Clocks are so important in our lives because the Universe is not static it is dynamic! We live our lives over a period of time because the Universe is a continuum of continuous energy exchange. This process forms the ever changing world of our everyday life!
Top 10 greatest inventions of ancient China. The mechanical clock is an invention we all use today. According to historical research, the world's first clock was invented by Yi Xing, a Buddhist monk and mathematician of the Tang Dynasty (618-907).
The measurement of time began with the invention of sundials in ancient Egypt some time prior to 1500 B.C. However, the time the Egyptians measured was not the same as the time today's clocks measure. For the Egyptians, and indeed for a further three millennia, the basic unit of time was the period of daylight.
Like mechanical clocks, they tolled the hours and displayed the planets. What makes a mechanical clock is a mechanism called an escapement -- the balance wheel on a watch or the pendulum on a grandfather's clock. An escapement ticks in a steady rhythm and lets the gears move forward in a series of little equal jumps.
Technology developed to include some moving parts, increasing accuracy. Around the 14th century in Italy, large clock towers appeared that held the first mechanized clocks. The result of this invention was a new regulation in the daily life of society. A person's day could be measured from start to finish.
One of the greatest inventions of the medieval world was the mechanical clock, developed in China. An iron and bronze system of wheels, shafts, hooks, pins, locks, and interconnected rods made the clock work. This system caused the automatic chiming of a bell on the hour and the beating of a drum every quarter hour.
The first mechanical clocks were invented in Europe around the start of the 14th century and were the standard timekeeping device until the pendulum clock was invented in 1656.
Mechanical clocks are wound with a key, and this tightens the mainspring. As the mainspring unwinds, its energy turns gears which cause the hands to move. The pendulum keeps time and ensures that the gears move at the right pace: second by second.
Mechanical clocks/watches that make a ticking sound normally do so because they have an escapement mechanism to help regulate the movements of the hands, that is, to keep time well. Clocks/watches that use electronics (such as a quartz crystal) to keep time don't need an escapement so they don't need to tick.
A quartz clock is a clock that uses an electronic oscillator that is regulated by a quartz crystal to keep time. This crystal oscillator creates a signal with very precise frequency, so that quartz clocks are at least an order of magnitude more accurate than mechanical clocks.
As it swings from side to side, it rocks a lever called an escapement that locks and then unlocks the part of the mechanism driven by the falling weight. Since (in theory, at least) a pendulum of a certain length always takes the same amount of time to swing back and forth, the pendulum is what keeps the clock to time.
This clock (like most table clocks and wrist watches) uses an oscillating wheel in place of a pendulum. There are four gears between the main spring and the escapement wheel. The fourth gear's shaft drives the second hand. There is the escapement wheel, the anchor and the oscillating wheel and spring.
Unlike their digital and quartz counterparts, mechanical clocks don't depend on a battery to keep time. Instead, they harness the energy stored in a wound spring. The escapement regulates the release of stored energy into a predictable curve, which translates into the motion of the hands around the dial.
A pendulum works by converting energy back and forth, a bit like a rollercoaster ride. If there were no friction or drag (air resistance), a pendulum would keep on moving forever. In reality, each swing sees friction and drag steal a bit more energy from the pendulum and it gradually comes to a halt.
The idea behind the weight is to act as an energy storage device so that the clock can run for relatively long periods of time unattended. When you "wind" a weight-driven clock, you pull on a cord that lifts the weight. That gives the weight "potential energy" in the Earth's gravitational field.
The Chinese discovered and made extensive use of deep drilled groundwater for drinking. The Chinese text The Book of Changes, originally a divination text of the Western Zhou dynasty (1046 -771 BC), contains an entry describing how the ancient Chinese maintained their wells and protected their sources of water.
One of the earliest of all devices to tell time was the sundial. The sundial is looked on as being a form of sun-powered clock. There was another more advanced shadow clock or sundial in use by the ancient Egyptians around 1500 BC. This shadow clock or sundial permitted one to measure the passage of hours within a day.
Because the 'first clock' was the sun, and it was here long before mankind. When the sun is directly overhead, that's midday, or noon. People could easily determine this time using shadow sticks.
The clock is actually the basis of so much technology it tells us the time and we live by it every moment and was once and will be the greatest invention of mankind. Then there was also an invention of Alarm clock which would make a loud sound on a specified time to wake the sleeper.
Invention of Mechanical Clock
Pope Sylvester II built a clock for a German town in 996 and it is considered one of the oldest clocks.
