Elliot55's post delves into humanity's ancient quest to measure time, tracing its origins from the Mayan calendar and Stonehenge to the scientific breakthroughs of Galileo. This exploration highlights the deep historical roots of timekeeping, setting the stage for understanding the evolution of horology. His insights remind us that the intricate mechanisms of modern watches are built upon millennia of human curiosity and innovation.
Mankindâs fascination with
time and unrelenting need to track it goes back thousands of years, probably to
the age of the ancient Mayans and/or Egyptians. With the close of 2012, the Mayan calendar marks the end of
the Baktun and the rebirth of mother earth. Similarly, there are many who believe Stonhenge was designed
to track celestial bodies. And
while the sundial proved to be a great way to guess what part of the day it
was, true accuracy in timekeeping wasnât really achieved until the early 13th
century. Although no one is really
sure, my guess is it was probably some Italian guy that figured the whole thing
out. After all, this was the time
when all the âsmarty pantsesâ were
hanging around - like Galileo and da Vinci.
Mayan Calendar
Stonehenge
Some (British) historians
argue it is the Brits that can claim they were the first to reliably and
accurately mark the passage of time, but my hunch tells me it was the
Italians. Around 1602-ish, Galileo was very busy studying
gravityâs affect and took notice of the simplistic way a pendulum swings to and
fro. In so doing, he is credited
with scienceâs greatest contribution to marking accurate time. In fact, the pendulumâs accuracy would
stand for over 300 years until the invention of the quartz clock in 1932.
Galileo
Time keepingâs next major
breakthrough would come in 1735 when John Harrison, a self-proclaimed
carpenter, developed a method to make a clock perform accurately on a
ship. With world trade growing at
an exponential rate, some voyages would last for several months. An error in course of just a few
degrees could put the ship and its crew in uncharted waters and far from its
destination. This gave rise to the
âLongitude Actâ, a prize of twenty-thousand pounds (at the time an absolutely
ridiculous sum) offered by the British monarchy under King George I. Now known as a ships chronometer, this
âclock in a boxâ is mounted on a gimbal-like device allowing the clock to move
with the yaw and pitch of the ship.
Harrison's Ship Clock
Timekeepingâs next
milestone came in 1795, when Abraham Louis Breguet developed the Tourbillon (which literally means
âwhirlwindâ) movement. In short,
Breguetâs invention is a movement in a movement. Keep in mind, at the time only rich people or nobility could
afford a [pocket] watch (there were no âwristwatchesâ). But there were working folk - like the
guys on the railroad - who also needed an accurate method of keeping time. The major problem with a [pocket] watch
is that the regulator is susceptible to gravity. And so, every time a conductor would take a watch out of his
pocket, look at the time, and then return the watch to his pocket, a âdriftâ
would occur in the timepieceâs accuracy.
Multiply that same action across the entire line of train conductors (or
the worldâs ship captains) and pretty soon you have got an awful lot of trains
(and boats) crashing together. The
tourbillon escapement, as it is
formerly known, compensates for gravity by essentially wrapping the escapement
and balance wheel assembly inside of an independently rotating cage. To be sure, there is nothing more
fascinating than watching a tourbillon movement, which has an almost hypnotic
effect. Also known as the
grandfather of modern watch making he is credited with so many innovations,
even the Russian word for wristwatch is âBreguetâ!
Breguet
Breguet Tradition
End of Part I. Part II Soon To Follow.- Scott
