The Clepsydra

The second attempt in history to dominate time was much better than the first one. Egyptian Pharaohs wanted peasants to work in their pyramids  during night, but, as mentioned, with the solar watch time couldn't be measured at night, so they needed something better. The clepsydra or water clock was the solution. It measured time by the gradual flow of water. This way, time could be also measured at night. The problem was that, if the weather was cold enough, water would solidificate, and the watch stopped working.
Many different civilizations used it, and made their versions. I leave you a link to the Encyclopaedia Britannica so you can check it:https://www.britannica.com/technology/clepsydra
Finally, this is how it could look like:

Comments

  1. GregorioJanuary 3, 2018 at 5:22 AM

    That was a clever solution, to measure time by the flow of water!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyJanuary 3, 2018 at 7:17 AM

      Of course it was! Egyptians were pretty smart. But some cities could not afford it, or the climate did not allow a clepsydra to work. Thus, they needed something different. In my next post I will talk about the solution they found.

      Delete
  2. PacoJanuary 3, 2018 at 8:26 AM

    Well, it truely was a great solution, but i can see another issue... Just need to have a nice servant at your house refilling the first water container..... and he couldn't look at his watch to know when he needed to go for it :D

    But yeah, for the TIME it was, it was a nice answer, just like the sand ones :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyJanuary 3, 2018 at 8:33 AM

      Actually houryglasses were invented later, and they worked better. We will also speak about them.

      Delete
  3. GregorioJanuary 3, 2018 at 8:28 AM

    I`ll be waiting anxiously :)

    ReplyDelete

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Clepsydras were great for ancient civilizations such as Egypt, Greece or Rome, but in Middle Ages they started not to be so useful. Armies started to besiege cities, castles, etc, so the water inside them was used to drink, and not for clepsydras. Another problem was was that, with clepsydras, you just had to decrease the regular flow of water for time to pass slower (e.g: by introducing a small stick through the hole of the top vessel). Also, the climate of some cities did not allow clepsydras to work. All these problems required a new clock that solved them. That clock was the candle clock. It consisted of one or more equal candles, and some marks.  Its mechanism was still quite simple; the first candle was lit, and as time passed, its height reduced. Thanks to the marks, you could know the time that had passed. When the first candle burned out, the second one was lit, etc. But this system also had some problems: you had to be attentive to light the candles, and if a candle went ou
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