock

An astronomical clock is a clock with special mechanisms and dials to display astronomical information, such as the relative positions of the sun, moon, zodiacal constellations, and sometimes major planets....
 tower, as well as a chain drive
Chain drive

Chain drive is a way of transmitting mechanical power from one place to another. It is often used to convey power to the wheels of a vehicle, particularly bicycles and motorcycles....
. Su Song's clock tower, over 30 feet tall, possessed a bronze
Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive, but sometimes with other chemical element such as phosphorus, manganese, aluminium, or silicon....
 power-driven armillary sphere for observations, an automatically rotating celestial globe, and five front panels with doors that permitted the viewing of changing manikins which rang bells or gongs, and held tablets indicating the hour or other special times of the day.

Today, in Beijing
Beijing

is a metropolis in northern China and the Capital of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the four municipality of China, which are equivalent to province in China's Political divisions of China....
's Drum Tower an outflow clepsydra is operational and displayed for tourists. It is connected to automata so that every quarter-hour a small brass statue of a man claps his cymbals.

Greco-Roman world


In Greece
Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
, a water clock was known as a clepsydra (water thief). The Greeks considerably advanced the water clock by tackling the problem of the diminishing flow. They introduced several types of the inflow clepsydra, one of which included the earliest feedback control system. Ctesibius
Ctesibius

Ctesibius or Ktesibios or Tesibius was a Ancient Greece inventor and mathematician in Alexandria, Ptolemaic Egypt. He wrote the first treatises on the science of compressed air and its uses in pumps ....
 invented indicator system typical for later clocks such as the dial and pointer. The Roman
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
 engineer Vitruv described early alarm clocks, working with gongs or trumpets.

A commonly used water clock was the simple outflow clepsydra. This small earthenware vessel had a hole in its side near the base. In both Greek and Roman times, this type of clepsydra was used in courts for allocating periods of time to speakers. In important cases, when a person's life was at stake for example, it was filled. But, for more minor cases, it was only partially filled. If proceedings were interrupted for any reason, such as to examine documents, the hole in the clepsydra was stopped with wax until the speaker was able to resume his pleading.

In the 4th century BC, the clepsydra is known to have been used as stop-watch for imposing a time limit on clients' visits in Athenian
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
 brothels. Slightly later, in the early 3rd century BC, the Hellenistic physician Herophilos employed a portable clepsydra on his house visits in Alexandria
Alexandria

Alexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports....
 for measuring his patients' pulse-beats. By comparing the rate by age group with empirically obtained data sets, he was able to determine the intensity of the disorder.

Between 270 BC and 500 AD, Hellenistic
Hellenistic civilization

File:Diadochen1.pngHellenistic civilization represents the zenith of Ancient Greece influence in the Classical Antiquity from 323 BC to about 146 BC ....
 (Ctesibius
Ctesibius

Ctesibius or Ktesibios or Tesibius was a Ancient Greece inventor and mathematician in Alexandria, Ptolemaic Egypt. He wrote the first treatises on the science of compressed air and its uses in pumps ....
, Hero of Alexandria
Hero of Alexandria

Hero of Alexandria . was an ancient Greek mathematics who was a resident of a Roman province ; he was also an engineer who was active in his hometown of Alexandria....
, Archimedes
Archimedes

Archimedes of Syracuse was a Greek mathematics, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity....
) and Roman
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
 horologists
Horology

Horology is the art or science of measuring time. Clocks, watches, clockwork, Sundial, Clepsydra , Timer, Time recorder and marine chronometers are all examples of Measuring instruments used to measure time....
 and astronomer
Astronomer

An astronomer is a scientist who studies Celestial body such as planets, stars, and Galaxy.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using physical laws....
s were developing more elaborate mechanized water clocks. The added complexity was aimed at regulating the flow and at providing fancier displays of the passage of time. For example, some water clocks rang bell
Bell (instrument)

A bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually an open-ended hollow drum which resonates upon being struck....
s and gong
Gong

A gong is an East Asia and South East Asian musical instrument that takes the form of a flat metal disc which is hit with a mallet.Gongs are broadly of three types....
s, while others opened doors and windows to show figurines of people, or moved pointers, and dials. Some even displayed astrological
Astrology

Astrology is a group of systems, traditions, and beliefs which hold that the relative positions of astronomical object and related details can provide useful information about personality, human affairs, and other terrestrial matters....
 models of the universe.

