Watches are a constant attribute of modern life.To imagine our world without them is simply impossible. Think about it, what would happen if all the watches broke down at once or stopped going? Complete chaos. But how did it all begin? When they appeared, what kinds of them exist? This is what we'll talk about. This topic is very extensive, and we consider only the most basic.
Ancient times
The word "clock", according to the dictionary,the following: a device for measuring time within a day. Agree, a very good definition, because if the days can be counted on the sunsets and sunrises, how to recognize the periods more accurately? It was this that gave rest to our ancestors in antiquity, and they invented various devices for determining and measuring time. The very first was the water clock. This device was a vessel from which the fluid gradually flowed. The first mention of them are found, starting from 157 BC. er in ancient Rome. Later they were slightly modified, and a float with marks was added to them.
Hourglass is also widespread - they are familiar to everyone, and they are used to this day, but only as an object of interior, surroundings and fun trinkets.
Also widely used sundials.This device consisted of a circle lined up with a rod in the center, the sun's shadow of which indicated time. Invented them around 1306-1290. BC er There are many varieties of them, but they all act according to the principle described above - the change in the shadow due to the rotation of the Earth relative to the Sun.
A little later, in 725 AD, the first mechanical watches were made in China.
Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages, sand, water and otherexotic time-measuring devices replaced the pendulum and weights. These were large and bulky devices that not everyone could afford to keep at home, but in every major city they were installed on town halls and towers. For example, the first hours of this kind were located on the princely court of the Moscow Kremlin at the beginning of the 15th century.
The newest time
In the mid 1800s huge popularitygot a pocket mechanical watch. These were the first devices of this kind that you could carry with you and always know the exact time, and for a long time they were a status item. Then they were replaced by wrist watches - quartz and electronic. And the most reliable and accurate are atomic, in which time is determined by the half-life of radioactive elements. They are used on space satellites in the military and scientific industry.
