The first primitive concepts for measuring time (day, morning, day, noon, evening, night) were subconsciously suggested to ancient people by the regular change of seasons, the change of day and night, the movement of the Sun and Moon across the vault of heaven. As time went. Methods for measuring time gradually improved. For a long period, people made do with the calendar measurement of time, counting the number of elapsed or upcoming days. Primitive devices for keeping time were a strap with knots and a board with notches. By making a notch every day, a person could count the number of days that had passed; By untying a knot every day, it was possible to determine the number of days remaining before any expected event.
Since ancient times, the change of day and night (day) has served as a unit of measurement for relatively short intervals of time. The position of the Sun in the sky was used as the hour hand by which people determined the time during the day. It was the movement of the sun that formed the basis sundial, which appeared approximately 5.5 thousand years ago. The principle of operation of a sundial is based on the movement of the shadow cast by a fixed landmark during the day.
A sundial consists of a pointer that casts a shadow and plays the role of an arrow, as well as a dial with divisions marked on it indicating the hours of the day. Moving shadow arrow reflecting daily rotation Earth, allows you to determine time.
Sundial - "Gnomon"
Sundial is the simplest device for keeping time, they are usually called ancient Greek name- Gnomon.
With such a watch it was possible to determine the time to the nearest hour. Of course, such a watch could only be used during daylight hours. The first gnomons were complex architectural structures in the form of tall obelisks, surrounded by a semicircle of stone pillars, which were a guideline for determining time. Then the sundial became more advanced, decreased in size, and received a bar scale. Even pocket sundials were known. Many of the first watches served a long time and faithfully to man, but new, more convenient models appeared. The main disadvantage of sundials was their absolute uselessness on a cloudy day or at night. Attempts to measure night time led to the creation of fire clocks.
Fire (fire) clocks measured time by the amount of oil burned in a lamp, or wax in a candle. The prevalence of fire clocks was so great that the candle became the unit of time measurement. To the question: - “What time is it?” followed by the answer: “Two candles”; which corresponded to approximately three o'clock in the morning, since the whole night was divided into three candles. These watches were cheap and convenient, but inaccurate. It was during these years that the alarm clock was first invented. Naturally he was fiery. The disadvantage of such watches was the unprofitability of their use in daytime days, and in addition, the accuracy of their readings was low due to different speed burning out of oil and wax from different lamps and candles.
Water clock - “Clepsydra”
The sun and fire clocks were replaced by water clocks 2500 years ago. They were more accurate and perfect. This watch worked reliably both day and night. Their design was simple: a vessel with a hole in the bottom and divisions on the walls, along which you can monitor the drop in water level. The vessel was usually made of metal, clay or glass, filled with water, which flowed out slowly, drop by drop, lowering the water level, and the divisions on the vessel determined what time it was.
Water clocks quickly became popular. They were used both at home and in the military, government agencies, and schools. They were at racetracks, stadiums and courthouses.
The water clock was called "Clepsydra", which in Greek means "The Thief." It is to the clepsydra that we owe the appearance of the expression “The Passage of Time.”
In the richest trading city of Egypt - Alexandria, the clepsydra received its greatest development. It was in Alexandria that the world's first watch workshops were opened, which produced a variety of clepsydras. The production of clepsydras was carried out by artisans who were called masters of automatic water clocks. Most clepsydra were complex automatic device, equipped with signaling mechanisms and a variety of moving figures that produced various movements in certain hour. From that moment on, interest in water clocks increased as the clocks began to serve an entertainment function. The Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) developed the technical and cultural traditions of antiquity, and automatic water clocks served as decoration in many rooms of the imperial palace in Constantinople.
The hourglass consists of two communicating vessels mounted in a wooden frame. The operation of an hourglass is based on pouring precisely calibrated river sand from one vessel to another through a narrow hole, into one grain of sand at equal intervals of time. The principle of operation is identical to a water clock, but it is not water that runs from vessel to vessel, but sand.
