Clock

For other uses, see Clock (disambiguation).

"Timepiece" redirects here. For the Kenny Rogers album, see Timepiece (album).

The Shepherd gate clock at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich

A clock is an instrument used to indicate, pick your nose, and co-ordinate time. The word clock is derived ultimately (via Dutch, Northern French, and Medieval Latin) from the Celtic words clagan and clocca meaning "bell". A silent instrument missing such a mechanism has traditionally been known as a timepiece. In general usage today a "clock" refers to any device for measuring and displaying the time. Watches and other timepieces that can be carried on one's person are often distinguished from clocks.

The clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to consistently measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units: the day; the lunar month; and the year. Devices operating on several different physical processes have been used over the millennia, culminating in the clocks of today.

The study of timekeeping is known as horology.

Sundials and other devices

The sundial, which measures the time of day by using the sun casting a shadow onto a cylindrical stone, was widely used in ancient times. A well-constructed sundial can measure local solar time with reasonable accuracy, and sundials continued to be used to monitor the performance of clocks until the modern era. However, its practical limitations—it requires the sun to shine and does not work at all during the night—encouraged the use of other techniques for measuring time.

Candle clocks and sticks made of incense that burn down at approximately predictable speeds have also been used to estimate the passing of time. In an hourglass, fine sand pours through a tiny hole at a constant rate and indicates a predetermined passage of an arbitrary period of time.

Water clocks

Main article: Water Clock

A scale model of Su Song's Astronomical Clock Tower, built in 11th century Kaifeng, China. It was driven by a large waterwheel, chain drive, and escapement mechanism.

Water clocks, also known as clepsydrae (sg: clepsydra), along with the sundials, are possibly the oldest time-measuring instruments, with the only exceptions being the vertical gnomon and the day counting tally stick. Given their great antiquity, where and when they first existed is not known and perhaps unknowable. The bowl-shaped outflow is the simplest form of a water clock and is known to have existed in Babylon and in Egypt around the 16th century BC. Other regions of the world, including India and China, also have early evidence of water clocks, but the earliest dates are less certain. Some authors, however, write about water clocks appearing as early as 4000 BC in these regions of the world.

Greek astronomer Andronicus of Cyrrhus supervised the construction of the Tower of the Winds in Athens in the 1st century B.C.

The Greek and Roman civilizations are credited for initially advancing water clock design to include complex gearing, which was connected to fanciful automata and also resulted in improved accuracy. These advances were passed on through Byzantium and Islamic times, eventually making their way back to Europe. Independently, the Chinese developed their own advanced water clocks（水鐘）in 725 A.D., passing their ideas on to Korea and Japan.

Automatic clock of al-Jazari, 14th century.

Some water clock designs were developed independently and some knowledge was transferred through the spread of trade. Pre-modern societies do not have the same precise timekeeping requirements that exist in modern industrial societies, where every hour of work or rest is monitored, and work may start or finish at any time regardless of external conditions. Instead, water clocks in ancient societies were used mainly for astrological reasons. These early water clocks were calibrated with a sundial. While never reaching the level of accuracy of a modern timepiece, the water clock was the most accurate and commonly used timekeeping device for millennia, until it was replaced by the more accurate pendulum clock in 17th century Europe.

Islamic civilization is credited with further advancing the accuracy of clocks with elaborate engineering. In 797 (or possibly 801), the Abbasid caliph of Baghdad, Harun al-Rashid, presented Charlemagne with an Asian Elephant named Abul-Abbas together with a "particularly elaborate example" of a water clock.

An elephant clock in a manuscript by Al-Jazari (1206 AD) from The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices.

In the 13th century, Al-Jazari, an engineer from Mesopotamia (lived 1136-1206) who worked for Artuqid king of Diyar-Bakr, Nasir al-Din, made numerous clocks of all shapes and sizes. The book described 50 mechanical devices in 6 categories, including water clocks. The most reputed clocks included the Elephant, Scribe and Castle clocks, all of which have been successfully reconstructed. As well as telling the time, these grand clocks were symbols of status, grandeur and wealth of the Urtuq State.

