Time and Its Measurement E-Book

James Arthur

• Herausgeber: Science & Technology Publishing
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 113

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Time and Its Measurement by James R. Cameron is a comprehensive exploration of humanity’s enduring quest to understand, quantify, and master the passage of time. This engaging work traces the fascinating history of timekeeping from ancient civilizations to the modern era, revealing how the measurement of time has shaped societies, cultures, and scientific progress. Cameron delves into the earliest methods of tracking time, such as sundials, water clocks, and hourglasses, and explains their significance in daily life and religious observance. The book examines the evolution of mechanical clocks, the development of accurate pendulum timepieces, and the eventual rise of precision chronometers that revolutionized navigation and industry. With clear explanations and vivid illustrations, Time and Its Measurement brings to life the inventors, astronomers, and craftsmen whose innovations transformed the way people perceived and organized their world. Cameron discusses the standardization of time, the adoption of time zones, and the impact of railroads and telecommunications on global synchronization. The narrative also explores the scientific principles underlying timekeeping, including the astronomical basis for calendars, the physics of oscillation, and the advent of atomic clocks that define modern precision. Throughout, the book highlights the cultural and philosophical implications of measuring time, from the rituals of ancient societies to the relentless pace of contemporary life. Time and Its Measurement is both an accessible introduction and a detailed reference, making it an invaluable resource for students, historians, horology enthusiasts, and anyone curious about the intricate relationship between time and human civilization.

Leseprobe

Note:

Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See

https://archive.org/details/timeitsmeasureme00arth

TIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT

BY

JAMES ARTHUR

REPRINTED FROM POPULAR MECHANICS MAGAZINE

Copyright, 1909, by H. H. Windsor

CHICAGO, 1909

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

HISTORIC OUTLINE

Time as an abstraction. — Ancient divisions of day and night. — Night watches of the Old Testament. — Quarter days and hours of the New Testament. — Shadow, or sun time. — Noon mark dials. — Ancient dials of Herculaneum and Pompeii. — Modern dials. — Equation of time. — Three historic methods of measuring time. — “Time-boy” of India. — Chinese clepsydra. — Ancient weather and time stations. — Tower of the winds, Athens, Greece Page 13

CHAPTER II

JAPANESE CLOCKS

Chinese and Japanese divisions of the day. — Hours of varying length. — Setting clocks to length of daylight. — Curved line dials. — Numbering hours backwards and strange reasons for same. — Daily names for sixty day period. — Japanese clock movements practically Dutch. — Japanese astronomical clock. — Decimal numbers very old Chinese. — Original vertical dials founded on “bamboo stick” of Chinese clepsydra. — Mathematics and superstition. — Mysterious disappearance of hours 1, 2, 3. — Eastern mental attitude towards time. — Japanese methods of striking hours and half hours Page 25

CHAPTER III

MODERN CLOCKS

De Vick's clock of 1364. — Original “verge” escapement. — “Anchor” and “dead beat” escapements. — “Remontoir” clock. — The pendulum. — Jeweling pallets. — Antique clock with earliest application of pendulum. — Turkish watches. — Correct designs for public clock faces. — Art work on old watches. — 24-hour watch. — Syrian and Hebrew hour numerals. — Correct method of striking hours and quarters. — Design for 24-hour dial and hands. — Curious clocks. — Inventions of the old clock-makers Page 37

CHAPTER IV

ASTRONOMICAL FOUNDATION OF TIME

Astronomical motions on which our time is founded. — Reasons for selecting the sidereal day as a basis for our 24-hour day. — Year of the seasons shorter than the zodiacal year. — Precession of the equinoxes. — Earth's rotation most uniform motion known to us. — Time stars and transits. — Local time. — The date line. — Standard time. — Beginning and ending of a day. — Proposed universal time. — Clock dial for universal time and its application to business. — Next great improvement in clocks and watches indicated. — Automatic recording of the earth's rotation. — Year of the seasons as a unit for astronomers. — General conclusions Page 53

