The history of watches has more than one century. During this time, the clock has undergone great changes in its appearance and, of course, functionality.
How did the sundial come about?
Initially, the concept of time was tied to the movement of the sun across the sky. So ancient people could approximately determine the time of day. This marked the beginning of the appearance of the first hours - solar. History confirms their appearance in 3500 BC. Using a stick, a disc with markings and the movement of the sun, the time of day was determined from the shadow.
Invention of the water clock
Later, around 1400 BC, clocks powered by water appeared in ancient Egypt. They looked like 2 vessels, each filled with water. The vessels had a different size from each other and were installed so that water flowed from one container to another. Time intervals were determined by markings showing the water level.
Later, the clock has undergone some changes. They were supplemented with a float placed in the lower vessel. On it was fixed with a stick with marks. Now the time was determined by the location of this stick.
How did the division of time come about?
The ancient Greeks own not only the discovery of clocks on the water. They also applied the principle of dividing the year into some time intervals. We use this even now. The year was divided into twelve months. There were exactly 30 days in a month. So, the year in antiquity was shorter, it had only 360 days.
The days were also divided into intervals. Initially, it was twelve parts, then they switched to a 24-hour calculation. 12 hours were allotted for night and day.
From the culture of Sumer, and this was the brightest of the cultures ancient Mesopotamia, the division of the hour and minute into equal parts has come in our days - 60 minutes and seconds each.
The appearance of the first clock
The first clock in the form familiar to us with arrows appeared in 1577. They were far from accurate. This was corrected closer to 1660, using a pendulum design in the clock.
The watch dial initially contained only 12 divisions. Therefore, in order to avoid confusion, in many countries the division of time into "before" and "after" noon has been adopted. Now this principle is used only in the USA.
Much later, in 1927, the first watch was invented, the operation of which was based on a battery. This was the appearance of the first quartz clock. In terms of accuracy, they were significantly ahead of any watch on the mechanics. Thanks to their precision, cheaper production and better performance, quartz technology movements quickly gained recognition and entered our lives.
The history of watches goes back thousands of years.
The very first clock on earth was solar. They were ingeniously simple: a pole stuck into the ground. A time scale is drawn around it. The shadow of the pole, moving along it, showed what time it was. Later, such clocks were made of wood or stone and installed on the walls of public buildings. Then came the portable sundial, which was made of precious wood, ivory or bronze. There were even watches that can be conditionally called pocket watches; they were found during excavations of an ancient Roman city. This sundial, made of silver-plated copper, was shaped like a ham with lines drawn on it. The spire - the clock hand - served as a pig's tail. The hours were small. They could easily fit in a pocket. But the inhabitants of the ancient city have not yet invented pockets. So they wore such watches on a cord, chain or attached to canes made of expensive wood.
The sundial had one significant drawback: it could only "walk" on the street, and even then on the sunlit side. This, of course, was extremely inconvenient. That's probably why the water clock was invented. Drop by drop, water flowed from one vessel to another, and by how much water flowed out, it was determined how much time had passed. For many hundreds of years, such watches - they were called clepsydras - served people. In China, for example, they were used 4.5 thousand years ago. By the way, the first alarm clock on earth was also a water one - both an alarm clock and a school bell at the same time. Its inventor is considered the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, who lived 400 years before our era. This device, invented by Plato to call his students to classes, consisted of two vessels. Water was poured into the upper one, from where it gradually flowed into the lower one, displacing air from there. Air through the tube rushed to the flute, and it began to sound. Moreover, the alarm clock was regulated depending on the time of year. Clepsydra were very common in ancient world.
Sundial. Hourglass.
A thousand years ago, Caliph Harun al-Rashid ruled in Baghdad, the hero of many tales of the Thousand and One Nights. True, in fairy tales he is depicted as a kind and fair sovereign, but in fact he was treacherous, cruel and vindictive. The caliph supported trade and diplomatic relations with the rulers of many countries, including the Frankish king Charlemagne. In 807, Harun al-Rashid gave him a gift worthy of a caliph - a water clock made of gilded bronze. The hand could show time from 1 hour to 12. When it approached the figure, a ringing sound was heard, which was produced by balls falling on a bronze sheet.
At the same time, figurines of knights appeared, passed in front of the audience and retired.
In addition to water clocks, sand and fire clocks (most often alarm clocks) were also known. In the East, the latter were sticks or cords made from a slowly burning compound.
