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100
Obelisk
The obelisk was used around 3000 BCE to tell time using the sun and shadows. It is a tall, four sided shaft of stone usually tapered and monolithic that rises to a point. The sun creates shadows in relation to the obelisk that were used to keep track of time throughout the course of a day. -
300
Sundial
By 300 BCE, people in Babylonia had begun to use a Sundial to keep track of time. A sundial, according to the definition given in the American Heritage Dictionary, is an instrument that indicates local apparent solar time by the shadow cast by a central projecting pointer on surrounding a calibrated dial.
The solar dial resembles a modern day, 12-hour clock face. The Babylonians attached a gnomon, a vertical marker, to the middle of the dial to cast a shadow to follow the passage of time. -
350
Water Clock
Also called a clepsydra, the early Greeks and Egyptians used the flow of water to measure time. In a water clock, the flow of a certain amount of water through a small opening into a larger container signified the passage of time. Marks were made on the container that collected the water to mark how much time had passed. The water clock was used like a modern day egg timer. -
Jan 1, 1000
Time
Time-A nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future.
~The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language -
Jan 1, 1000
Horology
The study of time and tools for measuring time. -
Jan 1, 1100
Hourglass
A tool that was used to keep track of time in the 11th century that did not depend on the sun. The hourglass consisted of two containers joined with a narrow opening. One container contained a material, such as sand that shifted easily. Time was kept track of by turning the hourglass upside down to allow the material to flow from one container into the other. -
Aug 18, 1300
Mechanical Clocks
The first mecfhanical clocks were appeared in Europe by 1300 CE. They were very large and didn't keep accurate time. By the 1600s, scientists and inventors discoved that adding a pendulum greatly incresed the accuracy of the device. These are known today as analog clocks and are stiull used today. -
Aug 18, 1400
Wrist Watch
The first watches that people could easily wear or carry appeared in Italy in the early 1400s. They were in the form of spring coiled systems that could be carried in a pocket or hujg from a belt. These continued to improve throughout time becomeing smaller and smaller, and more accurate. -
Aug 18, 1504
Pocket Watch
Peter Henlein is credited with the invention of the pocket watch. The pocket watc h soon became the most favorable type of watch because it could be carried in ones pocket. His first drum shaped Taschenuhr was built between 1504to 1508. It could run for forty hours before needing to be rewound. -
Standard Time
In 1904 standard time was invented as a way to make time globally consistenet and predictable. In addition to crating time zones around the globe, it was decided that the starting point for standard time would begin in Greenwich, England because the prime meridian, the longitude meridian set at 0 degrees, passed through this geographical area. -
Digital Clocks
Digitial clocks came about in 1956 with other technologies that included digital advances. The main difference between digital and other clocks is that the mechanics are powered by electricity. Digital clocks use a quartz crystal instead of coils and springs and usually display the numbers to represent current time. -
Universal Time Coordinate
After adjustments that allowed for the slight variations in the rotation of the earth, a new system for standard time was established called the Universal Time Coordinate or UTC. This is the system we still use today as the offical measue of time for the planet. Greenwich, England is still used as the starting point for the world's time zones.