The biggest achievement of the invention of clepsydrae during this time, however, was by Ctesibius with his incorporation of gears and a dial indicator to automatically show the time as the lengths of the days changed throughout the year, because of the temporal timekeeping used during his day.

Also, a Greek astronomer, Andronicus of Cyrrhus
Andronicus of Cyrrhus

Andronicus of Cyrrhus or Andronicus Cyrrhestes,son of Hermias, was a Greece astronomer who flourished about 100 BC.He built a horologium at Athens, the so-called Tower of the Winds, a considerable portion of which still exists....
, supervised the construction of his Horologion, known today as the Tower of the Winds
Tower of the Winds

The Tower of the Winds, also called horologion , is an octagonal Pentelic marble clocktower on the Ancient Rome agora in Athens. The structure features a combination of sundials, a water clock and a wind vane....
, in the Athens
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
 marketplace (or Agora
Agora

The Agora was an open "place of assembly" in ancient Ancient Greece city-states. Early in Greek history , free-born male land-owners who were citizens would gather in the agora for military duty or to hear statements of the ruling king or council....
) in the first half of the 1st century BC. This octagon
Octagon

In geometry, an octagon is a polygon that has 8 sides. A regular octagon is represented by the Schl?fli symbol ....
al clocktower showed scholars and shoppers both sundial
Sundial

A sundial is a device that measures time by the position of the Sun. In common designs such as the horizontal sundial, the sun casts a shadow from its style onto a flat surface marked with lines indicating the hours of the day....
s and mechanical hour indicators. It featured a 24-hour
Hour

The hour is a unit of time. It is not an SI unit but is Non-SI units accepted for use with SI....
 mechanized clepsydra and indicators for the eight winds from which the tower got its name, and it displayed the season
Season

A season is one of the major divisions of the year, generally based on yearly periodic changes in weather.Seasons result from the yearly revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the Axial tilt....
s of the year and astrological dates and periods.

Korea

Korean Waterclock
In Korea
Korea

Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries, a civilization, and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia....
, timekeeping was both a royal duty and a royal prerogative from its Korean Three Kingdom Period
Three Kingdoms of Korea

The Three Kingdoms of Korea refer to the ancient Korean empire of Goguryeo, and kingdom of Baekje and Silla, which dominated the Korean peninsula and parts of Manchuria for much of the 1st millennium CE....
 (c. 37 BC) onwards. In 1434 during the Choson (or Joseon
Joseon

Joseon, Choson, or Chosun are English spellings of the Korean word for North Korea, during various periods of its history :*Gojoseon, the first Korean kingdom(legend period founded by Chinese Adherents or Displaced persons), from 2333 BC to 108 BC....
) Dynasty, Chang Yongsil (or Jang Young Sil), Palace Guard and later Chief Court Engineer, constructed the Chagyongnu (self-striking water clock or striking clepsydra) for King Sejong. What made the Chagyongnu self-striking (or automatic) was the use of jack-work mechanisms, by which three wooden figures (jacks) struck objects to signal the time. This innovation no longer required the reliance of human workers, known as "rooster men", to constantly replenish it. By 554, the water clock spread from Korea to Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
. Water clocks were used and improved upon throughout Asia well into the 15th century.