They were placed on special stands and over the segment of the stick where the fire was supposed to come at a certain time, metal balls were hung low on a thread. The flame approached the thread, it burned out, and the balls fell with a clang into the copper cup. In Europe, for these purposes, they used a candle with divisions printed on it. A pin with a weight attached to it was stuck into the required division. When the candle burned down to this division, the weight fell on a metal tray or simply on the floor.
It is unlikely that there will be a person who will name the first inventor of mechanical watches. Such clocks are first mentioned in ancient Byzantine books (late 6th century). Some historians attribute the invention of purely mechanical clocks to Pacificus of Verona (early 9th century), others to the monk Herbert, who later became pope. He made a tower clock for the city of Magdeburg in 996. In Russia, the first tower clock was installed in 1404 in the Moscow Kremlin by monk Lazar Serbin. They were an intricacies of gears, ropes, shafts and levers, and a heavy weight chained the watch to its place. Such structures have been built over the years. Not only the masters, but also the watch owners tried to keep secret the secrets of the mechanism design.
The first personal mechanical watch was driven by a horse, and a groom monitored their serviceability. Only with the invention of the elastic spring did watches become comfortable and trouble-free. The first pocket watch spring was a pig's bristle. It was used by the Nuremberg watchmaker and inventor Peter Henlein at the beginning of the 15th century.
And in late XVI century, a new discovery was made. The young scientist Galileo Galilei, observing the movement of various lamps in the Pisa Cathedral during the service, found that neither the weight nor the shape of the lamps, but only the length of the chains on which they are suspended, determines the periods of their oscillations from the wind breaking through the windows. He owns the idea of creating clocks with a pendulum.
The Dutchman Christian Huygens knew nothing about Galileo's discovery and repeated it 20 years later. But he also invented a new rate uniformity regulator, which significantly increased the accuracy of the watch.
Many inventors tried to improve watches, and at the end of the 19th century they became an ordinary and necessary thing.
In the 30s of the XX century, quartz watches were created, which had deviations of the daily rate of about 0.0001 seconds. In the 70s there were atomic clock with an error of 10 "13 seconds.
Nowadays, there are many various watches. The most common are wrist.
Modern clock.
Their dial is becoming more and more like the instrument panel of an airplane, or at least a car. In addition to the time of day, watches often show the month, date, and day of the week. Thanks to the waterproof watch, scuba divers will know the depth of the dive, as well as when the air supply in the cylinders runs out. Sometimes another indication is displayed on the dial - the pulse rate. There are solar-powered radio-controlled clocks. They allow a time deviation of 1 second from astronomical for 150 thousand years, automatically switch to seasonal and standard time. A wrist watch with a built-in TV set, a thermometer watch that measures air or water temperature, and a dictionary watch with 1,700 words have been created.
Modern alarm clocks have become more complex, more perfect. French mechanics, for example, they designed such that at a given time they begin not only to ring, but also ... to dance: two wide legs, on which the mechanism is installed, rhythmically hit the table; can dance both tap and twist. There is an alarm clock for those who snore in their sleep. It looks like an ordinary soap dish, only it contains not soap, but a microphone, an amplifier and a vibrator. The device is placed under the mattress, and as soon as a person snores more than five times, the alarm clock starts shaking so that the sleeping person will definitely roll over from his back to his side - and the snoring will stop. There is an alarm clock for couch potatoes. At the appointed time, he pumps air into the chamber placed under the mattress, which swells up and ... throws the sleeper out of bed. In a word, inventive thought does not sleep...
Do you know?
01/11/2017 at 23:25
The history of the origin of mechanical watches clearly demonstrates the beginning of the development of complex technical devices. When the clock was invented, it remained the main technical invention. And up today historians cannot agree on who actually invented the first mechanical watch, based on historical facts.
Watch History
Before revolutionary discovery- the development of mechanical clocks, the first and simplest device for measuring time was a sundial. Already more than 3.5 thousand years ago, based on the correlation of the movement of the Sun and the length, position of the shadow from objects, the sundial was the most widely used instrument for determining time. Also, in the future, mentions of a water clock appeared in history, with the help of which they tried to cover the shortcomings and errors of the solar invention.
A little later in history there were references to fire clocks or candle clocks. This method measurements - thin candles, the length of which reached up to a meter, with a time scale applied along the entire length. Sometimes, in addition to the sides of the candle, metal rods were attached, and when the wax burned out, the side fasteners, falling down, made characteristic blows on the metal bowl of the candlestick - meaning sound signal certain period time. In addition, candles helped not only to determine the time, but also helped to illuminate the premises at night.
The next, not unimportant invention before mechanical appliances, it is worth highlighting hourglass, which made it possible to measure only small intervals of time, no more than half an hour. But, like the fire device, the hourglass could not achieve the accuracy of the sun.