The halves of the glass vessel were bowl-shaped and were intended for measuring small periods of time. Such clocks could measure different periods of time from 15 minutes to several hours, depending on the capacity of the vessels and the size of the hole between them. The disadvantage of this watch is that it needs to be turned over hourglass after pouring sand from the upper vessel to the lower one.
Tower clock
Mechanical watches, similar in design to modern ones, appeared in the 14th century.
These were huge, heavy tower clock mechanisms that were driven by a weight suspended on a rope to the drive shaft of the mechanism. The speed regulator of these watches was the so-called spindle, which is a rocker with heavy loads, mounted on a vertical axis and alternately driven to the right or to the left. The inertia of the loads had a braking effect on the clock mechanism, slowing down the rotation of its wheels. The accuracy of such watches with a spindle regulator was low, and the daily error exceeded 60 minutes.
For the further improvement of clocks, the discovery of the laws of pendulum oscillation made by Galileo, who came up with the idea of creating a mechanical pendulum clock, was of great importance. The actual design of such a watch appeared in 1658 thanks to the talented Dutch inventor and scientist Christian Huygens (1629-1695). He also invented the balance regulator, which made it possible to create pocket and wrist watch. Moreover, the basic design diagram of which has been preserved almost unchanged in modern watches.
The first pocket watches appeared in 1500 after the invention of the mainspring by the famous Nuremberg watchmaker Peter Henleina, but these first pocket watches had a spindle regulator and had low accuracy. Only after the invention of the balance, pocket watches turned from a fashionable, expensive and useless toy into an accurate and functional item.
The seventeenth century was a century of rapid development of watchmaking. Since the invention of the spiral balance spring, the torsion pendulum in wearable watches has completely replaced the conventional one. After the introduction of the horizontal anchor escapement, the accuracy of wearable watches increased significantly, which led to the need to add a minute hand and later a second hand to the mechanism.
Since their introduction, pocket watches have become a luxury item, and their design is sophisticated. The bodies were made in the shape of animals and various geometric shapes, and enamel began to be used to decorate the dial. It was at that time that the dial of a pocket watch was covered with glass for the first time.
With the development of science, the clock mechanism became more complex, and the accuracy of the movement increased. Thus, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, ruby and sapphire bearings were first used for the balance wheel and gears, which improved accuracy and power reserve and reduced friction. Gradually, pocket watches were supplemented with more and more complex devices, and some samples had a perpetual calendar, automatic winding, an independent stopwatch, a thermometer, a power reserve indicator, a minute repeater, and the operation of the mechanism was made possible by a back cover made of rock crystal.
The invention of A. Breguet's tourbillon is still considered the greatest achievement in the watch industry. By using it to rotate the oscillatory system of the watch, it is possible to compensate for the effect of gravity on the accuracy of the clock. Creating quality watches has become an art.
Watches continue to surprise and delight their owners with unique qualities and functions, as well as original design. Anyone today can not only know the time down to the second, but also decorate their wardrobe with a magnificent example of famous watch companies.
A watch today is not only a device necessary to determine the time of day, but also a sign of prestige and dignity, style, and has a symbolic meaning. Clocks have long ceased to perform their main function of indicating time - they defend the right to aesthetic appeal and personal respect.
p.s. But this is just a small part of the history of development and the history of inventions of time devices. .
The first hours were... stellar. Based on observations of the movements of the Moon and the Sun in Mesopotamia and Egypt, about 4,000 years ago, methods for the sexagesimal time system arose.
A little later, the same system independently arose in Mesoamerica - the cultural region of Northern and South America, stretching from the center of modern Mexico to Belize. Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and northern Costa Rica.
All these ancient clocks, in which the “hands” were the rays of the Sun or shadows, are now called solar. Some scientists refer to sundials as stone circle structures similar to Stonehenge, discovered in different parts peace.
But megalithic civilizations (the ancient ones, those that made structures from large stones without using a binding solution) did not leave behind written evidence of time tracking, so scientists have to build and prove very complex hypotheses about the understanding of time as matter and the actual origin of clocks.
The inventors of sundials are called the Egyptians and the Mesopotamians. However, they were the first to calculate time: they divided the year into 12 months, day and night into 12 hours, an hour into 60 minutes, a minute into 60 seconds - after all, in Mesopotamia, or Mesopotamia, the kingdom of Babylonia. 
