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The mathematician and astronomer Theodosius of Bithynia (c. 160 BCE to c. 100 BCE) is said to have invented a universal sundial that could be used anywhere on Earth. [15] The Romans adopted the Greek sundials, and the first record of a sundial in Rome is in 293 BCE according to Pliny. [16]
A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day ... It was likely invented by William Oughtred around 1600 and became common throughout Europe. [51]
The Romans inherited the sundial from the Greeks. [19] The first sundial in Rome arrived in 264 BC, looted from Catania in Sicily. This sundial offered the innovation of the hours of the "horologium" throughout the day where before the Romans simply split the day into early morning and forenoon (mane and ante merididiem). [20]
Ancient Egyptian sundial (c. 1500 BC), from the Valley of the Kings, used for measuring work hour. Daytime divided into 12 parts. The ancient Egyptians were one of the first cultures to widely divide days into generally agreed-upon equal parts, using early timekeeping devices such as sundials, shadow clocks, and merkhets (plumb-lines used by early astronomers).
A Roman era sundial on display at a museum in Side, Turkey. The Romans used various ancient timekeeping devices. According to Pliny, Sundials, or shadow clocks, were first introduced to Rome when a Greek sundial captured from the Samnites was set up publicly around 293-290 BC., [2] with another early known example being imported from Sicily in ...
Jang, Ichun, Kimjo, and other scientists made Korea's first sundial, the Angbu-ilgu (앙부일구/ 仰釜日晷), [22] which meant "pot-shaped sun clock staring at the sky". [23] Angbu-ilgu was bronze in composition, and consisted of a bowl marked with 13 meters to indicate time and 4 legs jointed by a cross at the base. [ 23 ]
Sometimes inventions are invented by several inventors around the same time, or may be invented in an impractical form many years before another inventor improves the invention into a more practical form. Where there is ambiguity, the date of the first known working version of the invention is used here.
Little is known about Theodosius' life. The Suda (10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia) mentioned him writing a commentary on Archimedes' Method (late 3rd century BC), [1] and Strabo's Geographica mentioned mathematicians Hipparchus (c. 190 – c. 120 BC) and "Theodosius and his sons" as among the residents of Bithynia distinguished for their learning. [2]