first science of the time - astronomy.The results of observations in the ancient observatories were used for farming and worship.However, the craft has arisen a need for measuring short time intervals.Thus, humanity has come to the invention of hours.The process was a long one, full of hard work of the best minds.
hours history goes back many centuries, is the oldest invention of mankind.From sticks stuck in the ground to highly accurate chronometer - a journey of hundreds of generations.If you rank the achievements of human civilization, in the category of "great invention" hours will be second only to the wheel.
was a time when people had enough of the calendar.But there were craft, it became necessary to fix the duration of the processes.It took hours, the purpose of which - the measurement of time intervals shorter days.To do this, people throughout the ages have used a variety of physical processes.Correspondingly and constructions, their implement.
hours history is divided into two main periods.The first - of a few thousands of a second - less than one.
1. History of hours, called protozoa.This category includes solar, water, fire and sand devices.The period ends with the study of the mechanical clock domayatnikovogo period.It was a medieval chimes.
2. New story hours, starting with the invention of the pendulum and balance, marked the beginning of the development of classical oscillatory timekeeping.This period is not yet over.
Sundial
most ancient extant.Therefore, it is the story of a sundial opens the parade of great inventions in the field of timekeeping.Despite its apparent simplicity, a great variety of designs.
based sundial put the apparent movement of the sun throughout the day.The countdown is over the shadow cast by the axis.Their use is only possible on a sunny day.Ancient Egypt had a favorable climate for this.The most widely used on the banks of the Nile got the sundial, which had views of the obelisks.They are set at the entrance to the temple.Gnomon in a vertical obelisk and the scale deposited on the ground - so looked ancient sundial.Photography presented below shows one of them.It has survived one of the Egyptian obelisks transported to Europe.Gnomon height of 34 meters currently stands on one of the squares in Rome.
Ordinary sundials have significant drawbacks.We knew about it, but long tolerated.In different seasons, ie summer and winter, the duration of an hour was different.But at a time when dominated agrarian system and craft relations, accurate measurement of the time there was no need.Therefore sundial happily existed until the late Middle Ages.
replaced Gnomon came more advanced design.Advanced sundial in which this deficiency has been eliminated, the scale had a curved shape.Besides improvements using various embodiments.For example, in Europe it was common wall and window sundial.
Further improvements took place in 1431.It consists in the shadow of the arrow orientation parallel to the earth axis.This hand was called axis.Now the shadow rotates around the axis, moving evenly, turning an hour at 15 °.This design allows us to produce sufficiently accurate for its time sundial.Photo shows one of such instruments preserved in China.
For proper installation of construction steel supply compass.Now you can use the clock everywhere.It was possible to produce even a portable model.Since 1445 began to build a sundial in the form of a hollow hemisphere equipped with an arrow from the shadow that falls on the inner surface.
search for alternative
Although sundials were comfortable and precise, they had serious shortcomings objective nature.They are completely dependent on the weather, and their function was limited to part of the day, enclosed in a gap between sunrise and sunset.In search of alternatives, scientists tried to find other ways to measure time intervals.It was required that they were not related to the supervision of the motions of stars and planets.
The search led to the creation of artificial standards of time.For example, it was the interval required to overflow or burning of a certain number of substances.
created on the basis of this simple clock come a long way of development and improvement of structures, thereby paving the way for the creation not only of mechanical watches, but also automation devices.
clepsydra
For water clocks stuck the name "clepsydra" There is so misleading that first invented them in Greece.In reality it was not so.The most ancient, very primitive hourglass was found in the temple of Amun at Febah and stored in a museum in Cairo.
When creating a water clock is necessary to provide a uniform reduction in the water level in the vessel when its expiry through a bottom orifice.This was achieved by giving the vessel a cone-shaped, tapered near the bottom.Get the laws describing the rate of outflow of fluid depending on the level and shape of the container, it was possible only in the Middle Ages.Prior to this form of the vessel for a water clock was chosen empirically.For example, the Egyptian clepsydra, referred to above, giving a uniform reduction.Albeit with some uncertainty.