Step by step, with each device, people developed a clearer idea of time, the search continued uninterruptedly. perfect way his measurements. A uniquely new, revolutionary device was the invention of the first wheel clock, and since its inception, the era of chronometry has come.
Creation of the first mechanical watch
This is a clock that measures time. mechanical vibrations pendulum or balance-spring system. Unfortunately, exact date and the names of the masters of the invention of the first in the history of mechanical clocks remain unknown. And it remains only to turn to historical facts, testifying to the stages of creating a revolutionary device.
Historians have determined that they began to use mechanical watches in Europe at the turn of the 13th - 14th centuries.
The tower wheel clock should be called the first representative of the mechanical generation of time measurement. The essence of the work was simple - a single-drive mechanism consisted of several parts: a smooth wooden axis and a stone, which was tied with a rope to the shaft, thus the weight function worked. Under the influence of the gravity of the stone, the rope gradually unwound and behind it contributed to the rotation of the axis, determining the course of time. The main difficulty of such a mechanism was the colossal weight, as well as the bulkiness of the elements (the height of the tower was at least 10 meters, and the weight of the weight reached 200 kg), which entailed consequences in the form of large errors in time indicators. As a result, in the Middle Ages, they came to the conclusion that the work of the clock should depend not only on the only movement weights.
The mechanism was later supplemented with several more components that managed to control the movement - the Bilyanec regulator (it was a metal base located parallel to the surface of the ratchet wheel) and the trigger distributor (a complex component in the mechanism, with the help of which the interaction of the resulator and the transmission mechanism is carried out). But, despite all further innovations, the tower mechanism continued to require continuous monitoring, while remaining the most accurate time measurement instrument, even without looking at all its shortcomings and large errors.
Who invented the mechanical watch
Ultimately, over time, the mechanisms of tower clocks turned into complex structure with many automatically moving elements, a varied combat system, with arrows and decorative ornaments. From that moment on, watches have become not only a practical invention, but also an object of admiration - the invention of technology and art at the same time! Of course, it is worth highlighting some of them.
From early mechanisms such as clock towers in Westminster Abbey in England (1288), in the temple of Canterbury (1292), in Florence (1300), unfortunately, none of them managed to save the names of their creators, remaining unknown.
In 1402, the Prague Clock Tower was built, equipped with automatically moving figures, which, during each chime, displayed a certain set of movements, personifying history. The most ancient part of Orloi - a mechanical clock and an astronomical dial, was reconstructed in 1410. Each component was made by the watchmaker Mikulash from Kadan according to the design of the astronomer and mathematician Jan Shindel.
For example, watchmaker Junello Turriano needed 1,800 wheels to make a tower clock that showed the daily movement of Saturn, the annual movement of the Sun, the movement of the Moon, and the direction of all the planets in accordance with Ptolemaic system universe, and the course of time during the day.
All of the above clocks were invented relatively independently of each other and had a high time error.
The first touches on the topic of the invention of clocks with a spring engine tentatively arose in the second half of the 15th century. Thanks to this invention next step was the discovery of smaller variations of watches.
First pocket watch
The next step in revolutionary devices was the first pocket watch. New development appeared approximately in 1510 thanks to a mechanic from German city Nurberg to Peter Henlein. Main Feature the device became a mainspring. The model showed the time with just one hand, showing the approximate period of time. The case was made of gold-plated brass in the shape of an oval, and as a result received the name "Nuremberg Egg". In the future, watchmakers sought to repeat and improve on the example and likeness of the first.
Who invented the first modern mechanical watch
If we talk about modern clocks, in 1657 the Dutch inventor Christian Huygens first used the pendulum as a clock regulator, and by this he managed to significantly reduce the reading error in his invention. In the first Huygens hours, the daily error did not exceed 10 seconds (for comparison, earlier the error ranged from 15 to 60 minutes). The watchmaker was able to offer a solution - new regulators for both kettlebell and spring watches. Now from that moment on, the mechanisms have become much more perfect.
It should be noted that in all periods of the search for the ideal solution, they remained an indispensable subject of delight, surprise and admiration. Each new invention struck with its beauty, laborious work and painstaking discoveries to improve the mechanism. And even today, watchmakers do not cease to delight us with new solutions in production. mechanical models, emphasizing the uniqueness and accuracy of each of its devices.
Time is one of fundamental concepts which a person is trying to comprehend and understand so far. The ideas about time changed with the development of science and technology, and along with the change in ideas, the instruments for measuring them also changed, that is, chronometers or, speaking plain language, watch. In this article, we will talk about who, when and where invented the first watches of various types, talk about the evolution and history of the invention of watches, and also tell Interesting Facts about hours.
