“Time
and tide waits for none” is a famous quote which denotes that time is precious
and every minute have to be spent with a use. But to know that time was not that
easy in olden times.The Egyptians were
the first to create twenty-four hour day.To know the time they used shadow clocks. The position of stars was used
to designate the time at nights. But at the same time other countries like
Babylonia, China, Greece were using instruments like sundials to note the time.
Their existed a disadvantage in this too, as these sundials failed at night
time. Amenophis I, the king of Egypt, wanted to know what time it was all
through the night without having to check the position of the stars. So, Prince
Amenemhet made the king a clepsydra or a water clock. He took a
big bucket of water, filled it with water up to a specific line. He then
cut a small hole in the bottom of the bucket and marked off lines on the bucket
after each hour had passed. It was at this time the sand clock or the
hourglass was introduced. But these also proved inefficient at times. To
address all these issues faced in knowing time the first mechanical clock was
created with weighs that would slowly lower for every hour. These clocks were
needed to be placed in a tall building since the weights needed to travel a
longer distance for every hour. Even today some of the cuckoo clocks are been
made by using these weights. But, this is not portable and easy to use.By that time, Galileo stunned the whole world
with his innovative invention of pendulum clocks. This idea struck his mind
when he was standing in the Cathedral of Pisa watching the huge chandelier
swinging back and forth from the ceiling of the cathedral. After understanding
the concept from the pendulum clocks the atomic clocks were invented. Since
then time keeping has significantly changed. The digital clocks are a latest
addition to this family of clocks.
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