A Brief History of Time Measurement

By Leo Rogers

Ever since man first noticed the regular movement of the Sun and the stars, we have
wondered about the passage of time. Prehistoric people first recorded the phases of the
Moon some 30,000 years ago, and recording time has been a way by which humanity has
observed the heavens and represented the progress of civilization.
Natural Events
The earliest natural events to be recognised were in the heavens, but during the course of
the year there were many other events that indicated significant changes in the
environment. Seasonal winds and rains, the flooding of rivers, the flowering of trees and
plants, and the breeding cycles or migration of animals and birds, all led to natural
divisions of the year, and further observation and local customs led to the recognition of
the seasons.

Measuring time by the Sun, the Moon and the Stars

As the sun moves across the sky, shadows change in direction and length, so a simple
sundial can measure the length of a day. It was quickly noticed that the length of the day
varies at different times of the year. The reasons for this difference were not discovered
until after astronomers accepted the fact that the earth travels round the sun in an elliptic
orbit, and that the earth's axis is tilted at about 26 degrees. This variation from a circular
orbit leads to the Equation of Time (see 'Note 2' below) which allows us to work out the
difference between 'clock' time and 'sundial time'.

Another discovery was that sundials had to be specially made for different latitudes
because the Sun's altitude in the sky decreases at higher latitudes, producing longer
shadows than at lower latitudes. Today, artists and astronomers find many ways of
creating modern sundials.

The progress of the sun can

A sundial with roman numerals. As be recorded using the four Wall Sundial
you look at this dial, which faces of this cube. Can you
direction are you facing? discover the orientation of
these faces?

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The oldest image of a star

pattern, the constellation of
Orion, has been recognised
on a piece of mammoth tusk
some 32,500 years old. The
constellation Orion is
symbolized by a man standing
with his right arm raised and a
sword at his belt and can be
seen throughout the world at
different times of the year.
Orion was the sun god of the
Egyptians and Phonecians
and called the 'strong one' by
the Arabs. In parts of Africa,
his belt and sword are known
as 'three dogs chasing three
pigs' and the Borana people
of East Africa based a
sophisticated calendar on
observations of star clusters
near Orion's belt. Orion
contains some of the brightest
stars in the southern part of The three stars of Orion's belt and
Prehistoric carving said to
the winter sky in the northern the red star of his right arm can be
represent the Orion hemisphere and can be seen easily recognised
constellation later in the southern
hemisphere.

The earliest Egyptian Star Map is about 3,500 years old and shows the most unusual
conjunction of the planets (Venus, Mercury, Saturn and Jupiter) in the constellation of
Orion and the occurrence of a solar eclipse that happened in 1534 BCE.

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By Leo Rogers

Babylonian records of observations of heavenly events

date back to 1,600 BCE. The reason for adopting their
arithmetic system is probably because 60 has many
divisors, and their decision to adopt 360 days as the
length of the year and 3600 in a circle was based on their
existing mathematics and the convenience that the sun
moves through the sky relative to fixed stars at about
1degree each day.

The constellation Taurus, the bull, a symbol of strength

and fertility, figures prominently in the mythology of nearly
all early civilizations, from Babylon and India to northern
Europe. The Assyrian winged man-headed bull had the
strength of a bull, the swiftness of a bird and human
intelligence.

From about 700 BCE the Babylonians began to develop a mathematical theory of
astronomy, but the equally divided 12-constellation zodiac appears later about 500 BCE to
correspond to their year of 12 months of 30 days each. Their base 60 fraction system
which we still use today (degrees / hours, minutes and seconds) was much easier to
calculate with than the fractions used in Egypt or Greece, and remained the main
calculation tool for astronomers until after the 16th century, when decimal notation began
to take over.

The earliest archaeological evidence of Chinese calendars appears about 2,000 BCE.
They show a 12 month year with the occasional occurrence of a 13th month. However,
traditional Chinese records suggest the origin of a calendar of 366 days depending on the
movements of the Sun and the Moon as early as 3,000 BCE. Over such a long period of
observation, Chinese astronomers became aware that their calendar was not accurate,
and by the second century CE it was recognised that the calendar became unreliable
every 300 years. This problem is called Precession and was recorded by Chinese
historians in the fourth and fifth centuries CE. In the fifth century CE the scholar Zu
Chongzi created the first calendar which took precession into account, and the most
comprehensive calendar was the Dayan Calendar compiled in the Tang Dynasty (616-907
CE) well ahead of any such development in Europe.

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Precession is due to the gradual movement of the

Earth's rotational axis in a circle with respect to the
fixed stars. This movement produces a slow 'wobble'
which means that the positions of the stars complete a
cycle of about 26,000 years.