The invention of the sundial
Budget option sundial
The change of seasons, the change of day and night prompted the first people to think about changing the surrounding reality, moreover, a regular, periodic change. Society was developing, so it became necessary to synchronize their actions in space and time, and for this a time meter was needed. Most likely, the first sundial had primarily a religious meaning and was used for rituals. Now it is difficult to determine exactly when human mind saw the relationship between the length of the shadow from various items and where the sun is now.
The general principle of a sundial is that there is some elongated pointer that casts a shadow. This pointer acts as a clock hand. A dial is placed around the pointer, where various divisions(divisions, generally speaking, can be any) that correlate with certain units of time adopted in a particular culture. The Earth moves around the Sun, so the shadow changes its position, and also lengthens and shortens, which allows you to determine the time, albeit very inaccurately.
The earliest known sundial is the shadow clock used in ancient Egyptian and Babylonian astronomy, which dates back to 1500 BC. Although later scientists announced some kind of limestone clock, whose age reached 3300 BC.
The oldest sundial from the Valley of the Kings of Egypt (c. 1500 BC)
Also, various sundials were later found in ancient Egyptian temples, tombs and memorials. Later, the usual vertically installed obelisks showed a drawback, since their shadow went beyond the borders of the plate with divisions. To replace them, they came up with a sundial that casts a shadow on an inclined surface or steps.
Drawing of a sundial from Kantara, where the shadow falls on an inclined plane
There are finds of sundials in other countries. For example, there is a sundial from China, which is distinguished by its device.
Equatorial sundial. China. forbidden city
Interesting fact. The division of the dial into 12 parts is inherited from the hexadecimal number system of ancient Sumer. If you look at your palm with inside, then note that each finger (do not count the thumb) consists of three phalanges. We multiply 3 by 4 and we get the same 12. Later, the Babylonians developed this number system, and from them it most likely passed into Ancient Egypt like a tradition. And now, after thousands of years, we see the same 12 parts on the dial.
Sundial was further developed in Ancient Greece, where the ancient Greek philosophers Anaximander and Anaximenes took up their improvement. It is from ancient Greece that the second name for the sundial "gnomon" originates. Then, after the Middle Ages, scientists took up the improvement of the gnomon, who even singled out the creation and adjustment of such a sundial in a separate section and called it gnomonics. As a result, sundials were used right up to the end of the 18th century, since their creation was affordable and did not require any technological troubles. Even now you can find similar sundials in cities, which have lost their practical meaning and have become ordinary sights.
To the main disadvantages of such watches It should be attributed that they can only be used in sunny weather. Also, they are not accurate enough.
Modern sundial
Modern sundials usually play a role interesting monuments and attractions. Here is some of them.
At present, the sundial is only a funny historical artifact and a wide practical application Dont Have. But some craftsmen and inventors continue to improve them. For example, a French engineer invented the digital sundial. Their peculiarity is that they depict time in digital format with the help of shadows.
True, the step of such watches is 20 minutes and the digital time option will be available only from 10 am to 4 pm.
Invention of the water clock
It is impossible to say exactly when the water clock (the first name of clepsydra) was invented, since they, along with sundial are among the most ancient inventions of man. It can be reliably said that the ancient Babylonians and ancient Egyptians were familiar with the water clock. Approximately the date of invention of the clock is considered to be 1600 - 1400 BC, but some researchers claim that the first clock was known in China in 4000 BC.
Water clocks were known in Persia, Egypt, Babylon, India, China, Greece, Rome, and in the Middle Ages they reached Islamic world and Korea.
The Greeks and Romans loved water clocks, so they did a lot to improve them. They developed a new water clock design, thereby increasing the accuracy of time measurement. Later improvements took place in Byzantium, Syria and Mesopotamia, where increasingly new accurate versions of the water clock were supplemented by complex segmental and planetary gears, water wheels and even programmability. Interestingly, the Chinese developed their own advanced water clock which included an escapement mechanism and a water wheel. The ideas of the Chinese passed to Korea and Japan.
Ancient Greek water clock "clepsydra". They looked like a vessel with a hole at the bottom through which water flowed. Time with the help of these clocks was determined by the amount of water flowing out. Numbering corresponds to 12 hours.
