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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 ...
Islamic water clocks, which used complex gear trains and included arrays of automata, were unrivalled in their sophistication until the mid-14th century. [40] [41] Liquid-driven mechanisms (using heavy floats and a constant-head system) were developed that enabled water clocks to work at a slower rate. [41]
The Sumerian calendar was the next earliest, ... Water clock and sun dials are mentioned in many ancient Hindu texts such as the Arthashastra. [28] [29] ...
There is a full description of the clock in the treatise Ktab 'Amal al-sa'at wa-l-amal biha (On the Construction of Clocks and their Use) written by Ridwan b. al Saati in 1203. This treatise describes the reconstruction by Ridwan of the water clock which was built by his father, Muhammad al-Saati, in the reign of Nur al-Din Mahmud b.
The MUL.APIN contains catalogues of stars and constellations as well as schemes for predicting heliacal risings and settings of the planets, and lengths of daylight as measured by a water clock, gnomon, shadows, and intercalations. The Babylonian GU text arranges stars in 'strings' that lie along declination circles and thus measure right ...
The invention of the mechanical clock in the 13th century initiated a change in timekeeping methods from continuous processes, such as the motion of the gnomon's shadow on a sundial or the flow of liquid in a water clock, to periodic oscillatory processes, such as the swing of a pendulum or the vibration of a quartz crystal, [3] [79] which had ...
Oct. 16—A young, Northern New Mexico farmer takes a stone bowl to two scientists and tells them this ancient relic can be a tool for learning about the essence of water. One scientist dismisses ...
The Zhou dynasty is believed to have used the outflow water clock around the same time, devices which were introduced from Mesopotamia as early as 2000 BCE. Other ancient timekeeping devices include the candle clock , used in ancient China , ancient Japan , England and Mesopotamia; the timestick , widely used in India and Tibet , as well as ...