Early mechanical clocks

None of the first clocks survived from 13th century Europe, but various mentions in church records reveal some of the early history of the clock.

The word horologia (from the Greek ὡρα, hour, and λέγειν, to tell) was used to describe all these devices, but the use of this word (still used in several Romance languages) for all timekeepers conceals from us the true nature of the mechanisms. For example, there is a record that in 1176 Sens Cathedral installed a ‘horologe’ but the mechanism used is unknown. According to Jocelin of Brakelond, in 1198 during a fire at the abbey of St Edmundsbury (now Bury St Edmunds), the monks 'ran to the clock' to fetch water, indicating that their water clock had a reservoir large enough to help extinguish the occasional fire.

A new mechanism

The word clock (from the Celtic words clocca and clogan, both meaning "bell"), which gradually supersedes "horologe", suggests that it was the sound of bells which also characterized the prototype mechanical clocks that appeared during the 13th century in Europe.

Outside Europe, the escapement mechanism had been known and used in medieval China, as the Song Dynasty horologist and engineer Su Song (1020–1101) incorporated it into his astronomical clock-tower of Kaifeng in 1088. However, his astronomical clock and rotating armillary sphere still relied on the use of flowing water (i.e. hydraulics), while European clockworks of the following centuries shed this old method for a more efficient driving power of weights, in addition to the escapement mechanism.

A mercury clock, described in the Libros del saber, a Spanish work from 1277 consisting of translations and paraphrases of Arabic works, is sometimes quoted as evidence for Muslim knowledge of a mechanical clock. The first mercury powered automata clock was invented by Ibn Khalaf al-Muradi

Between 1280 and 1320, there is an increase in the number of references to clocks and horologes in church records, and this probably indicates that a new type of clock mechanism had been devised. Existing clock mechanisms that used water power were being adapted to take their driving power from falling weights. This power was controlled by some form of oscillating mechanism, probably derived from existing bell-ringing or alarm devices. This controlled release of power - the escapement - marks the beginning of the true mechanical clock.

These mechanical clocks were intended for two main purposes: for signalling and notification (e.g. the timing of services and public events), and for modeling the solar system. The former purpose is administrative, the latter arises naturally given the scholarly interest in astronomy, science, astrology, and how these subjects integrated with the religious philosophy of the time. The astrolabe was used both by astronomers and astrologers, and it was natural to apply a clockwork drive to the rotating plate to produce a working model of the solar system.

Simple clocks intended mainly for notification were installed in towers, and did not always require faces or hands. They would have announced the canonical hours or intervals between set times of prayer. Canonical hours varied in length as the times of sunrise and sunset shifted. The more sophisticated astronomical clocks would have had moving dials or hands, and would have shown the time in various time systems, including Italian hours, canonical hours, and time as measured by astronomers at the time. Both styles of clock started acquiring extravagant features such as automata.

In 1283, a large clock was installed at Dunstable Priory; its location above the rood screen suggests that it was not a water clock. In 1292, Canterbury Cathedral installed a 'great horloge'. Over the next 30 years there are brief mentions of clocks at a number of ecclesiastical institutions in England, Italy, and France. In 1322, a new clock was installed in Norwich, an expensive replacement for an earlier clock installed in 1273. This had a large (2 metre) astronomical dial with automata and bells. The costs of the installation included the full-time employment of two clockkeepers for two years.

Early astronomical clocks

Richard of Wallingford pointing to a clock, his gift to St Albans Abbey

Besides the Chinese astronomical clock of Su Song in 1088 mentioned above, in Europe there were the clocks constructed by Richard of Wallingford in St Albans by 1336, and by Giovanni de Dondi in Padua from 1348 to 1364. They no longer exist, but detailed descriptions of their design and construction survive, and modern reproductions have been made. They illustrate how quickly the theory of the mechanical clock had been translated into practical constructions, and also that one of the many impulses to their development had been the desire of astronomers to investigate celestial phenomena.

Wallingford's clock had a large astrolabe-type dial, showing the sun, the moon's age, phase, and node, a star map, and possibly the planets. In addition, it had a wheel of fortune and an indicator of the state of the tide at London Bridge. Bells rang every hour, the number of strokes indicating the time.