Islamic and Arabic water clocks


In the medieval Islamic world
Islamic Golden Age

The Islamic Golden Age, also sometimes known as the Islamic Renaissance, was traditionally dated from the 700 A.D. to 1200 A.D.Common Era, but has been extended to the 15th and 16th centuries by some scholars....
 (632-1280), the use of water clocks has its roots from Archimedes during the rise of Alexandria
Alexandria

Alexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports....
 in Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
 and continues on through Byzantium
Byzantium

Byzantium was an Ancient Greece city, which was founded by Greeks colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas or Byzantas ....
. The water clocks by Al-Jazari
Al-Jazari

Abu al-'Iz Ibn Isma'il ibn al-Razaz al-Jazari was an important Arab Ulema, Inventions in the Muslim world, Timeline of Muslim scientists and engineers, Artisan, Islamic art and Islamic astronomy from Al-Jazira, Mesopotamia who lived during the Islamic Golden Age ....
, however, are credited for going "well beyond anything" that had preceded them.

In al-Jazari's 1206 treatise, he describes one of his water clocks, the elephant clock
Elephant clock

The elephant clock was a Inventions in the Muslim world by al-Jazari , consisting of a weight powered water clock in the form of an elephant. The various elements of the clock are in the housing on top of the elephant....
. The clock recorded the passage of temporal hours, which meant that the rate of flow had to be changed daily to match the uneven length of days throughout the year. To accomplish this, the clock had two tanks, the top tank was connected to the time indicating mechanisms and the bottom was connected to the flow control regulator
Regulator (automatic control)

In automatic control, a regulator is a device which has the function of maintaining a designated characteristic. It performs the activity of managing or maintaining a range of values in a machine....
. Basically, at daybreak the tap was opened and water flowed from the top tank to the bottom tank via a float regulator that maintained a constant pressure in the receiving tank.

The most sophisticated water-powered astronomical clock
Astronomical clock

An astronomical clock is a clock with special mechanisms and dials to display astronomical information, such as the relative positions of the sun, moon, zodiacal constellations, and sometimes major planets....
 was Al-Jazari
Al-Jazari

Abu al-'Iz Ibn Isma'il ibn al-Razaz al-Jazari was an important Arab Ulema, Inventions in the Muslim world, Timeline of Muslim scientists and engineers, Artisan, Islamic art and Islamic astronomy from Al-Jazira, Mesopotamia who lived during the Islamic Golden Age ....
's castle clock, considered to be an early example of a programmable analog computer
Analog computer

An analog computer is a form of computer that uses continuous physical phenomena such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities to model the problem being solved....
, in 1206. It was a complex device that was about 11 feet high, and had multiple functions alongside timekeeping. It included a display of the zodiac
Zodiac

Zodiac denotes an annual cycle of twelve stations along the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the heavens through the constellations that divide the ecliptic into twelve equal zones of celestial longitude....
 and the solar and lunar orbits, and a pointer in the shape of the crescent moon which traveled across the top of a gateway, moved by a hidden cart and causing automatic doors
Gate operator

A gate operator is a mechanical device used to open and close a gate, such as one at the end of a driveway....
 to open, each revealing a mannequin, every hour. It was possible to re-program the length of day and night everyday in order to account for the changing lengths of day and night throughout the year, and it also featured five robotic musicians who automatically play music when moved by levers operated by a hidden camshaft attached to a water wheel. Other components of the castle clock included a main reservoir with a float, a float chamber and flow regulator, plate and valve trough, two pulleys, crescent disc displaying the zodiac, and two falcon automata
Automaton

An automaton is a self-operating machine. The word is sometimes used to describe a robot, more specifically an autonomous robot....
 dropping balls into vases.

The first geared water clock of the Islamic period was invented earlier by the 11th-century Arab
Arab

An Arab is a person who Identity as such on linguistic or cultural grounds. The plural form, Arabs , refers to the Ethnocultural group at large....
 engineer Ibn Khalaf al-Muradi in Islamic Iberia
Al-Andalus

Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to the parts of the Iberian Peninsula governed by Arab Muslims, at various times in the period between 711 and 1492....
; it was a water clock that employed both segmental and epicyclic gearing
Epicyclic gearing

Epicyclic gearing or planetary gearing is a gear system that consists of one or more outer gears, or planet gears, revolving about a central, or sun gear....
. Comparable water clocks were built in Damascus
Damascus