Since the hourglass does not depend on the time of day and weather, it best suits the requirements of continuous measurement of time.In addition, the need for further improvement of the device, adding a variety of functions provide scope for the imagination designers.So, clepsydra of Arab origin were the works of art combined with high functionality.They were equipped with additional hydraulic and pneumatic mechanisms: buzzer time, the system of night lighting.
Not a lot of names of the creators of a water clock to preserve the history.Their manufacturer engaged not only in Europe but also in China, India.We have information about the Greek name Ktesiby mechanics of Alexandria, who lived 150 years before Christ.The clepsydra Ktesiby used gears, theoretical developments which were made by Aristotle.
Fire Watch
This group emerged in the early 13th century.The first fire watches were tapers up to 1 meter in height and bears the markings on them.Sometimes certain division fitted with metal pins that fell on a metal stand at around burnout wax, publish distinct sound.These devices serve as a prototype alarm.
With the advent of transparent glass fire watches are transformed into lampadnye.On the wall was applied to the scale on which, to the extent of burning oil, and the time.
The most common such devices were in China.Along with lampadnye in the country it has been extended another type of firing hours - wick.We can say that it was a dead end.
Hourglass
When they were born, it is not known.One can say with certainty is that they could not appear before the invention of the glass.
Hourglass are two transparent glass flasks.After connecting neck content falls out from the top to the bottom of the flask.And in our time it is still possible to meet the hourglass.Photo shows one of the models, stylized antique.
medieval masters in the manufacture of instruments adorned hourglass refined decor.They were used not only to measure the lengths of time, but also as an interior decoration.The houses of many nobles and dignitaries can be seen luxury hourglass.Photography is one of these models.
In Europe, the hourglass came rather late - at the end of the Middle Ages, but their distribution was rapid.Due to the simplicity, the possibility of use at any time, they quickly became very popular.
One disadvantage of an hourglass - a fairly short period of time, measured without turning.Not caught on tape, made of them.Brakes distribution of such models of their low accuracy and wear for long journeys.It happened as follows.The calibrated hole in the diaphragm between the flask was rubbed, increasing in diameter, particles of sand - on the contrary, fragmented, decreasing in size.Velocity increased, the time - decreased.
mechanical watch: the prerequisites for a
need for more accurate measurement of time intervals with the development of production and social relations has increased steadily.The best minds working on a solution to this problem.
invention of mechanical watches - an epoch-making event that occurred in the Middle Ages, because they - the most complex instrument created in those years.In turn, this will lead to further development of science and technology.
invention hours and their improvement required more sophisticated, accurate and high-technological equipment, new methods of calculation and design.This was the beginning of a new era.
Creating mechanical clocks became possible with the invention of the spindle descent.This unit has converted translational motion of a rope hanging weights to oscillate back and forth in time wheel.It can clearly be seen continuity - because sophisticated models clepsydra already had and the dial and gear, and battle.It was only necessary to change driving force, replace the water jet heavy weights, which were easier to handle and add a trigger device and escapement.
On this basis were created mechanisms for tower clock.Chimes with spindle control came into use around 1340 and became the pride of many cities and cathedrals.
Formation classical oscillatory timekeeping
History of the clock to preserve for posterity the names of scientists and inventors who have made it possible to develop them.The theoretical basis was the discovery that made Galileo voicing laws describing the oscillations of a pendulum.He - the author of idea of mechanical pendulum clocks.
managed to realize the idea of Galileo in 1658, the talented Dutchman Christiaan Huygens.He - the author of the invention, the balance control, thereby creating a pocket and then watch.In 1674, Huygens developed an improved control by acceding to the wheel to the flywheel-spiral springs in the form of a hair.