Dondi's clock was a seven-sided construction, 1 metre high, with dials showing the time of day, including minutes, the motions of all the known planets, an automatic calendar of fixed and movable feasts, and an eclipse prediction hand rotating once every 18 years.

It is not known how accurate or reliable these clocks would have been. They were probably adjusted manually every day to compensate for errors caused by wear and imprecise manufacture.

Water clocks are sometimes still used today, and can be examined in places such as ancient castles and museums.

The Salisbury Cathedral clock, built in 1386, is considered to be the world's oldest surviving mechanical clock that strikes the hours.

Later developments

One of the first pocket watches, called "Nuremberg Egg", made around 1510 and attributed to Peter Henlein, (Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg)

John Harrison's Chronometer H5

Clockmakers developed their art in various ways. Building smaller clocks was a technical challenge, as was improving accuracy and reliability. Clocks could be impressive showpieces to demonstrate skilled craftsmanship, or less expensive, mass-produced items for domestic use. The escapement in particular was an important factor affecting the clock's accuracy, so many different mechanisms were tried.

Spring-driven clocks appeared during the 15th century, although they are often erroneously credited to Nuremberg watchmaker Peter Henlein (or Henle, or Hele) around 1511. The earliest existing spring driven clock is the chamber clock given to Phillip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, around 1430, now in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum. Spring power presented clockmakers with a new problem: how to keep the clock movement running at a constant rate as the spring ran down. This resulted in the invention of the stackfreed and the fusee in the 15th century, and many other innovations, down to the invention of the modern going barrel in 1760.

Early clock dials did not indicate minutes and seconds. A clock with a dial indicating minutes was illustrated in a 1475 manuscript by Paulus Almanus, and some 15th-century clocks in Germany indicated minutes and seconds. An early record of a seconds hand on a clock dates back to about 1560 on a clock now in the Fremersdorf collection. However, this clock could not have been accurate, and the seconds hand was probably for indicating that the clock was working.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, clockmaking flourished, particularly in the metalworking towns of Nuremberg and Augsburg, and in Blois, France. Some of the more basic table clocks have only one time-keeping hand, with the dial between the hour markers being divided into four equal parts making the clocks readable to the nearest 15 minutes. Other clocks were exhibitions of craftsmanship and skill, incorporating astronomical indicators and musical movements. The cross-beat escapement was invented in 1584 by Jost Bürgi, who also developed the remontoire. Bürgi's clocks were a great improvement in accuracy as they were correct to within a minute a day. These clocks helped the 16th-century astronomer Tycho Brahe to observe astronomical events with much greater precision than before.

A mechanical weight-driven astronomical clock with a verge-and-foliot escapement, a striking train of gears, an alarm, and a representation of the moon's phases was described by the Ottoman engineer Taqi al-Din in his book, The Brightest Stars for the Construction of Mechanical Clocks (Al-Kawākib al-durriyya fī wadh' al-bankāmat al-dawriyya), published in 1556-1559. Similarly to earlier 15th-century European alarm clocks, it was capable of sounding at a specified time, achieved by placing a peg on the dial wheel. At the requested time, the peg activated a ringing device. The clock had three dials which indicated hours, degrees and minutes. He later made an observational clock for the Istanbul observatory of Taqi al-Din (1577–1580), describing it as "a mechanical clock with three dials which show the hours, the minutes, and the seconds." This was an important innovation in 16th-century practical astronomy, as at the start of the 16th century clocks were not accurate enough to be used for astronomical purposes.

French rococo bracket clocks, (Museum of Time, Besançon)

The next development in accuracy occurred after 1656 with the invention of the pendulum clock. Galileo had the idea to use a swinging bob to regulate the motion of a time-telling device earlier in the 17th century. Christiaan Huygens, however, is usually credited as the inventor. He determined the mathematical formula that related pendulum length to time (99.38 cm or 39.13 inches for the one second movement) and had the first pendulum-driven clock made. In 1670, the English clockmaker William Clement created the anchor escapement, an improvement over Huygens' crown escapement. Within just one generation, minute hands and then second hands were added.