Damascus is the capital and largest city of Syria. It is List of oldest continuously inhabited cities and its current population is estimated at about 4,000,000....
 and Fez
Fez

Fez may refer to:*Fez , a brimless felt hat, once widespread in the Ottoman Empire*Fes, Morocco , a city in Morocco*The IATA code of Sa?ss Airport in Fes, Morocco...
. The latter (Dar al-Magana
Dar al-Magana

Dar al-Magana is a house in Fes built by the Marinid Sultan Abu Inan Faris which holds a weight powered water clock. Responsible for the building of the clock was the muwaqqit Abou al-Hassan Ibn Ali Ahmed Tlemsani....
) remains until today. Its mechanism has been reconstructed. The first European clock to employ these complex gears was the astronomical clock created by Giovanni de Dondi in circa 1365. Like the Chinese, Arab engineers at the time also developed an escapement
Escapement

In mechanical watches and clocks, an escapement is a device which converts continuous rotational motion into an Oscillatory or back and forth motion....
 mechanism which they employed in some of their water clocks. The escapement mechanism was in the form of a constant-head system, while heavy floats were used as weights.

Modern water clock designs

Modern Water Clock
Today, few water clocks exist. In 1979, French scientist Bernard Gitton began creating his Time-Flow Clocks, which are a modern-day approach to water clocks. His unique glasstube design can be found in over 30 locations throughout the world, including the water clock at the The Children's Museum of Indianapolis
The Children's Museum of Indianapolis

The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, the world's largest children's museum, is located in the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, United States....
 in Indianapolis, Indiana
Indiana

The State of Indiana was the 19th U.S. state admitted into the union. It is located in the Midwestern United States of the United States of America....
, and the Shopping Iguatemi in Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre

Porto Alegre is the 10th most populous municipality in Brazil, 4th largest Metropolitan Area in the country, and the capital city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul....
, Brazil
Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the List of countries by population country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world....
. Also, there are some other modern designs of water clocks, including the Royal Gorge
Royal Gorge

The Royal Gorge is a canyon on the Arkansas River near Ca?on City, Colorado, Colorado. With a width of at its base and a few hundred feet at its top, and a depth of in places, the 10-mile-long canyon is a narrow, steep gorge through the granite of Fremont Peak....
 water clock in Colorado
Colorado

The State of Colorado is a U.S. state located in the Mountain States of the United States of America. Colorado may also be considered to be a part of the Western United States and Southwestern United States regions of the United States....
 and the Woodgrove Mall in Nanaimo, British Columbia
British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's Provinces and territories of Canada and is famed for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu ....
. Today overall, the use of water flow to power a clock is a rarely practiced and forgotten art, where its purpose has become more for show and novelty than for functional accuracy.

Bibliography

Overview of water clocks and other time instruments
  • Barnett, Jo Ellen. Time's Pendulum: From Sundials to Atomic Clocks, the Fascinating History of Timekeeping and How Our Discoveries Changed the World. Plenum Press, NY, 1998. ISBN 0-15-600649-9
  • Bruton, Eric. The History of Clocks and Watches. 1979. ISBN 0-8478-0261-2
  • K. Higgins, D. Miner, C.N. Smith, D.B. Sullivan (2004), A Walk Through Time (version 1.2.1). [Online] Available: http://physics.nist.gov/time [2005, December 8]. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD.
  • Jespersen, James and Fitz-Randolph, Jane. "From Sundials to Atomic Clocks: Understanding Time and Frequency." Second Revised Edition, 1999. ISBN 0-486-40913-9
  • King, David A. “Towards a History from Antiquity to the Renaissance of Sundials and Other Instruments for Reckoning Time by the Sun and Stars.” Annals of Science, Taylor & Francis. V. 61, Num. 3. July 2004. pp. 375-388. DOI: 10.1080/00033790310001642795.
  • Landes, D
    David Landes