It is also interesting to look at the medieval clock "Elephant" of the inventor Al-Jazari, who was a Muslim engineer and inventor different kind hours. He built a clock interesting in its design and symbolism. When he finished his work, he described it like this:
"The elephant represents Indian and African cultures, the two dragons represent ancient Chinese culture, the phoenix represents Persian culture, the water work reflects ancient Greek culture, and the turban represents Islamic culture"
Scheme of the clock "Elephant"
Reconstruction of the clock "Elephant"
Interesting fact. You may have seen a clepsydra watch on the Ford Boyard TV show. These clocks hung outside every test room.
Clock from the program "Ford Boyard"
Early water clocks were calibrated using a sundial. Though the water clock never reached modern level accuracy, but for their time they remained the most accurate and frequently used clockwork for thousands of years, until they were replaced in Europe by more accurate pendulum clocks.
The main disadvantage of a water clock is the liquid itself, which can condense, evaporate or freeze. Therefore, they were quickly supplanted by the hourglass.
Modern water clock
Only a few modern water clocks exist today. In 1979, the French scientist Bernard Gitton began to create his time-flow clock, which is a modern approach to the design of ancient mechanisms. Gitton's design is based on gravity. Several siphons are fed on the same principle as the Pythagorean cup (a special vessel invented by Pythagoras, which pours out excess water from the vessel).
For example, after the water level is reached in the tubes with minutes or hours displayed, the overflow pipe starts to act as a siphon and thus empties the indicator tube. The actual time keeping is performed by a calibrated pendulum, which is powered by a stream of water coming from the watch's reservoir. There are other modern water clock designs, including the Royal Gorge water clock in Colorado, in mall Woodgrove Mall in Nanaimo British Columbia and the Hornsby water clock in Sydney, Australia.
Invention of the hourglass
An hourglass is a device used to measure time. It consists of two glass vessels connected vertically by a narrow neck, which allows you to control the trickle of a certain substance (historically the first was sand) from the top of the flask to the bottom. Factors affecting the measured time interval include the amount of sand, sand size, vessel size, and neck width. The hourglass can be reused indefinitely, turning over the vessels once the top one is empty.
The origin of the hourglass is not entirely clear. According to American Institute New York hourglass invented in Alexandria around 150 B.C.
In Europe, before the 8th century, the hourglass was known only in Ancient Greece, and in the 8th century, a Frankish monk named Luitprand creates the first French hourglass. But only in the 14th century did the hourglass become commonplace, the earliest evidence was the image on the fresco of 1338 "Allegory of Good Government" by Ambrogio Lorenzetti.
The image of the clock on the fresco "Allegory of Good Government"
The use of the marine hourglass has been documented since the 14th century. Marine hourglasses were very popular aboard ships as they were the most reliable way to measure time while at sea. Unlike a water clock, the movement of a ship while sailing did not affect the hourglass. The fact that the hourglass also used granular materials instead of liquids gave more accurate measurements, as the water clock was prone to condensation inside it during temperature changes. Sailors found that the hourglass was able to help them determine longitude, the distance east or west of a particular point, with reasonable accuracy.
The hourglass has also found popularity on land. As the use of mechanical clocks to mark the time of events such as church services has become more common, creating the need to keep track of time, the demand for time keeping devices has increased. Hourglasses were essentially inexpensive, as they did not require rare technology and their contents were not hard to find, and as the production of these instruments became more common, their use became more practical.
Hourglass in the church
Hourglasses were commonly used in churches, homes, and workplaces to measure sermons, food preparation, and time spent taking breaks from work. As they were used for more mundane tasks, the hourglass model began to shrink. The smaller models were more practical and very popular as they increased the level of punctuality.
After 1500, the hourglass began to lose its popularity. This was due to the development of mechanical watches, which became more accurate, smaller and cheaper and made it easier to measure time.
The hourglass, however, has not completely disappeared. Although they have become relatively less useful as Hi-tech hours, the hourglass remained desirable in its design. The oldest surviving hourglass is in british museum in London.
Modern hourglass
Like the sundial, the hourglass is often made as an object of interest:
The world's largest hourglass. Moscow.
This hourglass stands to commemorate Hungary's accession to the European Union. They are able to count the time for a whole year.
But there are also miniature options used as souvenirs and key rings. For example, children's hourglass toys are quite popular, which allow you to measure the time that you need to spend brushing your teeth. They can be purchased on aliexpress at a fairly low price.
But in fact, the hourglass is still used in practice! You ask where? The answer is in clinics and hospitals. This watch is convenient to use to see patients. It is also convenient to use them as a timer when preparing food in the kitchen. Such watches are sold for about a dollar on the same aliexpress
Well, and a very interesting version of the hourglass, where magnetized shavings are used instead of sand. When sprinkling in the lower part of the watch, a bunch of a specific shape is formed, which you can look at for relaxation (an effect similar to the torsion of a spinner). Buy such a watch, and people from Russia write that the delivery works fine and the watch is packed well.