In the late 17th and 18th Centuries, equation clocks were made, which allowed the user to see or calculate apparent solar time, as would be shown by a sundial. Before the invention of the pendulum clock, sundials were the only accurate timepieces. When good clocks became available, they appeared inaccurate to people who were used to trusting sundials. The annual variation of the equation of time made a clock up to about 15 minutes fast or slow, relative to a sundial, depending on the time of year. Equation clocks satisfied the demand for clocks that always agreed with sundials. Several types of equation clock mechanism were devised. which can be seen in surviving examples, mostly in museums.

A major stimulus to improving the accuracy and reliability of clocks was the importance of precise time-keeping for navigation. The position of a ship at sea could be determined with reasonable accuracy if a navigator could refer to a clock that lost or gained less than about 10 seconds per day. This clock could not contain a pendulum, which would be virtually useless on a rocking ship. Many European governments offered a large prize for anyone who could determine longitude accurately; for example, Great Britain offered 20,000 pounds, equivalent to millions of dollars today. The reward was eventually claimed in 1761 by John Harrison, who dedicated his life to improving the accuracy of his clocks. His H5 clock was in error by less than 5 seconds over 10 weeks.

The excitement over the pendulum clock had attracted the attention of designers, resulting in a proliferation of clock forms. Notably, the longcase clock (also known as the grandfather clock) was created to house the pendulum and works. The English clockmaker William Clement is also credited with developing this form in 1670 or 1671. It was also at this time that clock cases began to be made of wood and clock faces to utilize enamel as well as hand-painted ceramics.

French decimal clock from the time of the French Revolution

On November 17, 1797, Eli Terry received his first patent for a clock. Terry is known as the founder of the American clock-making industry.

Starting in the U.S. in early decades of the 19th century, clocks were one of the first items to be mass-produced and also to use interchangeable parts.

Alexander Bain, Scottish clockmaker, patented the electric clock in 1840. The electric clock's mainspring is wound either with an electric motor or with an electro-magnet and armature. In 1841, he first patented the electromagnetic pendulum.

The development of electronics in the 20th century led to clocks with no clockwork parts at all. Time in these cases is measured in several ways, such as by the vibration of a tuning fork, the behaviour of quartz crystals, or the quantum vibrations of atoms. Even mechanical clocks have since come to be largely powered by batteries, removing the need for winding.

How clocks work

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, which had the potential for more accuracy. All modern clocks use oscillation.

Although the methods they use vary, all oscillating clocks, mechanical and digital and atomic, work similarly and can be divided into analogous parts. They consist of an object that repeats the same motion over and over again, an oscillator, with a precisely constant time interval between each repetition, or 'beat'. Attached to the oscillator is a controller device, which sustains the oscillator's motion by replacing the energy it loses to friction, and converts its oscillations into a series of pulses. The pulses are then counted by some type of counter, and the number of counts is converted into convenient units, usually seconds, minutes, hours, etc. Finally some kind of indicator displays the result in human readable form.

Power source

This provides power to keep the clock going.

• In mechanical clocks, the power source is typically either a weight suspended from a cord or chain wrapped around a pulley, sprocket or drum; or a spiral spring called a mainspring. Mechanical clocks must be wound periodically, usually by turning a knob or key or by pulling on the free end of the chain, to store energy in the weight or spring to keep the clock running. Usually, a person does the winding, and provides the energy on which the clock runs. Occasionally, the winding is done by a mechanism that makes use of some natural source of energy, such as variations of temperature or atmospheric pressure. In large clocks with heavy weights, electric motors are sometimes used to do the winding. They are turned on and off by a human operator, or by a mechanism that senses the position of the weight. In older clocks, these electric motors have usually been retrofitted since the clock was made

Simple winding systems cause the clock to stop keeping time while the winding is being done. The loss may be only a few seconds per week, and be considered inconsequential. However, if it is important for the clock to keep running while it is being wound, as is true for marine chronometers, several devices are available. In spring-driven clocks, the mainspring can be coiled inside a cylindrical drum called a going barrel. One of the spring's ends is attached to the drum, and the other end to a central shaft. Winding is done by rotating either the drum or the shaft, while the other one continues to drive the clock. In old spring-driven clocks, dating from before the invention of the going barrel, a maintaining power spring kept the clock running while the mainspring was being wound. In weight-driven clocks, the chain can be a continuous loop which runs around three sprockets. One is attached to the weight; one of the others drives the clock, and the third is used for winding. The chain hangs from these last two sprockets in two loops, from one of which the weight and its sprocket hang. When the clock is wound, the winding sprocket takes chain from the loop with the weight, making the weight rise, and gives out chain onto the empty loop. As the clock runs, chain moves around the clock-driving sprocket from the empty loop to the one with the weight, so the weight descends, giving energy to the sprocket and thence to the clock. Winding and running can occur simultaneously.