Other landmark invention belongs Nuremberg watchmaker named Peter Henlein.He invented the clockwork spring, and in 1500 based on it created a pocket watch.
parallel changes occurred appearance.At first it was quite a hand.But as the hours have become very accurate, they demanded the appropriate indication.In 1680 it was added to the minute hand, and found a familiar face we look.In the eighteenth century began to set the second hand.At first side, and later it became the center.
In the seventeenth century the creation of hours were transferred to the category of art.Exquisitely decorated body, decorated with enamel dials, which by that time was covered with glass - all this makes arrangements for a luxury item.
work on improvement and complexity of devices continues uninterrupted.Increases precision.At the beginning of the eighteenth century were used as supports for the rocker gear and stones - ruby and sapphire.It is possible to reduce friction, improve accuracy and increase the reserve.There were interesting complication - a perpetual calendar, automatic winding, power reserve indicator.
impetus to the development of the pendulum clock was the invention of the English clockmaker Clement.Around 1676 he developed the anchor-anchor descent.This device is well suited to the pendulum clock, which had a small vibration amplitude.
Quartz
Further improvement of instruments for measuring time there was an avalanche.The development of radio electronics and paved the way for the emergence of quartz watches.Their work is based on the piezoelectric effect.It was discovered in 1880, but failed to produce quartz watches only in 1937.From classic mechanical quartz newly created models are amazingly accurate.The era of electronic watches.What is their feature?
Quartz watches have a mechanism consisting of an electronic unit and a so-called stepper motor.How it works?Engine, receiving a signal from the electronic unit, moves the arrow.Instead of the usual dial in quartz watches can be used by digital display.We call them electronic.In the West - quartz with digital display.It essentially does not change.
fact, quartz watch - is a mini-computer.It's easy to add additional features: stopwatch, moon phase indicator, calendar, alarm clock.Price hours while unlike mechanics does not increase so much.This makes them more accessible.
Quartz watches are very accurate.Their accuracy is ± 15 seconds / month.Correct the readings twice a year is sufficient.
Wall
digital clock digital display and compact - these are the distinguishing feature of this type of machinery.Electronic clock commonly used as integrated.They can be seen on the dashboard of the car, in the mobile phone in a microwave and TV.
As an element of the interior increasingly found a popular classic design, that is, with the arrow indication.
electronic wall clock fit perfectly into the interior in the style of hi-tech, modern, techno.They attract primarily for its functionality.
By type display electronic watches are LCD and LED.The latter are more functional, as are illuminated.
By type power electronic clocks (wall and table) are divided into a network running from 220V and batareechnye.A more convenient devices of the second type, since it does not require a nearby outlet.
Clocks Cuckoo
German masters began to make them from the beginning of the eighteenth century.Traditionally, cuckoo clocks were made of wood.Richly decorated with carvings, made in the form of a house for the birds, they adorn the mansions of the rich.
At the time, inexpensive models were popular in the Soviet Union and the former Soviet Union.For years, cuckoo clocks brand "Mayak" produced by the plant in the Russian city Serdobsk.Weights in the form of fir cones, decorated with carvings unpretentious house, paper fur sound mechanism - so they remember the older generation.
now classic cuckoo clocks - a rarity.This is due to the high price of qualitative models.If you do not take into account the quartz crafts Asian craftsmen, made of plastic, fairy cuckoo kukuyut only in the homes of connoisseurs hour exotics.Precise, complex mechanism, leather fur, exquisite carving on the body - all this requires a lot of manual skilled labor.Only the most reputable manufacturers can produce such models.
Alarm clock
This is the most common "clocks" in the interior.
clock - the first extra feature that was implemented in hours.Patented in 1847 by the Frenchman Antoine Rede.
In classic mechanical desktop alarm clock sound is produced by hammer-struck metallic skeet.Electronic models are more melodious.
In execution alarms are divided into small-size and large-size, desktop and road.
Desktop Alarm Clock is made with separate engines for clockwork and signal.Plant them individually.
With the advent of quartz watches mechanical alarm clocks popularity fell.There are several reasons.