    David S. Landes is a professor emeritus of economics at Harvard University and retired professor of history at George Washington University. He is the author of Revolution in Time, The Unbound Prometheus, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, and Dynasties ....
    . Revolution in Time. Harvard University Press (1983).
  • McNown, J.S. “When Time Flowed: The Story of the Clepsydra.” La Houille Blanche, 5, 1976, 347-353. ISSN 0018-6368
  • Milham, Willis I. Time & Timekeepers including The History, Construction, Care, and Accuracy of Clocks and Watches. The Macmillan Company, NY 1945.
  • Rees, Abraham
    Abraham Rees

    Abraham Rees , compiler of Rees's Cyclopaedia , born in Llanbrynmair, Montgomeryshire; became a tutor at Hoxton Academy, and subsequently ministered in the Unitarianism Chapel at Old Jewry for some 40 years....
    . “Rees's Clocks, Watches, and Chronometers 1819-20.” Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc. 1970.
  • Richards, E.G. "Mapping Time: The Calendar and Its History." Oxford University Press, 1998.
  • Toulmin, Stephen & Goodhead, J. The Discovery of Time. University of Chicago Press, 1999. ISBN 0-226-80842-4


Arabic & Islamic water clocks
  • Hill, Donald Routledge (ed. & trans.) (1976). Archimedes “On the Construction of Water-Clocks,” Turner & Devereux, Paris.
  • Hill, Donald Routledge. “Studies in Medieval Islamic Technology: From Philo to Al-Jazari - from Alexandria to Diyar Bakr.” (Collected Studies Series, 555)
  • King, D. Mikat. “Astronomical Timekeeping.” The Encyclopaedia of Islam. 7, Brill, (1990) Reprinted as Chapter V in King, D. “Astronomy in the Service of Islam Variorum.” (1993)


Babylonian water clocks
  • Englund, R.K. "." Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, V. XXXI, 31 (1988) 121-185.
  • Fermor, John, & Steele, John M. “The design of Babylonian waterclocks: Astronomical and experimental evidence.” Centaurus. International Journal of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology. Vol. 42 Issue 3, pp. 210-222. July 2000. Blackwell Publishing.
  • Høyrup, J., “.” Archiv für Orientforschung, 44/45 (1997/98), 192-194 (*).
  • Michel-Nozières, C. “Second Millennium Babylonian Water Clocks: a physical study.” Centaurus, Vol. 42, Issue 3, pp. 180-209. July 2000.
. JSTOR link. Reprinted in Neugebauer (1983), pp. 239-245 (*).
  • Price, Derek deSolla
    Derek J. de Solla Price

    Derek John de Solla Price was a physics, history of science, and information science,credited as the father of scientometrics....
    . Science Since Babylon. Yale University Press, New Haven 1976.
  • Teresi, Dick. "Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science - from the Babylonians to the Maya." Simon & Schuster, NY 2002.
  • van der Waerden, Bartel Leendert, “Babylonian Astronomy: III. The Earliest Astronomical Computations.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 10 (1951), 20-34 JSTOR link.


Chinese water clocks
  • Lorch, Richard P. "Al-Khazini's Balance-clock and the Chinese Steelyard Clepsydra." Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences, June 1981, 31: 183-189.
  • Needham, J
    Joseph Needham

    Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham, Companion of Honour, Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the British Academy , also known as Li Yuese , was a British academic and sinologist known for his research and writing on the history of Science and technology in China....
    ., Ling, W., and de Solla Price, D.J. "Heavenly Clockwork: The Great Astronomical Clocks of Medieval China." 2nd Edition. 1986. ISBN 0-521-32276-6.
  • Quan, He Jun. “Research on scale and precision of the water clock in ancient China.” History of Oriental Astronomy, pp. 57-61. (Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union Colloquium No. 91 held in New Delhi, November 13-16, 1985). Edited by G. Swarup, A. K. Bag and K. S. Shukla. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987. ISBN 0-521-34659-2.
  • Walsh, Jennifer Robin. “Ancient Chinese Astronomical Technologies.” American Physical Society, Northwest Section. May, 2004. Meeting, 21-22 May, 2004. Pullman, WA.