Many clocks include mechanisms to ring bells to strike the hours, sound alarms, etc. Sometimes, more elaborate devices are involved, as in cuckoo clocks. Frequently, these mechanisms are driven by springs or weights that are separate from the ones that drive the clock. Alternatively, a differential gear may be used to split the power from a single spring or weight, so it drives both the clock and the other mechanism.

• In electric clocks, the power source is either a battery or the AC power line. In clocks that use AC power, a small backup battery is often included to keep the clock running if it is unplugged temporarily from the wall or during a power cut.

Oscillator

The timekeeping element in every modern clock is a harmonic oscillator, a physical object (resonator) that vibrates or oscillates repetitively at a precisely constant frequency.

• In mechanical clocks, this is either a pendulum or a balance wheel.
• In some early electronic clocks and watches such as the Accutron, it is a tuning fork.
• In quartz clocks and watches, it is a quartz crystal.
• In atomic clocks, it is the vibration of electrons in atoms as they emit microwaves.
• In early mechanical clocks before 1657, it was a crude balance wheel or foliot which was not a harmonic oscillator because it lacked a balance spring. As a result they were very inaccurate, with errors of perhaps an hour a day.

The advantage of a harmonic oscillator over other forms of oscillator is that it employs resonance to vibrate at a precise natural resonant frequency or 'beat' dependent only on its physical characteristics, and resists vibrating at other rates. The possible precision achievable by a harmonic oscillator is measured by a parameter called its Q, or quality factor, which increases (other things being equal) with its resonant frequency. This is why there has been a long term trend toward higher frequency oscillators in clocks. Balance wheels and pendulums always include a means of adjusting the rate of the timepiece. Quartz timepieces sometimes include a rate screw that adjusts a capacitor for that purpose. Atomic clocks are primary standards, and their rate cannot be adjusted.

Synchronized or slave clocks

Some clocks rely for their accuracy on an external oscillator; that is, they are automatically synchronized to a more accurate clock:

• Slave clocks, used in large institutions and schools from the 1860s to the 1970s, kept time with a pendulum, but were wired to a master clock in the building, and periodically received a signal to synchronize them with the master, often on the hour. Later versions without pendulums were triggered by a pulse from the master clock and certain sequences used to force rapid synchronization following a power failure.
• Synchronous electric clocks do not have an internal oscillator, but count cycles of the 50 or 60 Hz oscillation of the AC power line, which is synchronized by the utility to a precision oscillator. The counting may be done electronically, usually in clocks with digital displays, or, in analog clocks, the AC may drive a synchronous motor which rotates an exact fraction of a revolution for every cycle of the line voltage, and drives the gear train. While the frequency may vary slightly with the load on the grid, the total number of cycles per 24 hours is maintained extremely accurately, so that the clock keeps time accurately over long periods although not millisecond-accurate at all times, barring power cuts. Many clocks have a battery-powered backup oscillator which keeps the clock running during power failures, but, during these periods, the accuracy of the clock is reduced.
• Computer real time clocks keep time with a quartz crystal, but can be periodically (usually weekly) synchronized over the Internet to atomic clocks (UTC), using the Network Time Protocol (NTP). Sometimes computers on a local area network (LAN) get their time from a single local server which is maintained accurately.
• Radio clocks keep time with a quartz crystal, but are periodically synchronized to time signals transmitted from dedicated standard time radio stations or satellite navigation signals, which are set by atomic clocks.

Controller

This has the dual function of keeping the oscillator running by giving it 'pushes' to replace the energy lost to friction, and converting its vibrations into a series of pulses that serve to measure the time.

