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[2] kè literally means "mark" or "engraving", referring to the marks placed on sundials [4] or water clocks [5] to help keep time. Using the definition of kè as 1 ⁄ 100 of a day, each kè is equal to 0.24 hours, 14.4 minutes, or 14 minutes 24 seconds. Every shí contains 8 1 ⁄ 3 kè, with 7 or 8 full kè and partial beginning or ending kè.
Complex gearing for uniquely Chinese clockworks were continued in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), with new designs driven by the power of falling sand instead of water to provide motive power to the wheel drive, and some Ming clocks perhaps featured reduction gearing rather than the earlier escapement of Su Song. [12]
A water clock or clepsydra (from Ancient Greek κλεψύδρα (klepsúdra) 'pipette, water clock'; from κλέπτω (kléptō) 'to steal' and ὕδωρ (hydor) 'water'; lit. ' water thief ' ) is a timepiece by which time is measured by the regulated flow of liquid into (inflow type) or out from (outflow type) a vessel, and where the amount ...
Sundials and water clocks were first used in ancient Egypt c. 1200 BC (or equally acceptable BCE) and later by the Babylonians, the Greeks and the Chinese. Incense clocks were being used in China by the 6th century. In the medieval period, Islamic water clocks were unrivalled in their sophistication until the mid-14th century.
[11] [12] Sundials existed in China since ancient times, but very little is known of their history. It is known that the ancient Chinese developed a form of sundials c. 800 BCE, and the sundials eventually evolved to very sophisticated water clocks by 1000 CE, and sometime in the Song dynasty (1000–1400 CE), a compass would sometimes also be ...
He invented a mechanized water clock with the Tantric monk and mathematician Yi Xing (Chinese: 一行; pinyin: Yī Xíng; Wade–Giles: I-Hsing). [1] [2] [3] It was actually an astronomical instrument that served as a clock, made of bronze in the capital of Chang'an in the 720s. It was described by a contemporary text this way:
It was the earlier Chinese inventor Zhang Heng during the Han dynasty who was the first to apply hydraulic power (i.e. a waterwheel and water clock) in mechanically-driving and rotating his equatorial armillary sphere.
The incense clock (simplified Chinese: 香钟; traditional Chinese: 香鐘; pinyin: xiāngzhōng; Wade–Giles: hsiang-chung; lit. 'fragrance clock') is a timekeeping device that originated from China during the Song dynasty (960–1279) and spread to neighboring East Asian countries such as Japan and Korea.