ILLUSTRATIONS

pg pg Portrait of James Arthur 8 Dial of Philadelphia City Hall Clock 37 Interpretation of Chinese and Japanese Methods of Time Keeping 15 Verge Escapement 37 Portable Bronze Sundial from the Ruins of Herculaneum 16 De Vick's Clock of 1364 38 Noon-Mark Sundials 17 Anchor Escapement 38 Modern Horizontal Sundial for Latitude 40°-43´ 18 American Anchor Escapement 39 The Earth, Showing Relation of Dial Styles to Axis 18 Dead Beat Escapement 39 Modern Sundial Set Up in Garden 18 Remontoir Clock by James Arthur 40 "Time-Boy" of India 19 Remontoir Clock Movement 40 "Hon-woo-et-low," or "Copper Jars Dropping Water"—Canton, China 19 Antique Clock, Entirely Hand-Made 41, 42 Modern Sand Glass or "Hour Glass" 20 Double-Case Watch of Repoussé Work 42 Tower of the Winds, Athens, Greece 20 Triple-Case Turkish Watches 43 Key to Japanese Figures 25 Watch Showing Dutch Art Work 43 Japanese Dials Set for Long and Short Days 25 Triple-Case Turkish Watch 44 Japanese Striking Clock with Weight and Short Pendulum 26 Watches Showing Art Work 45 Japanese Striking Clock with Spring, Fusee and Balance 26 Antique Watch Cock 46 Japanese Clock with Vertical Dial, Weight and Balance 27 "Chinese" Watch 46 Japanese Clock with Vertical Dial Having Curved Lines, Weight and Balance 27 Musical Watch, Repeating Hours and Quarters 47 Japanese Vertical Dials 28 Syrian Dial 47 Japanese Striking Clock with Two Balances and Two Escapements 29 Hebrew Numerals 48 "Twelve Horary Branches" and "10 Celestial Stems" as Used in Clocks 30 Twenty-four Hour Watch 48 Key to "12 Horary Branches" and "10 Celestial Stems" 30 Domestic Dial by James Arthur 49 Dial of Japanese Astronomical Clock 31 Local Time—Standard Time—Beginning and Ending of the Day 57 Use of "Yeng Number" and Animal Names of Hours 32 Universal Time Dial Set for Four Places 61 Public Dial by James Arthur 37

LOI

James Arthur

Mr. Arthur is an enthusiastic scientist, a successful inventor and extensive traveler, who has for years been making a study of clocks, watches, and time-measuring devices. He is not only a great authority on this subject, but his collection of over 1500 timepieces gathered from all parts of the globe has been pronounced the finest collection in the world. Mr. Arthur is a pleasing exception to the average business man, for he has found time to do a large amount of study and research along various scientific lines in addition to conducting an important manufacturing business in New York City, of which he is president. Mr. Arthur is 67 years of age.—H. H. Windsor.

CHAPTER I HISTORIC OUTLINE

Time as an abstraction. — Ancient divisions of day and night. — Night watches of the Old Testament. — Quarter days and hours of the New Testament. — Shadow or sun time. — Noon mark dials. — Ancient dials of Herculaneum and Pompeii. — Modern Dials. — Equation of time. — Three historic methods of measuring time. — “Time-boy” of India. — Chinese clepsydra. — Ancient weather and time stations. — Tower of the winds, Athens, Greece.

Time, as a separate entity, has not yet been defined in language. Definitions will be found to be merely explanations of the sense in which we use the word in matters of practical life. No human being can tell how long a minute is; only that it is longer than a second and shorter than an hour. In some sense we can think of a longer or shorter period of time, but this is merely comparative. The difference between 50 and 75 steps a minute in marching is clear to us, but note that we introduce motion and space before we can get a conception of time as a succession of events, but time, in itself, remains elusive.

In time measures we strive for a uniform motion of something and this implies equal spaces in equal times; so we here assume just what we cannot explain, for space is as difficult to define as time. Time cannot be “squared” or used as a multiplier or divisor. Only numbers can be so used; so when we speak of “the square of the time” we mean some number which we have arbitrarily assumed to represent it. This becomes plain when we state that in calculations relating to pendulums, for example, we may use seconds and inches—minutes and feet—or seconds and meters and the answer will come out right in the units which we have assumed. Still more, numbers themselves have no meaning till they are applied to something, and here we are applying them to time, space and motion; so we are trying to explain three abstractions by a fourth! But, happily, the results of these assumptions and calculations are borne out in practical human life, and we are not compelled to settle the deep question as to whether fundamental knowledge is possible to the human mind. Those desiring a few headaches on these questions can easily get them from Kant and Spencer—but that is all they will get on these four necessary assumptions.