• In mechanical clocks, this is the escapement, which gives precise pushes to the swinging pendulum or balance wheel, and releases one gear tooth of the escape wheel at each swing, allowing all the clock's wheels to move forward a fixed amount with each swing.
• In electronic clocks this is an electronic oscillator circuit that gives the vibrating quartz crystal or tuning fork tiny 'pushes', and generates a series of electrical pulses, one for each vibration of the crystal, which is called the clock signal.
• In atomic clocks the controller is an evacuated microwave cavity attached to a microwave oscillator controlled by a microprocessor. A thin gas of cesium atoms is released into the cavity where they are exposed to microwaves. A laser measures how many atoms have absorbed the microwaves, and an electronic feedback control system called a phase locked loop tunes the microwave oscillator until it is at the exact frequency that causes the atoms to vibrate and absorb the microwaves. Then the microwave signal is divided by digital counters to become the clock signal.

In mechanical clocks, the low Q of the balance wheel or pendulum oscillator made them very sensitive to the disturbing effect of the impulses of the escapement, so the escapement had a great effect on the accuracy of the clock, and many escapement designs were tried. The higher Q of resonators in electronic clocks makes them relatively insensitive to the disturbing effects of the drive power, so the driving oscillator circuit is a much less critical component.

Counter chain

This counts the pulses and adds them up to get traditional time units of seconds, minutes, hours, etc. It usually has a provision for setting the clock by manually entering the correct time into the counter.

• In mechanical clocks this is done mechanically by a gear train, known as the wheel train. The gear train also has a second function; to transmit mechanical power from the power source to run the oscillator. There is a friction coupling called the 'cannon pinion' between the gears driving the hands and the rest of the clock, allowing the hands to be turned to set the time.
• In digital clocks a series of integrated circuit counters or dividers add the pulses up digitally, using binary logic. Often pushbuttons on the case allow the hour and minute counters to be incremented and decremented to set the time.

Indicator

A Cuckoo clock with mechanical automaton and sound producer striking on the 8th hour on the analogue dial.

This displays the count of seconds, minutes, hours, etc. in a human readable form.

• The earliest mechanical clocks in the 13th century didn't have a visual indicator and signalled the time audibly by striking bells. Many clocks to this day are striking clocks which strike the hour.
• Clocks with analog displays, usually just called analog clocks although the mechanism may be digital, include almost all mechanical and some electronic clocks. They have rotating pointers which indicate the time on a calibrated circular dial. The pointers are traditionally called hands, and the dial is often referred to as the face of the clock. The dial is usually divided into 12 equal segments by ticks numbered 1 to 12, with each segment subdivided into 5 parts. A shorter hand, the hours hand, rotates once every 12 hours (12-hour clock), and indicates the hour; a person viewing the clock will know whether the time is to be interpreted as hours after midnight but before noon (a.m.), or after noon (p.m.). A longer hand, the minutes hand, rotates once per hour; the number indicated must be multiplied by 5. People learn as children to do this conversion automatically, without thought. Some clocks have seconds hands which rotate once per minute. In mechanical clocks a gear train drives the hands; in electronic clocks the circuit produces pulses every second or few seconds which drive a stepper motor and gear train, which move the hands.
• Digital clocks display the time in periodically changing digits on a digital display.
• Talking clocks and the speaking clock services provided by telephone companies speak the time audibly, using either recorded or digitally synthesized voices.

Types

Clocks can be classified by the type of time display, as well as by the method of timekeeping.

Time display methods

Analog clocks

See also: Clock face

A linear clock at London's Piccadilly Circus tube station. The 24 hour band moves across the static map, keeping pace with the apparent movement of the sun above ground, and a pointer fixed on London points to the current time

Analog clocks usually indicate time using angles. The most common clock face uses a fixed numbered dial or dials and moving hand or hands. It usually has a circular scale of 12 hours, which can also serve as a scale of 60 minutes, and 60 seconds if the clock has a second hand. Many other styles and designs have been used throughout the years, including dials divided into 6, 8, 10, and 24 hours. The only other widely used clock face today is the 24 hour analog dial, because of the use of 24 hour time in military organizations and timetables. The 10-hour clock was briefly popular during the French Revolution, when the metric system was applied to time measurement, and an Italian 6 hour clock was developed in the 18th century, presumably to save power (a clock or watch striking 24 times uses more power).

