What Time Is It?

I started thinking about time when I heard this song on an oldies radio station. It was written by Robert Lamm and recorded by the group Chicago in 1969.

Time is defined as "the continuous passage of existence, a duration or relation of events expresses in terms of past, present and future, and measured in units such as minutes, hours, days, months or years." (dictionary.com)

At the beginning of mankind they knew only daylight and dark and when the sun was high overhead, it was the middle of the day. They went through their lives doing what had to be done during daylight hours and rested and slept while it was dark.

I'm sure they watched the moon change through its phases but didn't know the significance of it. Eventually they began to notice the stars and how they moved through the sky with the different seasons. Gradually they became more interested in the moon and stars which led to the study of astronomy.

The ancient Greeks came up with the idea of hours, dividing the day and night into equal twelve-hour periods. Ancient Egyptians also used the twelve-hour system of night and day, probably because of the twelve lunar cycles in a year. These methods became the standard way to measure time.

Ancient Babylon is responsible for dividing hours into minutes and seconds. They also calculated there were 360 days in a year. They weren't far off.

SUNDIALS

Sundials were used to tell time by the sun. They consisted of a flat, round disk marked with hour-lines. Arising from the middle of the disk was a gnomon. As the sun changed its position, the shadow of the gnomon would mark the time of day.

Sundials were used by the Egyptians and Babylonians as early as 5000 BC. Archeologists found a sundial constructed in 800 BC by Egyptians. China used sundials also in 800 BC. They were believed to be brought to Greece in 560 BC. The earliest record of the Romans using sundials was in 293 BC.

CALENDARS

The first formalized calendar is said to have been designed in the Bronze Age. The Sumerians were first to use them, then the Egyptians, Assyrians and Elamites. Archeological records show a large number of calendars appeared during the Iron Age using the Assyrian and Babylonian systems.

Julius Ceasar reformed the Roman calendar in 45 BC. Instead of using the new moon to start the calendar months, he inserted an extra day into every fourth year.

Khayyam reformed the Persian calendar in 1079 AD and measured the length of a year as 365.242 days. The Gregorian calendar that we use today was a refinement of the Julian calendar in 1582.

WATER CLOCKS

A water clock measures time by the flow of water into a container and the water is measured.

Archeologists found a water clock in Egypt that dates back to 1417-1379 BC. The oldest written record of a water clock was inscribed on the tomb of Amenemhet, an Egyptian court official in the 16th century BC, and names him as the inventor of the water clock. These clocks had water flow out of a container with sloped sides. The water dripped through holes in the bottom into twelve separate columns marked on the inside to measure the hours.

Water clocks were used by ancient Persians, Greeks and Chinese. These clocks varied in size and materials but worked in the same way.

HOURGLASS

The hourglass first appeared in Europe in the 8th century. By the early 14th century, it was in common use in Italy and Western Europe until 1500.

Consisting of two glass globes connected by a narrow passageway. Sand of a certain size flowed from the top globe to the bottom one. A frame was made to enclose the globes to make a top and bottom. When all the sand in the top globe had flowed down, it was turned over to start again.

PENDULUM CLOCKS

This clock used a pendulum as its timekeeping device. The pendulum was a swinging weight.

Invented by Christiann Huygens in 1656, it was popular until the 1930s. It was considered the most accurate clock until the quqrtz clock was invented in 1927.

QUARTZ CLOCK

Invented by Warren Morrison and J.W. Horton in 1927, quartz clocks and watches used an electronic oscillator, regulated by quartz crystal.

Jacques and Pierre Curie discovered the electric properties of quartz in 1880. By being powered by the quartz battery the clocks needed little or no upkeep. Unlike the pendulum clock, gears within the quartz clock did not have to depend on gravity.

The quartz wristwatch was invented in 1967 in Switzerland. The Japanese company Seiko started making them and released the first commercial quartz wristwatch in 1969.

DOOMSDAY CLOCK (Atomic Clock)

Invented in 1947, it measures how close we are to destroying the earth. Scientists assess the threats to our survival and adjust how much time we have to make improvements to stop the clock or turn it back.

It presently sets at 100 seconds to midnight and has been since January, 2020. Some of the things scientists consider are nuclear risks, climate change and the present COVID-19 pandemic.

No matter what form our clocks take, it is obvious that time plays a major role in our lives. We always have to know what time it is. We have school times, work times, appointment times, etc.

There are electric clocks, battery-operated clocks, digital clocks and solar clocks. The time is displayed on our cell phones, computers, televisions, and digital signs at banks, businesses and churches.

When you think about it, how could we live our lives without knowing what time it is?

References: reference.com/history, wikipedia.com, outdoorfederation.com, historyofinformation.com, encyclopedia.com, dictionary.com, afrenik.com, softschools.com/inventions

Thank you for reading.