A Little History of the Clock
There are many things in your home that have a long and storied history behind them. Few people think of their wall clocks as one of these items though! Perhaps they have a family piece hanging on their wall with some sentimental value or a antique piece that generations have sat before. Whatever the case, any type of clock has a history behind it.
Mankind has always had a fascination with time and the ability to keep track of it. Even before we had the ability to mechanically keep track of hours and minutes we had found other ways of accurate timekeeping. Perhaps the earliest form of a daytime clock was the sundial. Through the movement of the sun a shadow was cast on a dial that represented different segments of the day. Of course this had its disadvantage such as rainy days or nightfall! Another early version of timekeeping was the water clock, this would gradually let water out over a designated period of time turning gears and functioning much like our clocks of today. Some speculate that these were hooked up to the earliest form of alarm clocks showing that even our great ancestors needed a little help out of bed.
The next great leap forward in clock history was the pendulum clock. These were self powered by a weight and chain that moved slowly towards the floor. This swung a pendulum back and forth that moved a set of gears for accurate timekeeping. You can still see this type of clock in use today inside grandfather clocks. This is perhaps the most handsome and intriguing form of clock ever built. By the early 1900s they had inserted batteries inside these pendulum style clocks effectively creating the modern timekeeping device as we know it.
Quartz clocks were invented in the mid 1900s and are still in use today. These require little power and can run for months on a small battery. They keep extremely good time and are rivaled for accuracy only by the atomic clock, the newest form of timekeeping available to us today.
As you can see there is a great deal of history behind each and every wall clock out there today. Generations have refined this art into what it is and will continue to make it greater. The next time you sit around the dinner table why not tell others a little about the clock on the wall, perhaps you will inspire the next great design.