Egyptian water clocks
  • Clagett, Marshall. Ancient Egyptian Science, Volume II: Calendars, Clocks, and Astronomy. 1995. pp. 457-462. ISBN 0-87169-214-7
  • Cotterell, B., Dickson, F.P., and Kamminga, J. “Ancient Egyptian Water-clocks: A Reappraisal.” Journal of Archaeological Science. Vol. 13, pp. 31-50. 1986.
  • Cotterell, Brian and Kamminga, Johan. “Mechanics of pre-industrial technology.” Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 1990.
  • Fermor, John, “Timing the Sun in Egypt and Mesopotamia.” Vistas in Astronomy, 41 (1997), pp. 157-167. Elsevier Science. DOI: 10.1016/S0083-6656(96)00069-4.
  • Neugebauer, Otto & Parker, Richard A. “Egyptian Astronomical Texts: Iii. Decans, Planets, Constellations, and Zodiacs.”
  • Pogo, Alexander. “Egyptian water clocks”, Isis, vol. 25, pp. 403-425, 1936. Reprinted in Philosophers and Machines, O. Mayr, editor, Science History Publications, 1976. ISSN 0021-1753
  • Sloley, R.W., "Ancient Clepsydrae", Ancient Egypt, 1924, pp. 43-50.
  • Sloley, R.W., "Primitive methods of measuring time", JEA 17, 1931, pp. 174-176.


European water clocks
  • Bedini, S.A. "The Compartmented Cylindrical Clepsydra." Technology and Culture 3(2):115-141. 1962. ISSN 0040-165X
  • Drover, C.B. "A Medieval Monastic Water Clock", Antiquarian Horology, Vol. I, No. 5 (1954), pp. 54-58.
  • Hill, Donald Routledge. "A History of Engineering in Classical and Medieval Times." La Salle, Ill., Open Court Pub. 1996. ISBN 0-415-15291-7
  • Hill, D.R. "The Toledo Water-Clocks of c.1075." History of Technology, vol.16, 1994, pp. 62-71
  • Scattergood, John. "Writing the clock: the reconstruction of time in the late Middle Ages." European Review, Issue 4 (Oct, 2003), 11: pp. 453-474 Cambridge University Press (School of English, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland. jscatter@tcd.ie)


Greek and Alexandrian water clocks
  • Hill, D.R. (ed. & trans.) (1976). Archimedes “On the Construction of Water-Clocks,” Turner & Devereux, Paris.
  • Lepschy, Antonio M. "Feedback Control in Ancient Water and Mechanical Clocks." IEEE Transactions on Education, Vol. 35, No. 1, February, 1992.
  • Noble, J.V. & de Solla Price, D. J. “The Water clock in the Tower of the Winds.” American Journal of Archaeology, 72, 1968, pp. 345-355.
  • Woodcroft, Bennet (translator). "The Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria." London, Taylor Walton and Maberly, 1851.
  • Vitruvius, P., The Ten Books on Architecture. (M.H. Morgan, translator) New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1960.


Indian water clocks
  • Achar, N. “On the Vedic origin of the ancient mathematical astronomy of India.” Journal of Studies on Ancient India, vol 1, 95-108, 1998.
  • Fleet, J. F., “The ancient Indian water clock.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 213-230, 1915.
  • Kumar, Narendra "Science in Ancient India" (2004). ISBN 8126120568.
  • Pingree, D. “The Mesopotamian origin of early Indian mathematical astronomy.” Journal of the History of Astronomy, vol. 4, 1-12, 1973.
  • Pingree, D. “The recovery of early Greek astronomy from India.” Journal for the History of Astronomy, vol 7, 109-123, 1976.


Japanese water clocks
  • Kiyoyasu, Maruyma. "Hoken shakai to gijutsu - wadokei ni shuyaku sareta hoken gijutsu." Kagakushi kenkyu, Sept. 1954, 31:16-22.