This was done by the Babylonian priests using a sundial. At first, their instrument was a simple clock with a flat dial and a central rod that cast a shadow. But over the course of the year, the sun set and rose differently, and the clock began to “lie.”
The priest Beros improved the ancient sundial. He made the watch dial in the form of a bowl, exactly repeating the visible shape of the sky. At the end of the needle-rod, Beros attached a ball, whose shadow measured the hours. The path of the sun in the sky was accurately reflected in the bowl, and the priest made markings on its edges so cleverly that at any time of the year his watch showed the correct time. They had only one drawback: the watch was useless in cloudy weather and at night.
Beroza's watch served for many centuries. They were used by Cicero and were found in the ruins of Pompeii.
The origin of the hourglass is still unclear. They were preceded by water clocks - clepsydras and fire clocks. Sand, according to the American Institute (New York), could have been invented in Alexandria in 150 BC. e. 
Then their trace in history disappears and appears in early Middle Ages. The first mention of an hourglass at this time is associated with a monk who served in the Cathedral of Chartres (France) using a sand chronometer.
Frequent mentions of hourglasses begin around the 14th century. Most of them are about the use of clocks on ships, where it is simply impossible to use fire as time meters. The movement of the ship does not affect the movement of sand between two vessels, just as the change in temperature does not affect it, therefore the hourglasses - among sailors: flasks - showed more exact time in any conditions.
There were many models of hourglasses - huge and tiny, serving for different household needs: from accomplishment church service before measuring the time required for baking.
The use of hourglasses began to decline after 1500, when mechanical watches began to be actively used.
Information on this issue is contradictory. But most scientists are inclined to believe that mechanical watches were the first to be created in 725 AD. e. Chinese masters Liang Lingzan and Yi Xing, who lived during the Tang dynasty. 
They used a liquid escapement mechanism in the watch. Their invention was improved by the masters Zhang Xisun and Su Song of the Song Empire (late 10th – early 11th centuries).
However, later in China the technology fell into decay, but was mastered by the Arabs. Apparently, it was from them that the liquid (mercury) anchor mechanism became known to Europeans, who from the 12th century began to install tower clocks with a water/mercury escapement mechanism.
The next clockwork mechanism is weights on chains: the wheel drive is driven by the chain and regulated spindle stroke and a folio balancer in the form of a rocker arm with moving weights. The mechanism was very inaccurate.
In the 15th century, devices with a spring action appeared, which made it possible to make clocks small and use them not only on towers, but also in homes, to wear in a pocket and even on a hand.
There is no exact information about the invention. Some sources name the year 1504 and a resident of Nuremberg, Peter Henlein. Others associate the appearance of wristwatches with the name of Blaise Pascal, who simply tied a pocket watch to his wrist with a thin rope. 
Their appearance dates back to 1571, when the Earl of Leicester gave Queen Elizabeth I a bracelet with a watch. Since then, wristwatches have become a women's accessory, and English men The saying came into use that it is better to wear a skirt than a watch on your hand.
There is another date - 1790. It is believed that it was then that the Swiss company Jacquet Droz et Leschaux was the first to produce wristwatches.
It seems that everything connected with watches is somehow mysteriously hidden either by time or by history. This is also true for electronic watches, for the invention of which there are several contenders. 
The “Bulgarian version” seems to be the most likely. In 1944, Bulgarian Petir Dimitrov Petrov left to study in Germany, and in 1951 - to Toronto. A talented engineer becomes a participant in NASA programs, and in 1969, using his knowledge of space technology, he creates the filling for the first electronic watch, the Pulsar.
The watch is produced by the Hamilton Watch Company, and the most authoritative watch expert G. Fried calls its appearance “the most significant leap forward since the hairspring was invented in 1675.”
The first mechanical clocks invented by the Chinese were powered by huge, slowly turning wooden water wheels. In the 1300s Wheel clocks powered by lowering weights appeared, but these clocks were unreliable and inaccurate. Clocks required a mechanism to regulate their movement, which was invented in the 1600s. Such a mechanism was the pendant, which found its first practical application in watches.