Mechanical clocks, reminiscent of modern ones, appeared in the 14th century in Europe. These are watches using a weight or spring energy source, and as an oscillatory system they use a pendulum or balance regulator. There are six main components of a watch mechanism:
1) engine;
2) transmission mechanism of gears;
3) a regulator that creates uniform motion;
4) trigger distributor;
5) pointer mechanism;
6) the mechanism of translation and winding hours.
The first mechanical clocks were called tower wheel clocks, they were set in motion by a falling weight. The drive mechanism was a smooth wooden shaft with a rope to which a stone was wound, acting as a weight. Under the action of the gravity of the weight, the rope began to unwind and rotate the shaft. If this shaft is connected through intermediate wheels to the main ratchet wheel connected to pointer arrows, then this whole system will somehow indicate the time. The problems of such a mechanism are in the enormous heaviness and the need for the weight to fall somewhere and in not uniform, but accelerated rotation of the shaft. To satisfy everything the necessary conditions, for the operation of the mechanism, structures were built huge size, as a rule, in the form of a tower, the height of which was not less than 10 meters, and the weight of the weight reached 200 kg, of course, all the details of the mechanism were of impressive size. Faced with the problem of uneven rotation of the shaft, medieval mechanics realized that the course of the clock could not depend only on the movement of the load.
The mechanism must be supplemented with a device that would control the movement of the entire mechanism. So there was a device restraining the rotation of the wheel, it was called "Bilyanets" - the regulator.
Bilyanec was a metal rod located parallel to the surface of the ratchet wheel. Two blades are attached to the bilyants axis at right angles to each other. As the wheel turns, the tooth pushes the paddle until it slips off and releases the wheel. At this time, another scapula with opposite side wheel enters the recess between the teeth and restrains its movement. While working, the Bilyanian sways. With each full swing, the ratchet wheel moves one tooth. The swing speed of the bilyantse is interconnected with the speed of the ratchet wheel. Weights are hung on the bilyants' rod, usually in the form of balls. By adjusting the size of these weights and their distance from the axle, it is possible to make the ratchet wheel move at different speeds. Of course, this oscillatory system is inferior to the pendulum in many respects, but it can be used in clocks. However, any regulator will stop if you do not constantly keep it oscillating. For the clock to work, it is necessary that part of the motive energy from the main wheel is constantly supplied to the pendulum or bilyants. This task in the clock is performed by a device called a trigger distributor.
Different types of bilyants
The escapement is the most complex assembly in a mechanical watch. Through it, a connection is made between the regulator and the transmission mechanism. On the one hand, the escapement transmits the jolts from the engine to the governor that are necessary to maintain the governor oscillation. On the other hand, it subordinates the movement of the transmission mechanism to the laws of the movement of the regulator. The exact running of the clock depends mainly on the escapement, the design of which puzzled the inventors.
The very first trigger was a spindle. The regulator of this watch was the so-called spindle, which is a rocker with heavy loads, mounted on a vertical axis and driven alternately to the right, then to the left rotation. The inertia of the weights had a braking effect on the clock mechanism, slowing down the rotation of its wheels. The accuracy of such watches with a spindle regulator was low, and the daily error exceeded 60 minutes.
Since the first watches did not have a special winding mechanism, preparing the watch for work required a lot of effort. Several times a day it was necessary to lift great height heavy weight and overcome the huge resistance of all the gears of the transmission mechanism. Therefore, already in the second half of the XIV century, the main wheel began to be fixed in such a way that during the reverse rotation of the shaft (counterclockwise), it remained motionless. Over time, the design of mechanical watches became more complex. The number of wheels of the transmission mechanism has increased. the mechanism experienced a heavy load and quickly wore out, and the load fell very quickly and had to be raised several times a day. In addition, to create large gear ratios, wheels were required too large diameter, which increased the size of the watch. Therefore, they began to introduce intermediate additional wheels, the task of which was to smoothly increase the gear ratios.
Tower clock mechanisms
The tower clock was a capricious mechanism and required constant monitoring (due to the friction force, it needed constant lubrication) and the participation of maintenance personnel (lifting the load). Despite the large error in the diurnal variation, for a long time this clock remained the most accurate and widespread instrument for measuring time. The mechanism of the clock became more complicated, other devices that perform various functions began to be associated with the clock. Eventually, the tower clock evolved into a complex device with many hands, automatic moving figures, a varied chiming system, and magnificent decorations. They were masterpieces of art and technology at the same time.