Korean water clocks
  • Hahn, Young-Ho and Nam, Moon-Hyon. "Reconstruction of the Armillary Spheres of Mid-Chosun: The Armillary Clocks of Yi Minchol." Hanguk Kwahaksa Hakhoeji (Journal of the Korean History of Science Society)19.1 (1997): 3-19. (in Korean)
  • Hahn, Young-Ho, et al. "Astronomical Clocks of Chosun Dynasty: King Sejong's Heumgyonggaknu. Kisulgwa Yoksa (Journal of the Korean Society for the History of Technology and Industry) 1.1 (2000): 99-140. (in Korean).
  • Hong, Sungook "Book Review: Korean Water-Clocks: "Chagyongnu", the Striking Clepsydra, and the History of Control and Instrumentation Engineering." Technology and Culture - Volume 39, Number 3, July 1998, pp. 553-555
  • Nam, Moon-Hyon. “Chagyongnu: The Automatic Striking Water clock.” Korea Journal, 30.7 (1990): 9-21.
  • Nam, Moon-Hyon. Korean Water Clocks: Jagyongnu, The Striking Clepsydra and The History of Control and Instrumentation Engineering. Seoul: Konkuk University Press, 1995. (in Korean)
  • Nam, Moon-Hyon. On the BORUGAKGI of Kim Don -- Principles and Structures of JAYEONGNU. Hanguksa Yeongu (Studies on Korean History),101 (1998): 75-114 (in Korean)
  • Nam, Moon-Hyon. Jang Yeong-Shil and Jagyeongnu - Reconstruction of Time Measuring History of Choseon Period. Seoul National University Press, 2002. (in Korean)
  • Nam, Moon-Hyon and Jeon San-Woon. “Timekeeping Systems of Early Choson Dynasty.” Proceedings of First International Conference on Oriental Astronomy, From Guo Shoujing to King Sejong, Seoul, October 6-11, 1993, Seoul, Yonsei University Press, 1997. 305-324.
  • Needham, Joseph, Major, John S., & Gwei-Djen, Lu. “Hall of Heavenly Records: Korean Astronomical Instruments and Clocks, 1380-1780.” Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1986. ISBN 0-521-30368-0
  • Hyeonjong Shillock (Veritable Records of King Hyeonjong), 1669
  • Jungjong Shillok (Veritable Records of King Jungjong), 1536.
  • Sejong Shillock (Veritable Records of King Sejong), Chapter. 65, A.D. 1434 and Chapter. 80, A.D. 1438.


Mesopotamian water clocks
  • Brown, David R., Fermor, John, & Walker, Christopher B.F., “The Water Clock in Mesopotamia.” Archiv für Orientforschung, 46/47 (1999/2000)
  • Chadwick, R. “The Origins of Astronomy and Astrology in Mesopotamia.” Archaeoastronomy. BULL. CTR ARCH. V. 7:1-4, P. 89, 1984. KNUDSEN Bibliographic Code: 1984BuCAr...7...89C
  • Fermor, John, “Timing the Sun in Egypt and Mesopotamia.” Vistas in Astronomy, 41 (1997), 157-167. Elsevier Science. DOI: 10.1016/S0083-6656(96)00069-4.
  • Walker, Christopher and Britton, John. “Astronomy and Astrology in Mesopotamia.” BMP, 1996 (especially pp. 42-67)


Present-day water clocks
  • Gitton, Bernard. “Time, like an everflowing stream.” Trans. Mlle. Annie Chadeyron. Ed. Anthony Randall. Horological Journal 131.12 (June 1989): 18-20.
  • Taylor, Robert. "". Sinorama Magazine. 3-15-2006
  • Xuan, Gao. "Principle Research and Reconstruction Experiment of the Astronomical Clock Tower in Ancient China." Proceeding of the 11th World Congress in Mechanism and machine Science. August 18-21, 2003. Tianjin, China.