In 1582, the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei demonstrated that a pendulum - a weight suspended on a thin rod - always swings with constant speed. In addition, he proved that the speed of oscillation depends only on the length of the pendulum, and not on the size of the weight attached to its end. For example, a pendulum 1 m long makes one oscillation (back and forth) in 1 second. But if a pendulum of this length continues to swing, then it can be used to measure time in seconds. Galileo had this idea, and in 1641 - a year before his death - he told his son Vincenzo how to make a clock whose movement was regulated by a pendulum. But Vincenzo did not have time to finish the work; The first pendulum clocks appeared only in 1657. They were designed by the Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens and made by the watchmaker Solomon Coster in The Hague. They were behind or running away by 5 seconds per day, which significantly exceeded the accuracy of all clocks of that time.
Clock pendulums did not use threads, but metal rods. But the metal is affected by temperature, so the length of the rods changed, which affected the accuracy of the clock. In hot weather, the metal rod lengthened, and in cold weather it shortened. For example, for a clock with a one-second pendulum, to lose one second per day, it is enough to increase the length of the pendulum by 0.025 mm, which occurs with an increase in temperature of only 2 "C. Inventors soon solved this problem by creating a pendulum of constant length. In 1722, the English mechanic George Graham invented the mercury pendulum (which he announced in 1726) by attaching a glass vessel containing mercury to the end of the pendulum. When the pendulum extended downwards due to an increase in temperature, this was compensated by the expansion of the mercury in the vessel, acting in the opposite direction.
Another solution was a lattice pendulum made of alternating strips of steel and copper, invented by the English watchmaker John Harris in 1728. Copper expands more than steel, so its expansion was compensated by the less expansion of steel. Nowadays, pendulum rods are made of invar, an alloy of iron and nickel that hardly expands when heated. This alloy is also used to make tape measures and tuning forks, for which constant length is very important.
Galileo's student, the Italian scientist Vincenzo Viviani, made this sketch of a pendulum clock; For the reconstruction of the pendulum, see Fig. us. 13.
This model of pendulum clock was created in the 19th century. based on a sketch of Galileo's project made by Viviani. The source of energy for the clock was not indicated there, so it can be assumed that it was driven by lowering weights.
IN mechanical watch the speed at which the energy of the descending load is released is controlled by a mechanism called escapement. A hammer suspended on a pendulum causes the anchor to swing. The anchor then stops and then releases the escape wheel, allowing it to gradually release the energy of the descending load, driving the main wheel. An hour hand is attached to the axis of the main wheel.
Once upon a time, a calendar was enough for people to keep track of time. But crafts appeared, and consequently, the need arose for an invention that would measure the duration of periods of time less than one day. This invention was the clock. Today we will talk about their evolution.
When there was no clock...
The history of watches has much deeper roots than is commonly believed today. Experts say that the first people to keep track of time were primitive people, which could somehow determine when hunting or fishing would be most successful. Perhaps they were watching the flowers. It is believed that their daily opening indicates certain time days. So, the dandelion opens around 4:00, and Lunar flower- only after dark. But the main tools with which man could determine time before the advent of clocks were the sun, stars, water, fire and sand. Such “clocks” are usually called the simplest.
One of the first to use simple clocks were the ancient Egyptians.
In 3500 B.C. In Egypt, a semblance of a sundial appeared - obelisks - slender, four-sided structures tapering upward. The shadow cast from them allowed the Egyptians to divide the day into two parts of 12 hours, so people could know exactly when noon came. A little later, markings appeared on the obelisks, which made it possible to determine not only the time before and after noon, but also other periods of the day.
Technology gradually developed, and in 1500 BC. More convenient sundials were invented. They divided the day into 10 parts, as well as into two “twilight” periods of time. The inconvenience of such an invention was that it had to be moved every day at noon from east to west.