For example, the Prague Clock Tower, built in 1402, was equipped with automatic movable figures, which during the battle played out a real theatrical performance. Above the dial, before the battle, two windows were opened from which 12 apostles emerged. The figurine of Death stood on right side dial and with each chime of the clock turned the scythe, and the man standing nearby nodded his head, emphasizing the fatal inevitability and the hourglass, reminded of the end of life. On the left side of the dial there were 2 more figures, one depicted a man with a wallet in his hands, who every hour rang with the coins lying there, showing that time is money. Another figure depicted a traveler who measuredly struck the ground with his staff, showing the vanity of life. After the chiming of the clock, a figurine of a rooster appeared, which crowed three times. Christ was the last to appear in the window and blessed all the spectators standing below.
Another example of a tower clock was the construction of the master Giunello Turriano, who needed 1800 wheels to create a tower clock. This watch reproduced the daytime motion of Saturn, the hours of the day, annual movement Sun, the movement of the Moon, as well as all the planets in accordance with the Ptolemaic system of the universe. To create such automata, special software devices were required, which were set in motion by a large disk controlled by a clockwork. All the moving parts of the figures had levers that either rose or fell under the action of the rotation of the circle, when the levers fell into special cutouts and teeth of the rotating disk. Also, the tower clock had a separate mechanism for the fight, which was set in motion by its own weight, and many clocks differently beat noon, midnight, an hour, a quarter of an hour.
After wheel clocks, more advanced spring clocks appeared. The first references to the manufacture of clocks with a spring engine date back to the second half of the 15th century. The manufacture of spring-powered clocks paved the way for the creation of miniature clocks. The source of driving energy in a spring watch was a wound and tending to unfold spring. It consisted of an elastic, hardened steel band wound around a shaft inside a drum. outer end the spring was attached to the hook in the wall of the drum, the inner one was connected to the drum shaft. The spring sought to turn around and set the drum and the gear wheel associated with it in rotation. The gear wheel in turn transmitted this movement to the gear system up to and including the governor. The masters faced a number of complex technical tasks. The main one concerned the operation of the engine itself. Since for the correct running of the watch, the spring must act on the wheel mechanism with the same force for a long time. For what it is necessary to force it to unfold evenly and slowly.
The invention of constipation was the impetus for the creation of spring watches. It was a small latch that fit into the teeth of the wheels and allowed the spring to unwind only so that its entire body turned at the same time, and with it the wheels of the clockwork.
Since the spring has an unequal force of elasticity at different stages of its deployment, the first watchmakers had to resort to various tricks to make its course more uniform. Later, when they learned how to make high-quality steel for watch springs, they were no longer needed. In modern inexpensive watches, the spring is simply made long enough, designed for about 30-36 hours of operation, but it is recommended to start the watch once a day at the same time. A special device prevents the spring from rolling up to the end during the plant. As a result, the spring stroke is used only in the middle part, when the spring force is more uniform.
The next step towards the improvement of mechanical clocks was the discovery of the laws of pendulum oscillation made by Galileo. The creation of pendulum clocks consisted in connecting a pendulum to a device for maintaining its oscillations and counting them. In fact, pendulum clocks are advanced spring clocks.
At the end of his life, Galileo began to design such watches, but things did not go further than developments. And after the death of the great scientist, the first pendulum clock was created by his son. The design of these watches was kept in strict confidence, so they did not have any influence on the development of technology.
Independently of Galileo, Huygens assembled a mechanical pendulum clock in 1657.
When replacing the rocker arm with a pendulum, the first designers encountered a problem. It consisted in the fact that the pendulum creates isochronous oscillations only at a small amplitude, while the spindle escapement required a large swing. In the first hours of Huygens, the swing of the pendulum reached 40-50 degrees, which violated the accuracy of the movement. To compensate for this shortcoming, Huygens had to show ingenuity and create a special pendulum, which, during the swing, changed its length and oscillated along a cycloid curve. Huygens's clock was incomparably more accurate than a rocker clock. Their daily error did not exceed 10 seconds (in watches with a yoke regulator, the error ranged from 15 to 60 minutes). Huygens invented new regulators for both spring and weight clocks. The mechanism became much more perfect when a pendulum was used as a regulator.
In 1676, Clement, an English watchmaker, invented the anchor escapement, which was ideally suited to pendulum clocks that had a small oscillation amplitude. This design of the descent was the axis of the pendulum on which the anchor with pallets was mounted. Swinging along with the pendulum, the pallets were alternately introduced into the running wheel, subordinating its rotation to the period of the pendulum's oscillation. The wheel had time to turn one tooth with each oscillation. Such a trigger mechanism allowed the pendulum to receive periodic shocks that did not allow it to stop. The push occurred when the running wheel, freed from one of the anchor teeth, hit the other tooth with a certain force. This push was transmitted from the anchor to the pendulum.
