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Su Song was of Hokkien ancestry [13] who was born in modern-day Fujian, near medieval Quanzhou. [14] Like his contemporary, Shen Kuo (1031–1095), Su Song was a polymath, a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different fields of study.
The original diagram of the book by Su Song in 1092, showing the inner workings of his clock tower, with the clepsydra tank, a waterwheel with scoops and the escapement, a chain drive, the armillary sphere crowning the top, and the rotating wheel with clock jacks that sounded the hours with bells, gongs, and drums.
The later Song dynasty historical text of the Song Shi (compiled in 1345 AD) records Zhang's work (Wade-Giles spelling): . At the beginning of the Thai-Phing Hsing-Kuo reign-period (+976) the Szechuanese Chang Ssu-Hsun [Zhang Sixun], a student in the Bureau of Astronomy, invented an astronomical clock (lit. armillary sphere, hun i) and presented the designs to the emperor Thai Tsung, who ...
In the 11th century, the Song dynasty Chinese horologist, mechanical engineer, and astronomer Su Song created a water-driven astronomical clock for his clock-tower of Kaifeng City. Su Song is noted for having incorporated an escapement mechanism and the earliest known endless power-transmitting chain drive for his clock-tower and armillary ...
Su's clock tower also featured the oldest known endless power-transmitting chain drive, called the tian ti (天梯), or "celestial ladder", as depicted in his horological treatise.The clock tower had 133 different clock jacks to indicate and sound the hours. Su Song's treatise about the clock tower, Xinyi Xiangfayao (新 儀 . 象 法 要), has ...
Su Song was the engineer of a hydro-mechanical astronomical clock tower in medieval Kaifeng, which employed the use of an early escapement mechanism. However, the clock itself was dismantled by the invading Jurchen army in AD 1127, and although attempts were made to reassemble the clock tower, it was never successfully reinstated.
In 976, the Song dynasty astronomer Zhang Sixun addressed the problem of the water in clepsydrae freezing in cold weather when he replaced the water with liquid mercury. [32] A water-powered astronomical clock tower was built by the polymath Su Song in 1088, [33] which featured the first known endless power-transmitting chain drive. [34]
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 ...