Watches are an invariable attribute of modern life. It is simply impossible to imagine our world without them. Think about what would happen if all the watches broke at once or stopped running? Sheer chaos. However, how did it all begin? When they appeared, what kinds of them exist? We’ll talk about this. This topic is very extensive, and we will consider only the most basic.
Ancient times
The meaning of the word "clock", consistent with the dictionary, is as follows: a device for measuring time within a day. Agree, a very good definition, because if the days can be counted by sunsets and sunrises, then how to recognize the periods more accurately? This is precisely what haunted our ancestors in antiquity, and they came up with various devices for determining and measuring time. The very first was a water clock. This device was a vessel from which fluid gradually flowed. The first mentions of them are found, starting from 157 BC. e. in ancient Rome. Later they were slightly modified, and a float with marks was added to them.
The hourglass has also become very widespread - everyone knows their device, and they are used to this day, but only as an interior item, surroundings and a funny trinket.
A sundial was also widely used. This device was a circle drawn with a rod with a rod in the center, the sun's shadow of which indicated time. They were invented in about 1306-1290. BC e. There are many varieties of them, but they all operate according to the principle described above - a change in 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 other exotic devices for determining the time replaced the pendulum and weight-bearing watches. 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 watches of this kind were located in the princely court of the Moscow Kremlin at the beginning of the 15th century.
Latest time
In the mid-1800s, pocket mechanical watches gained immense popularity. 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 atomic ones are considered the most reliable and accurate, in them the time is determined by the half-life of the radioactive elements. They are used on space satellites, in the military and scientific industries.