The invention of the Huygens pendulum regulator revolutionized the art of watchmaking. Huygens spent a lot of effort on improving pocket spring watches. The main problem of which was in the spindle regulator, as they were constantly in motion, shaking and swaying. All these fluctuations negative impact on running accuracy. In the 16th century, watchmakers began to replace the two-arm bilyany in the form of a rocker arm with a round flywheel. This replacement greatly improved the performance of the clock, but remained unsatisfactory.
An important improvement in the regulator occurred in 1674, when Huygens attached a spiral spring - a hair - to the flywheel.
Now, when the wheel deviated from the neutral position, the hair acted on it and tried to return it to its place. However, the massive wheel slipped through the point of balance and spun in the other direction until the hair pulled it back again. Thus, the first balance regulator or balancer was created, the properties of which were similar to those of a pendulum. Displaced from the state of equilibrium, the wheel of the balance wheel began to make oscillatory movements around its axis. The balancer had permanent period fluctuations, but could work in any position, which is very important for pocket and wrist watch. Huygens' improvement made the same revolution among spring clocks as the introduction of a pendulum into stationary wall clocks.
The Englishman Robert Hooke, independently of the Dutchman Christian Huygens, also developed an oscillatory mechanism based on the vibrations of a spring-loaded body - a balancing mechanism. The balancing mechanism is used, as a rule, in portable watches, as it can be operated in different provisions, which cannot be said about the pendulum mechanism, which is used in wall and grandfather clocks, since immobility is important for it.
The balancing mechanism includes:
balance wheel;
Spiral;
Fork;
Thermometer - accuracy adjustment lever;
Ratchet.
To regulate the accuracy of the stroke, a thermometer is used - a lever that takes some part of the spiral out of work. The wheel and spiral are made of alloys with a small coefficient of thermal expansion due to sensitivity to temperature fluctuations. It is also possible to make a wheel from two different metals so that it flexes when heated (bimetal balance). To improve the accuracy of the balance, the balance was supplied with screws, they allow you to accurately balance the wheel. The appearance of precision automatic machines saved watchmakers from balancing, the screws on the balance became a purely decorative element.
The invention of the new regulator required a new escapement design. Over the next decades, different watchmakers developed different variants descenders. In 1695, Thomas Tompion invented the most simple cylindrical escapement. Tompion's escape wheel was equipped with 15, specially shaped, "legged" teeth. The cylinder itself was a hollow tube, the upper and lower ends of which were tightly packed with two tampons. On the lower tampon, a balancer with a hair was planted. When the balancer oscillated in the corresponding direction, the cylinder also rotated. There was a 150-degree cutout on the cylinder, passing at the level of the teeth of the escapement wheel. When the wheel moved, its teeth alternately entered the cylinder cutout one after the other. Thanks to this, the isochronous movement of the cylinder was transmitted to the escape wheel and through it to the entire mechanism, and the balancer received impulses that supported it.
With the development of science, the clock mechanism became more complicated, and the accuracy of the movement increased. Thus, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, ruby and sapphire bearings were first used for the balance wheel and gears, which made it possible to increase accuracy and power reserve and reduce friction. Gradually, pocket watches were supplemented with more and more complex devices and some samples had a perpetual calendar, automatic winding, an independent stopwatch, a thermometer, a power reserve indicator, a minute repeater, and the work of the mechanism made it possible to see the back cover made of rock crystal.
The invention of the tourbillon in 1801 by Abraham Louis Breguet is still considered the greatest achievement in the watch industry. Breguet managed to solve one of the most big problems watch movements of his time, he found a way to overcome gravity and the associated errors of movement. The tourbillon is a mechanical device designed to improve the accuracy of a watch by compensating for the effect of gravity on the truss rod, and uniform distribution lubrication of the rubbing surfaces of the mechanism when changing the vertical and horizontal positions of the mechanism.
The tourbillon is one of the most impressive movements in modern watches. Such a movement can only be produced by skilled craftsmen, and the company's ability to produce a tourbillon is a sign of its belonging to the watchmaking elite.
Mechanical watches at all times have been the subject of admiration and surprise, they fascinated by the beauty of execution and the difficulty of the mechanism. They also always pleased their owners with unique features and original design. Even today, mechanical watches are a matter of prestige and pride, they are able to emphasize the status and will always show the exact time.
