Submitted by FlashyBehind t3_10nfr8t in todayilearned
O no u dint
Snapped its fingers so hard, it actually started a fire.
A tad snooty too
I love the various ways people tracked and measured time. I actually chose the subject for a science fair project in middle school. My favorite is the water clock, with alarm; my dad and I made a model of one with coffee cans. Like I read in a Star Trek book, "primitive does not mean stupid" (said by Checkov, I forget which book).
Please go on...
There were various sundials (a stick in the ground, the classic "wedge shape". I forget the details, but the sundials had to be calibrated for the location and time of year.
Candles were used quite a bit in various ways. I think there were even some candles made of different materials, so the candle would burn at different rates.
Oil lamps were also used in a similar fashion as candles, although the nail trick wouldn't work. The wick floated on the oil, and the height of the oil was measured to know how much time passed.
Pendulums, without any clock escapement, were used briefly. I think they were imprecise and kind of difficult. IIRC, the distance of the swing was used to measure the time.
Hour glasses are very well known, and quite clever IMO.
The water clock is similar to an hour glass. Water drips from one container into another. The height of water in the second container measures the time. A variation of this is that a float in the second container contains a vertical toothed pole, which turns a geared clock face. A stick on the clock face can be placed to trigger an alarm (knock off a weight wrapped around a spindle, which rings a bell).
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It takes hundreds of candles to provide the same lighting as a single common lightbulb. So even if you had just one or two rooms in your house and lived mostly in the dark, you still needed lots and lots of candles.
Whale oil I guess
Thanks this is great! I didn't place the gear on the water clock float, very useful!
I think I first saw a water clock on the TV show Connections. There was a large, elaborate one that monks (I think?) used. My description above is for the model that my dad and I made. IIRC, it's fairly true to the design we saw on TV.
And don't forget SpongeBob B.C. with the rock-to-the-head method.
I don't know how this would have worked, I mean come on, do you really think you'd hear a nail drop over the sound of the TV or while listening to your ear buds?
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Isnt this where "so quiet you can hear a pin drop" came from? They used a pin in a candle to track time & everyone had to be quiet so you could hear the pin drop when time was up....
I also remember reading that in Japan they also used incense sticks to measure time. 1 stick = 1 hour kind of thing. Just flameless candles when you think about it but still workable.
While Iām sure thereās some evidence of candle clocks being used as alarms and obviously plenty of proof of candle clocks existing. I donāt think they were common or super popular. This article sort of frames them as THE predecessor to electric clocks, which is not accurate. Sun dials, tower clocks and half a dozen other types of clocks were used more frequently than candle clocks.
Also, the idea of an candle alarm is sort of silly.
youāre wasting your light source while you sleep (as someone else mentioned)
FIRE - there were tons of candle holders and other devices created to extinguish candles if they were accidentally left lit. People generally didnāt want to have candles lit after they fell asleep because itās a fire hazard.
Lastly, I think at least of the devices described in the article were used to show how much time the candle had left. Like a fuel gauge.
The devices described in the article seem to be legit and like I said, Iām sure candle clocks and maybe candle alarm clocks were used, but they were not super common.
Sun dials had some impact on the general population, but until the invention of tower clocks (which were often accompanied by cannons or bells) to mark the start of the day), the vast majority of people did not think of time in the way we do now. In fact, lots of people complained about clocks being a pain in the butt.
Source: several horology books, but most recently āAbout Time: A history of civilization in 12 clocksā by David Rooney.
You really better want to wake up
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Sorry, false alarm
I just wanted to know if I could hear a pin drop
I'm sure this wasn't a fire hazard AT ALL.
Sounds expensive, burning a candle when you didn't even need to, and not super accurate.
I assume that thrifty Medieval folk would use a sundial during the day and whip the candle out at night for dual-use.
Frugal barons. For most medieval folk, a candle a night could not be considered affordable let alone frugal.
supermr34 t1_j68l3yt wrote
That device in the middle is sassy.