Evidently, man began by considering the day as a unit and did not include the night in his time keeping for a long period. “And the evening and the morning were the first day” Gen. 1, 5; “Evening and morning and at noonday,” Ps. LV, 17, divides the day (“sun up”) in two parts. “Fourth part of a day,” Neh. IX, 3, shows another advance. Then comes, “are there not twelve hours in a day,” John XI, 9. The “eleventh hour,” Matt. XX, 1 to 12, shows clearly that sunset was 12 o'clock. A most remarkable feature of this 12-hour day, in the New Testament, is that the writers generally speak of the third, sixth and ninth hours, Acts II, 15; III, 1; X, 9. This is extremely interesting, as it shows that the writers still thought in quarter days (Neh. IX, 3) and had not yet acquired the 12-hour conception given to them by the Romans. They thought in quarter days even when using the 12-hour numerals! Note further that references are to “hours;” so it is evident that in New Testament times they did not need smaller subdivisions. “About the third hour,” shows the mental attitude. That they had no conception of our minutes, seconds and fifth seconds becomes quite plain when we notice that they jumped down from the hour to nowhere, in such expressions as “in an instant—in the twinkling of an eye.”

Before this, the night had been divided into three watches, Judges VII, 19. Poetry to this day uses the “hours” and the “watches” as symbols.

This 12 hours of daylight gave very variable hours in latitudes some distance from the equator, being long in summer and short in winter. The amount of human ingenuity expended on time measures so as to divide the time from sunrise to sunset into 12 equal parts is almost beyond belief. In Constantinople, to-day, this is used, but in a rather imperfect manner, for the clocks are modern and run 24 hours uniformly; so the best they can do is to set them to mark twelve at sunset. This necessitates setting to the varying length of the days, so that the clocks appear to be sometimes more and sometimes less than six hours ahead of ours. A clock on the tower at the Sultan's private mosque gives the impression of being out of order and about six hours ahead, but it is running correctly to their system. Hotels often show two clocks, one of them to our twelve o'clock noon system. Evidently the Jewish method of ending a day at sunset is the same and explains the command, “let not the sun go down upon thy wrath,” which we might read, do not carry your anger over to another day. I venture to say that we still need that advice.

This simple line of steps in dividing the day and night is taken principally from the Bible because everyone can easily look up the passages quoted and many more, while quotations from books not in general use would not be so clear. Further, the neglect of the Bible is such a common complaint in this country that if I induce a few to look into it a little some good may result, quite apart from the matter of religious belief.

Some Chinese and Japanese methods of dividing the day and night are indicated in Fig. 1. The old Japanese method divides the day into six hours and the night also into six, each hour averaging twice as long as ours. In some cases they did this by changing the rate of the clock, and in others by letting the clock run uniformly and changing the hour marks on the dial, but this will come later when we reach Japanese clocks.

It is remarkable that at the present time in England the “saving daylight” agitation is virtually an attempt to go back to this discarded system. “John Bull,” for a long period the time-keeper of the world with headquarters at Greenwich, and during that time the most pretentious clock-maker, now proposes to move his clocks backward and forward several times a year so as to “fool” his workmen out of their beds in the mornings! Why not commence work a few minutes earlier each fortnight while days are lengthening and the reverse when they are shortening?

This reminds me of a habit which was common in Scotland,—“keeping the clock half an hour forward.” In those days work commenced at six o'clock, so the husband left his house at six and after a good walk arrived at the factory at six! Don't you see that if his clock had been set right he would have found it necessary to leave at half past five? But, you say he was simply deceiving himself and acting in an unreasonable manner. Certainly, but the average man is not a reasonable being, and “John Bull” knows this and is trying to fool the average Englishman.

LOI

Fig. 1—Interpretation of Chinese and Japanese Methods of Time Keeping

Now, as to the methods of measuring time, we must use circumstantial evidence for the pre-historic period. The rising and the going down of the sun—the