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The word clock comes from the Celtic word "bell". A clock is a timepiece that is not worn on the person like a watch is.
Before clocks, people measured the time by the position of the sun and the tides. They were not really very accurate but just an approximate time of day. At night they used the position of the moon to tell the time.
Sundials were widely used in ancient times and candle clocks and hourglasses were also used to tell the time. Water clocks were used in the 16th century in Egypt but there have been reports of water clocks in 800 BC in Baghdad.
A clock originally had faces and hands not like the digital clocks of today. The first clocks were mechanical ones from the 13th century with a set of gears, a spring and a weight that is responsible for the clock's movement. Later electrical clocks used power or batteries. Modern technology now includes atomic and digital clocks and there are still improvements being made even today.
Clocks vary in size, form and shapes but they all perform the one task. In modern living it is essential to know the time, so that you can keep appointments and be organized. We have come a long way from sundials to atomic clocks so I wonder what is coming next?
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I have always loved sundials but I never knew about candle clocks at night and I think they used the moon as well to tell the time.
It’s interesting how time has lost it’s connection to nature that it once had, in human culture… Using the sun and the tides were indeed the original way of keeping track of time. Not just that, all calendar systems are based on astronomical observations.
So the way we keep track of time these days has become somewhat of an analogy for how humanity has lost it’s connection to the natural world. Hopefully we will eventually awaken to the fact that time is intricately connected with repeating patterns, and is not as linear as we might imagine.
You are surely wise beyond your years. Has anyone else told you that? We should go back to following nature more closely as we did.