The History of Time
"Ice-age hunters in Europe [...] scratched lines and gouged holes in sticks and bones, possibly counting the days between phases of the moon." (NIST)
With "bureaucracies, formal religions, and other burgeoning societal activities," humans "apparently found a need to organize their time more efficiently." After the Sumerian culture, "the Egyptians were apparently the next to formally divide their day into parts something like our hours. Obelisks (slender, tapering, four-sided monuments) were built as early as 3500 BCE. Their moving shadows formed a kind of sundial [...]. Later, additional markers around the base of the monument would indicate further subdivisions of time." (NIST)
After the obelisk, "another Egyptian shadow clock or sundial, possibly the first portable timepiece, came into use [...]. This device divided a sunlit day into 10 parts plus two 'twilight hours' in the morning and evening." (NIST)
"Water clocks were among the earliest timekeepers that didn't depend on the observation of celestial bodies. One of the oldest was found in the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep I, buried around 1500 BCE." (NIST)
The Greeks began using water clocks, which they called clepsydras (water thieves). "These clocks were used to determine hours at night, but may have been used in daylight as well." (NIST)
Although the English credit Alfred the Great with the invention of candles graduated to mark the passage of time, in fact historical evidence suggests that candle clocks were prevalent in the orient prior to appearing in Europe. (Britannica)
"In the first half of the 14th century, large mechanical clocks began to appear in the towers of several large Italian cities." (NIST, and Britannica)
Used to measure cooking-times since the middle-ages, sandglasses acquired wide-spread functional as well as metaphoric use being used to time the conduct of legal and commercial affairs, in the academic and ecclesiastic circles and even to measure the duration of torture sessions. (Britannica)
Spring-driven clocks probably appeared first in Europe during the early 15th century and because they were small as opposed to their weight-driven predecessors, it became possible to construct timepieces suitable for domestic use. The potential for progressive miniaturisation allowed the emergence of watches. (Britannica)
"Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch scientist, made the first pendulum clock, regulated by a mechanism with a 'natural' period of oscillation." (Galileo Galilei is credited with discovering the principle of the pendulum-clock, which he began to study as early as 1582.) (NIST)
The development of quartz crystal oscillators and clocks "improved timekeeping performance far beyond that achieved using pendulum and balance-wheel escapements." (NIST)
"In 1949, NIST built the first atomic clock, which was based on ammonia." ("Atoms constitute a potential 'pendulum' with a reproducible rate that can form the basis for more accurate clocks.") (NIST)
"The cesium atom's natural frequency was formally recognized as the new international unit of time [...]: the second was defined as exactly 9,192,631,770 oscillations or cycles of the cesium atom's resonant frequency, replacing the old second that was defined in terms of the Earth's motions." (NIST)
Jean-Claude Biver and Jacques Piguet combined forces to revive the Blancpain Company. Close scrutiny of all available records confirmed that there never had been such a thing as a Blancpain quartz watch. And none will exist in the future.
With "bureaucracies, formal religions, and other burgeoning societal activities," humans "apparently found a need to organize their time more efficiently." After the Sumerian culture, "the Egyptians were apparently the next to formally divide their day into parts something like our hours. Obelisks (slender, tapering, four-sided monuments) were built as early as 3500 BCE. Their moving shadows formed a kind of sundial [...]. Later, additional markers around the base of the monument would indicate further subdivisions of time." (NIST)
After the obelisk, "another Egyptian shadow clock or sundial, possibly the first portable timepiece, came into use [...]. This device divided a sunlit day into 10 parts plus two 'twilight hours' in the morning and evening." (NIST)
"Water clocks were among the earliest timekeepers that didn't depend on the observation of celestial bodies. One of the oldest was found in the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep I, buried around 1500 BCE." (NIST)
The Greeks began using water clocks, which they called clepsydras (water thieves). "These clocks were used to determine hours at night, but may have been used in daylight as well." (NIST)
Although the English credit Alfred the Great with the invention of candles graduated to mark the passage of time, in fact historical evidence suggests that candle clocks were prevalent in the orient prior to appearing in Europe. (Britannica)
"In the first half of the 14th century, large mechanical clocks began to appear in the towers of several large Italian cities." (NIST, and Britannica)
Used to measure cooking-times since the middle-ages, sandglasses acquired wide-spread functional as well as metaphoric use being used to time the conduct of legal and commercial affairs, in the academic and ecclesiastic circles and even to measure the duration of torture sessions. (Britannica)
Spring-driven clocks probably appeared first in Europe during the early 15th century and because they were small as opposed to their weight-driven predecessors, it became possible to construct timepieces suitable for domestic use. The potential for progressive miniaturisation allowed the emergence of watches. (Britannica)
"Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch scientist, made the first pendulum clock, regulated by a mechanism with a 'natural' period of oscillation." (Galileo Galilei is credited with discovering the principle of the pendulum-clock, which he began to study as early as 1582.) (NIST)
The development of quartz crystal oscillators and clocks "improved timekeeping performance far beyond that achieved using pendulum and balance-wheel escapements." (NIST)
"In 1949, NIST built the first atomic clock, which was based on ammonia." ("Atoms constitute a potential 'pendulum' with a reproducible rate that can form the basis for more accurate clocks.") (NIST)
"The cesium atom's natural frequency was formally recognized as the new international unit of time [...]: the second was defined as exactly 9,192,631,770 oscillations or cycles of the cesium atom's resonant frequency, replacing the old second that was defined in terms of the Earth's motions." (NIST)
Jean-Claude Biver and Jacques Piguet combined forces to revive the Blancpain Company. Close scrutiny of all available records confirmed that there never had been such a thing as a Blancpain quartz watch. And none will exist in the future.
