When was the first clock made?

Baloo55th

Goes back to the ancients. The Greeks had the clypsedra (or something like that - can't find it in the dictionary open by my side as I compile another quiz) - which worked by dripping water. The Egyptians had candle clocks - dead easy if you've got even consistency wax. Just paint stripes on them and agree on what an hour really IS! That's the hard part. Then there's the sundial. No arguing - but hours are longer in summer than in winter. It divides the day (which is longer in summer than in winter) - so you can tell when midday is, etc, but it don't work too well in Norway in Winter! The first accurate chronometer was invented by someone called Harrison who had one heck of a job getting the Admiralty to cough up the prize money they had promised for the first accurate chronometer. Google it/him. There's even an opera about it now. By Harrison Birtwhistle, I think. Jun 27 03, 6:26 PM

sequoianoir

Baloo? An hour is longer in summer? The sun "moves" across the sky due to the rotation of the Earth. The rotation period is all but identical to less than a fraction of a second every day, every week, every year, century after century. Once an hour was determined to be 1/24th of a day (eg midday to midday) then the shadow cast by (that other AFT guru) the GNOMON, moves by 15 degrees every hour all year round ! A day (not dark) may contain a few more hours in the summer but I don't think it is because an hour has 97.3 minutes in it. Jun 27 03, 7:02 PM

Baloo55th

Yes, the sundial hour was a different length at different times of the year. It divided the daylight day, not the dawn to dusk. http://mail.astrohk.cz/~mira/shc/shc.php?lang=gb Jun 27 03, 7:28 PM

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