The Earth's axis completes a circuit about once every 26,000

years

In the Mediterranean, Hipparchus made the earliest calculations of precession in about

160 BCE. The problem was taken up by astronomers in the Middle East and India who
recognized that precession gradually altered the length of the year. Calendars have had to
be altered regularly. In 325 CE the spring (vernal) equinox had moved to March 21. The
Emperor Constantine established dates for the Christian holidays, but Easter is based on
the date of the vernal equinox which varies every year because the equinox is an
astronomical event. By 1582 the vernal equinox had moved another ten days and Pope
Gregory established a new calendar, and this change is the reason for having an extra day
in every leap year. However, there are still small changes accumulating, and one day we
shall have to adopt a new calendar!

Inventions for measuring and regulating time

The early inventions were made to divide the day or the night into different periods in order
to regulate work or ritual, so the lengths of the time periods varied greatly from place to
place and from one culture to another.

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Oil Lamps
There is archaeological evidence of
oil lamps about 4,000 BCE, and the
Chinese were using oil for heating
and lighting by 2,000 BCE. Oil lamps
are still significant in religious
practices, symbolic of the journey
from darkness and ignorance to light
and knowledge. The shape of the
lamp gradually evolved into the typical
pottery style shown. It was possible to
devise a way of measuring the level in
the oil reservoir to measure the
passing of time.

Candle Clocks
Marked candles were used for telling the time in
China from the sixth century CE. There is a
popular story that King Alfred the Great invented
the candle clock, but we know they were in use in
England from the tenth century CE. However, the
rate of burning is subject to draughts, and the
variable quality of the wax. Like oil lamps, candles
were used to mark the passage of time from one
event to another, rather than tell the time of day.

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By Leo Rogers

Water Clocks
The water clock, or clepsydra,
appears to have been invented about
1,500 BCE and was a device which
relied on the steady flow of water from
or into a container. Measurements
could be marked on the container or
on a receptacle for the water. In
comparison with the candle or the oil
lamp, the clepsydra was more
reliable, but the water flow still
depended on the variation of pressure
from the head of water in the
Improvements were made to regulate the flow by
container. maintaining a constant head of water

Astronomical and astrological clock

making was developed in China from
200 to 1300 CE. Early Chinese
clepsydras drove various mechanisms
illustrating astronomical phenomena.
The astronomer Su Sung and his
associates built an elaborate
clepsydra in 1088 CE. This device
incorporated a water-driven bucket
system originally invented about 725
CE. Among the displays were a
bronze power-driven rotating celestial Su Sung's astronomical water clock
globe, and manikins that rang gongs,
and indicated special times of the day.

Hour Glasses or Sandglasses

As the technology of glass-blowing developed,
from some time in the 14th century it became
possible to make sandglasses. Originally,
sandglasses were used as a measure for periods
of time like the lamps or candles, but as clocks
became more accurate they were used to calibrate
sandglasses to measure specific periods of time,
and to determine the duration of sermons,
Sandglass university lectures, and even periods of torture.

The Division of the Day and the Length of the 'Hour'

An Egyptian sundial from about 1,500 BCE is the earliest evidence of the division of the
day into equal parts, but the sundial was no use at night. The passage of time was
extremely important for astronomers and priests who were responsible for determining the

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By Leo Rogers

exact hour for the daily rituals and for the important religious festivals, so a water clock
was invented.

The Merkhet
The Egyptians improved upon the sundial with a 'merkhet', one of
the oldest known astronomical instruments. It was developed
around 600 BCE and uses a string with a weight as a plumb line to
obtain a true vertical line, as in the picture. The other object is the
rib of a palm leaf, stripped of its fronds and split at one end,
making a thin slit for a sight.

A pair of merkhets were used to establish a North-South direction

by lining them up one behind the other with the Pole Star. Viewing
the plumb lines through the sight made sure the two merkhets and
the sight were in the same straight line with the Pole Star. This
allowed for the measurement of night-time events with a water
clock when certain stars crossed the vertical plumb line (a 'transit
line'), and these events could then be recorded by 'night-time lines'
drawn on a sundial.
See also 'Note 1' below.
An Egyptian Merkhet.
The wooden upright has
a notch to use as a sight
when using two plumb
lines
There are various theories about how the 24 hour day developed. The fact that the day
was divided into 12 hours might be because 12 is a factor of 60, and both the Babylonian
and Egyptian civilisations recognised a zodiac cycle of 12 constellations. On the other
hand, (excuse the pun) finger-counting with base 12 was a possibility. The fingers each
have 3 joints, and so counting on the joints gives one 'full hand' of 12.

In classical Greek and Roman times they used twelve hours from sunrise to sunset; but
since summer days and winter nights are longer than winter days and summer nights, the
lengths of the hours varied throughout the year.
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In about 50 BCE Andronikos of Kyrrhestes, built the Tower of Winds in Athens. This was a
water clock combined with Sundials positioned in the eight principal wind directions. By
then it was the most accurate device built for keeping time.

