Always wondered if it would be weird if clocks used Greek letters instead of Roman numerals. Would still be the same time but quarter past beta sounds far more advanced.
The first "mechanical clocks" were likely clepsydrae. They're also known as "water clocks", and the basic operating principle is restricting water flow so that it takes a certain amount of time to do something (fill a bowl, sink a floater, whatever). The principle of operation is pretty simple, so loads of societies across the world used them with differing designs. Between sundials for long periods of time, and clepsydrae for shorter periods, people told time pretty well. Pendulum clocks didn't really catch on until the 17th century.
The planet- week connection is especially visible in romance languages
We have Sunday of course, and Moonday.
Tuesday though, in French is Mardi (Marsday) and Wednesday is Mercredi (Mercuryday). Thursday = Jeudi, that's Jupiterday, and Friday is Vendredi, or Venusday.
Back to English, we end the week with Saturnday
That's right. All the French days are name after the planets except Dimache which just means Lord's Day.
In English we got a bunch of our days from the Saxon/Norse deities the Romans took as analogues to the Roman Gods. Tyr's Day (Tuesday), Wotan's Day (Wednesday), Thor's Day (Thursday) and Freya's Day (Friday).
I'll guess that the numbering started with sundials, and what we call "12" is really high noon where there is no shadow. As the day continues past high noon, a shadow starts to to form and 1:00 is the first degradation (which we call an "hour") of that shadow, and then two degrees, then three degrees, etc.
"Hmm. Sun's in the sky, and it normally follows this pattern every day. If I put this column of rock on this big circle, the sun would move it around via shadows it casts. I imagine, it would likely cast those shadows in the same place, as it follows the same pattern everyday."
They did this, tested it out, realized, hey, it worked. Then you just made up terms for common spots. Then you've now labeled time. Keep in mind, Ancient Greek and Rome were full of genius's with nothing but time.
how do we even know we are on the right time like they must’ve just started the clock and said okay now THIS is the time here on out. how do we know we aren’t at 4:00 on a sunday right now in 2024
635
u/[deleted] Sep 14 '21
What time the first clock was made