Other topics on water clocks and related material
  • Goodenow, J., Orr, R., & Ross, D. "." Rochester Institute of Technology
  • Landels, John G. "Water-Clocks and Time Measurement in Classical Antiquity." Endeavour 3(1):32-37. 1979. ISSN 0160-9327
  • Mills, A.A. “.” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London. 37(1):35-61. 1982. ISSN 0035-9149
  • Neugebauer, Otto. The Exact Sciences in Antiquity. Dover Publications, NY 1969.
  • Sarma, S.R., “Setting up the Water Clock for Telling the Time of Marriage.” in Studies in the History of the Exact Sciences in Honour of David Pingree, éd. Ch. Burnett, J.P. Hogendijk, K. Plofker, M. Yano, Leiden-Boston, 2004, pp. 302-330.
  • Snell, Daniel. “Life in the Ancient Near East, 3100-332 B.C.E.” ISBN 0-300-07666-5.


Non-English resources
  • Bilfinger, Gustav, Die babylonische Doppelstunde: Eine chronologische Untersuchung (Wildt, Stuttgart, 1888).
  • Borchardt, Ludwig. 1920. “Die Altägyptische Zeitmessung.” (Old Egyptian time measurement). Berlin/Leipzig.
  • Daressy, G., "Deux clepsydres antiques", BIE, serie 5, 9, 1915, pages 5-16
  • Ginzel, Friedrich Karl
    Friedrich Karl Ginzel

    Friedrich Karl Ginzel was an Austrian astronomer. From 1877 Ginzel worked at the observatory in Vienna. In 1886 he became a member of the K?niglichen Astronomischen Recheninstituts in Berlin, where he was offered a professorship in 1899....
    , “Die Wassermessungen der Babylonier und das Sexagesimalsystem”, Klio: Beiträge zur alten Geschichte, 16 (1920), 234-241.
  • Planchon, "L'Heure Par Les Clepsydres." La Nature. pp.55-59.
  • Thureau-Dangin, François, “La clepsydre chez les Babyloniens [Notes assyriologiques LXIX]”, Revue d’assyriologie et d’archéologie orientale, 29 (1932), 133-136.
  • Thureau-Dangin, François, “Clepsydre babylonienne et clepsydre égyptienne”, Revue d’assyriologie et d’archéologie orientale, 30 (1933), 51-52.
  • Thureau-Dangin, François, “Le clepsydre babylonienne”, Revue d’assyriologie et d’archéologie orientale, 34 (1937), 144.


See also

  • Armillary Sphere
    Armillary sphere

    An armillary sphere is a model of the celestial sphere....
  • Astrolabe
    Astrolabe

    astrolabe is a historical astronomical Measuring instrument used by classical astronomy, navigators, and astrologers. Its many uses included locating and predicting the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets and stars; determining local time given local latitude and vice-versa; surveying; and triangulation....
  • Elephant clock
    Elephant clock

    The elephant clock was a Inventions in the Muslim world by al-Jazari , consisting of a weight powered water clock in the form of an elephant. The various elements of the clock are in the housing on top of the elephant....
  • Dar al-Magana
    Dar al-Magana

    Dar al-Magana is a house in Fes built by the Marinid Sultan Abu Inan Faris which holds a weight powered water clock. Responsible for the building of the clock was the muwaqqit Abou al-Hassan Ibn Ali Ahmed Tlemsani....
  • Gnomon
    Gnomon

    The gnomon is the part of a sundial that casts the shadow. Gnomon is an ancient Greek word meaning "indicator", "one who discerns," or "that which reveals."...
  • Hydrochronometer
    Hydrochronometer

    A Hydrochronometer is a Water clock.In 1867 Fr. Giovan Battista Embriaco created a Hydrochronometer, and sent it to the Paris Universal Expo of 1867, where it received many prizes....
  • Hourglass
    Hourglass

    An hourglass, also known as a sandglass, sand timer, sand clock or egg timer, is a device for the measurement of time. It consists of two glass bulbs placed one above the other which are connected by a narrow tube....


External links