The first sundial changed more and more every year, and already in the 1st century. BC. the famous Roman architect and mechanic Marcus Vitruvius Pollio described 13 various types sundials, which were used everywhere in Egypt, Greece, Asia Minor, Italy, Rome and India. By the way, today in Piazza del Popolo, located in Rome, everyone can admire the Egyptian obelisk, which has survived to this day, having a height of 36 m.
In addition to sundials, there were also water, sand and fire ones. The water clock was a vessel cylindrical, from which water flowed drop by drop. It was believed that less water remained, the more time passed. Such clocks were used in Egypt, Babylon and Rome. In Asian countries, Roman and Arabic numerals, which meant day and night respectively. To find out the time, this hemispherical vessel was placed in a pool, and water entered through a small hole. An increase in the liquid level raised the float, causing the time indicator to move.
Everyone is also familiar with the hourglass, which was used to determine time even before our era. In the Middle Ages, their development was improved, they became more accurate due to the use of high-quality sand - fine powder of black marble, as well as sand from lead and zinc dust.
Once upon a time, time was determined using fire. There were three types of fire clocks: candle, wick and lamp. In China, a special variety of them was used; it consisted of a base made of flammable material (in the form of a spiral or stick) and metal balls attached to it. When some part of the base burned, the balls fell, thus beating time.
Note that candle clocks were popular in Europe; they made it possible to determine the time by the amount of burned wax. By the way, this variety was especially common in monasteries and churches.
It is necessary to mention such a method of determining time as orientation by the stars. IN Ancient Egypt existed star maps, by which stargazers, using a passage instrument, navigated at night.
The emergence of mechanical watches
With the development of production and public relations The need for more accurate measurement of time periods has steadily increased. The best minds worked on the creation of mechanical watches; in the Middle Ages, the world saw their first example.
The first mechanical watch with an anchor mechanism was made in China in 725 AD. masters Yi Xing and Liang Lingzan. Later, the secret of the device of their invention came to the Arabs, and then to everyone else.
It is worth noting that mechanical watches have absorbed much of the simplest ones. The dial, gear train and striker have been preserved. Just needed to be replaced driving force- a stream of water - a heavy weight, which is much easier to handle, and also add a release device and a stroke regulator.
On this basis, a tower clock was created, which was installed in 1354 in the French city of Strasbourg. They had only one hand - an hour hand, with which people could determine parts of the day, holidays church calendar, for example Easter and the days depending on it. At noon, the figures of the three wise men bowed before the figurine of the Virgin Mary, and a gilded rooster crowed and beat its wings. This watch had a special mechanism installed that drives small cymbals - string percussion musical instruments, - who beat the time. To date, only the rooster remains from the Strasbourg clock.
The era of quartz watches is coming
As you remember, the first mechanical watch had only one hand - the hour hand. The minute appeared much later, in 1680, and in the 18th century. they began to install a second, at first it was lateral, and then central. By this time, the watch not only acquired the appearance familiar to us, but also improved internally. Ruby and sapphire stones were used as new supports for the balancer and gears. This reduced friction, increased accuracy and increased power reserve. Interesting complications also appeared: a perpetual calendar, automatic winding and a power reserve indicator.
Further improvement of instruments for measuring time occurred like an avalanche.
The development of electronics and radio engineering contributed to the emergence of quartz watches, which have a mechanism consisting of electronic unit etc. stepper motor. This engine, receiving a signal from the electronic unit, moves the arrows. Instead of a dial, quartz watches can use a digital display.
Also quartz watches have many interesting additions, such as a stopwatch, moon phase indicator, calendar, alarm clock and much more. Unlike classic mechanical ones, quartz models show time more accurately. Their error is ±15 seconds/month, so it is enough to adjust their readings twice a year.
Time in electronic clock
Today, most people use digital watches, which have truly eclipsed all others. Where do we not see them: and on dashboard car, and mobile phone, and in the microwave, and on the TV... Such watches attract users with their compactness and functionality. According to the type of display, they are liquid crystal and LED; they can be powered either from a 220V network or from batteries.
Well, the history of watches goes back many centuries. If we were to rank “the greatest inventions of mankind,” the clock would probably take second place after the wheel. After all, today you really can’t do without them.
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