Telling Time Through the Ages

By AmyKent
  • 3000 BCE

    Egyptian Obelisks

    Egyptian Obelisks
    Egyptians told time using an obelisk to mark the movement of it's shadow throughout the day
  • 1500 BCE

    Chinese Rope Burning

    Chinese Rope Burning
    The ancient Chinese burned a thick rope knotted in intervals to tell time
  • 600 BCE

    Ancient Greek and Roman Water Clocks

    Ancient Greek and Roman Water Clocks
    Ancient Greeks and Romans used water clocks (Clepsydra) to use the flow of water to measure time
  • 520 BCE

    Chinese Candle Clocks

    Chinese Candle Clocks
    Ancient Chinese also used the time it took to burn a candle to tell time
  • 300 BCE

    Babylonian Sundial

    Babylonian Sundial
    Babylonians used a sun dial with a 12 hour clock face to tell the time based on the dial's shadow
  • 1000

    Hourglass

    Hourglass
    Europeans used the hourglass to tell time. Time was measured by the length of time necessary for the sand or water to fall from the upper chamber to the lower one.
  • 1300

    European Mechanical clocks

    European Mechanical clocks
    Mechanical clocks used weights and balances to denote time over a 12 hour period, but they didn't keep accurate time
  • 1400

    Italian Watches

    Italian Watches
    The Italians created wearable time pieces that contained coiled springs inside a metal ball with a lid

  • European Pendulum

    European Pendulum
    European mechanical clocks became more reliable time keepers with the addition of a pendulum

  • Standard Time

    Standard Time
    Standard time was developed, wherein the earth was divided into 24 equal time zones from top to bottom, with one hour difference between each neighboring time zones

  • International Date Line

    International Date Line
    An imaginary line drawn through the Pacific Ocean on the 180th meridian that marks the point where travelers change their date by one day

  • Digital Clock

    Digital Clock
    The first digital clocks were invented in 1883 in Austria using an enamel dial and numbers that rotated on a disc

  • Daylight Saving

    Daylight Saving
    System in which many countries set clocks one hour ahead in the spring to delay sunrise and sunset in order to maximize the number of hours in a work day

  • Atomic Clock

    Atomic Clock
    The most accurate method to tell time. Uses an electronic transition frequency in the microwave, optical, or ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum of light to tell time

  • Universal Time Coordinate

    Universal Time Coordinate
    Accurate system adopted around the world as the official measure of time for the planet, with Greenwich, England as the zero point for the world's time zones