The Tower of the Winds in Athens contained a clepsydra and shows the North-East, North and North-
West deities in this picture

Hours did not have a fixed length until the Greeks decided they needed such a system for
theoretical calculations. Hipparchus proposed dividing the day equally into 24 hours which
came to be known as equinoctial hours. They are based on 12 hours of daylight and 12
hours of darkness on the days of the Equinoxes. However, ordinary people continued to
use seasonally varying hours for a long time. Only with the advent of mechanical clocks in
Europe in the 14th Century, did the system we use today become commonly accepted.

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Earliest mechanical clock

Mechanical clocks replaced the old water clocks, and the first clock escapement
mechanism appears to have been invented in 1275. The first drawing of an escapement
was given by Jacopo di Dondi in 1364. In the early-to-mid-14th century, large mechanical
clocks began to appear in the towers of several cities. There is no evidence or record of
the working models of these public clocks that were weight-driven. All had the same basic
problem: the period of oscillation of the mechanism depended heavily on the driving force
of the weights and the friction in the drive.

In later Mediaeval times elaborate clocks were built in public places. This is the
Astronomical clock in Prague, parts of which date from about 1410.

This mechanism illustrates a basic escapement. The Prague Astronomical Clock

weight rotates the drum which drives the toothed wheel Showing the Zodiac Circles and early
which gives the mechnism its "tick-tock" movement versions of the digits 2, 3, 4 and 7

The earliest surviving spring driven clock can be found in the science museum in London
and dates from about 1450. Replacing the heavy drive weights with a spring permitted
smaller and portable clocks and watches.

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By Leo Rogers

More Accurate Mechanical Clocks

Christiaan Huygens made the first pendulum clock,
regulated by a mechanism with a "natural" period of
oscillation in 1656. Galileo studied pendulum motion
as early as 1582, but his design for a clock was not
built before his death. Huygens' pendulum clock had
an error of less than 1 minute a day, and his later
refinements reduced his clock's errors to less than 10
seconds a day.

There was no device for keeping accurate time at sea

until John Harrison, a carpenter and instrument maker,
refined techniques for temperature compensation and
found new ways of reducing friction. By 1761, he had
built a marine chronometer with a spring and balance
wheel escapement that kept very accurate time. With
the final version of his chronometer, which looked like
a large pocket watch, he achieved a means of
determining longitude to within one-half a degree.

It was not until 1884 that a conference at Greenwich

reached agreement on global time measurement and
adopted Greenwich Mean Time as the international
standard. Today we rely on atomic clocks for our most
accurate time measurements.
The pendulum moves the lever which
creates the rocking movement of the
escapement

N.B. Pedagogical notes related to measurement and time can be found by clicking
on the " Notes " tab at the top of this article.

Supporting notes
Note 1
When you think about the problem - we can find due South easily from the sun at midday.
Looking at the night sky, we eventually deduce that there is a fixed point in the heavens
around which all the stars rotate once every day (24 hours). This is where we find the 'Pole
Star' (from the Great Bear or Ursa Major, measure the distance of about four lengths of the
two stars at the end, 'the pointers' to find Polaris). This is the Celestial Pole - which was
different for the Egyptians from today because of the phenomenon of Precession.
Up to about 1,900 BCE the Celestial Pole was Thuban a star in the 'tail' of the constellation
Draco. By 1,000 BCE it was Thuban in the constellation Ursa Minor. Today Polaris is the
last star in the 'tail' of Ursa Minor.
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Note 2
'Sun time' and 'clock time' are different. Sun time is based on the fact that the sun reaches
its highest point (the meridian), in the middle of the day, and on the next day at its highest
point, it will have completed a full cycle. However, the time between the sun reaching
successive meridians is often different from clock time. According to clock time, from May
to August, the day is close to 24 hours, but in late October the days are about 15 minutes
shorter, while in mid February the days are about 14 minutes longer. For our daily routines,
it is important to have a constant 'clock time' of 24 hours. This variation is called the
'Equation of Time' and shows the relationship between sun time and clock time. The
variation has two causes; the plane of the Earth's equator is inclined to the Earth's orbit
around the Sun, and the orbit of the Earth around the sun is an ellipse and not a circle.
The National Maritime Museum website shows two separate graphs for these causes, and
a third graph where they are combined to give the full correction.
See National Maritime Museum - link below.

Some Useful Links

This site gives very good examples of the development of time measurement with pictures
and brief explanations http://www.britannica.com/clockworks/main.html

Make your own sundial at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/kids/summer_activities/make_sundial.shtml

Many interesting sundial designs http://www.sundials.co.uk/newdials.htm

Sundials on the internet has many examples from all over the world
http://www.sundials.co.uk/

Precession of the Equinoxes explains the way the Earth's rotation changes. This site has a
good explanation and a useful animation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precession

For Galileo, Huygens and Harrison go to the MacTutor website:

http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/

National Maritime Museum: http://www.nmm.ac.uk/index.php

Jackie Carson wrote in to us to recommend this article too:

http://www.timecenter.com/articles/when-time-began-the-history-and-science-of-sundials/

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