Ancients on time
Media
Part of Panorama
- Title
- Ancients on time
- Identifier
- Old boys' reckoning
- Language
- English
- Source
- Panorama Volume XII (No. 2) February 1960
- Year
- 1960
- Rights
-
- Fulltext
- Old boys' reckoning Mcients on Ziwie fl t takes a shockproof, waterproof anti-magnetic watch to keep the wheels of modern civilization going. Time was when a knotted rope did just as well. Certain primitive tribes, who never split a second, carried the practice of dividing time by knots into the twentieth century, the National Geographic Society says. On planning a party, a Guiana In dian chief sent identical strands to the coterie. Each guest untied one knot every morning. And when he worked past the last one, it was time to honor the invitation. Debtors and creditors used the same twist. Should the day of rec koning come too fast, the debtor might wheedle a new cord or get leave to retie a few knots in the old one. Since the dawn of society, every civilization has been preoccupied with finding a better way to tell time. Cave man no doubt watched the movements of sun, moon, and stars. He gauged short spans of time bv the shadows of trees and cliffs. It occurred to him one day that he could cause a neater, sharper shadow by setting up a pole in a clearing, with a stone or stones to measure the march of the image. Ipso facto, the first crude sundial. The sundial’s shortcomings are apparent, especially on dark days. Nonetheless, it has served man long and well. The science of dial ing was taught in British schools as late as the seventeenth century. It is possible to buy a modern sundial with a swiveling base, ad justable to daylight or standard time. ‘W! any thousands of years ago, an early hydraulics expert figured out a means of calculating time without sunlight. Of un known nationality, perhaps Chi nese, the genius came up with the water clock or clepsydra—“thief of water.” In its simplest form the clepsydra is a bottlenecked vessel February 1960 29 that gradually loses water through a tiny hole in the bottom. The water clock reached its peak of usefulness in the golden age of Greek and Roman oratory. Some speakers were suspected of putting muddy, sluggish water in to their clepsydras to steal a bit more time. In time clever mechanics added wheels, dials, and ingenious gad gets to the clepsydra. One of the most famous was given to Charle magne by the Shah of Persia. This gold-inlaid water clock fea tured twelve doors that opened in sequence and remained ajar to mark the hours visually. At 12 o’ clock, miniature horsemen popped out to close all the doors. Throughout its long service, the clepsydra had distinct disadvan tages. Water freezes and evapor ates. The clock was expensive and bulky. Sand was the answer. Origin of the handy, portable, non-freez¥ V ing sandglass is lost in time, but it may have been used in Alexan dria at least two-and-a-half centu ries before the Christian Era. The hourglass inspired a mode of dress in later years, and became a sym bol in Father Time’s hand. Fire has always been a con venient timekeeper. Chinese and Japanese burned knotted ropes. Alfred the Great regulated his activities with banded, time-keep ing candles. In recent times Dutch and German farmers used lamp clocks with calibrated-glass oil ves sels. Invention of the truly mechan ical clock is generally credited to the tenth-century monk Gcrbert. Nowadays people everywhere depend more and more on it, and less on the old devices or natural phenomena. “It is past the time of the cock crow” may be a delightfully noetic phrase, but it hardly helps the ha rassed commuter catch the 7:02. ¥ Centrifugal Force Much has been learned about the nature of gravitation through its resemblance to another phenomenon, inertia, es pecially in the form known as centrifugal force. Centrifu gal force is independent of material, is not a function of temperature, and cannot be cut off by any form of screen. In fact, centrifugal force, like gravitation, seems to be a function only of the mass involved and the space and time coordinates of the system. —S. Araneta ¥ 30 Panorama
- pages
- 29+