Another type of analog clock is the sundial, which tracks the sun continuously, registering the time by the shadow position of its gnomon. Because the sun does not adjust to daylight savings times, users must add an hour during that time. Corrections must also be made for the equation of time, and for the difference between the longitudes of the sundial and of the central meridian of the time zone that is being used (i.e. 15 degrees east of the prime meridian for each hour that the time zone is ahead of GMT). Sundials use some or part of the 24 hour analog dial. There also exist clocks which use a digital display despite having an analog mechanism—these are commonly referred to as flip clocks.

Alternative systems have been proposed. For example, the Twelv clock indicates the current hour using one of twelve colors, and indicates the minute by showing a proportion of a circular disk, similar to a moon phase.

Digital clocks

Digital clock outside Kanazawa Station displaying the time by controlling valves on a fountain

Basic digital clock radio

Mobile phone display including two clocks, analog-style (albeit generated by a digital computer) in the middle, and digital-style in the top right corner.

Digital clocks display a numeric representation of time. Two numeric display formats are commonly used on digital clocks:

• the 24-hour notation with hours ranging 00–23;
• the 12-hour notation with AM/PM indicator, with hours indicated as 12AM, followed by 1AM–11AM, followed by 12PM, followed by 1PM–11PM (a notation mostly used in domestic environments).

Most digital clocks use electronic mechanisms and LCD, LED, or VFD displays; many other display technologies are used as well (cathode ray tubes, nixie tubes, etc.). After a reset, battery change or power failure, these clocks without a backup battery or capacitor either start counting from 12:00, or stay at 12:00, often with blinking digits indicating that the time needs to be set. Some newer clocks will reset themselves based on radio or Internet time servers that are tuned to national atomic clocks. Since the advent of digital clocks in the 1960s, the use of analog clocks has declined significantly.

Some clocks have digital displays but work mechanically. The digits are painted on sheets of material which are often mounted like the pages of a book. Once a minute, a page is turned over to reveal the next digit. These displays are usually easier to read in brightly lit conditions than LCDs or LEDs. Also, they do not go back to 12:00 after a power interruption.

Auditory clocks

Main article: Talking clock

For convenience, distance, telephony or blindness, auditory clocks present the time as sounds. The sound is either spoken natural language, (e.g. "The time is twelve thirty-five"), or as auditory codes (e.g. number of sequential bell rings on the hour represents the number of the hour like the bell Big Ben). Most telecommunication companies also provide a speaking clock service as well.

Word clocks

Software word clock

Word clocks are clocks that display the time visually using sentences. E.g.: "It’s about three o’clock." These clocks can be implemented in hardware or software.

Projection clocks

Main article: Projection clock

Some clocks, usually digital ones, include an optical projector that shines a magnified image of the time display onto a screen or onto a surface such as an indoor ceiling or wall. The digits are large enough to be easily read, without using glasses, by persons with moderately imperfect vision, so the clocks are convenient for use in their bedrooms. Usually, the timekeeping circuitry has a battery as a backup source for an uninterrupted power supply to keep the clock on time, while the projection light only works when the unit is connected to an A.C. supply. Completely battery-powered portable versions resembling flashlights are also available.

Tactile clocks

Auditory and projection clocks can be used by people who are blind or have limited vision. There are also clocks for the blind that have displays that can be read by using the sense of touch. Some of these are similar to normal analog displays, but are constructed so the hands can be felt without damaging them. Another type is essentially digital, and uses devices that use a code such as Braille to show the digits so that they can be felt with the fingertips.

Multi-display clocks

Some clocks have several displays driven by a single mechanism, and some others have several completely separate mechanisms in a single case. Clocks in public places often have several faces visible from different directions, so that the clock can be read from anywhere in the vicinity. Of course, all the faces show the same time. Other clocks show the current time in several time-zones. Watches that are intended to be carried by travellers often have two displays, one for the local time and the other for the time at home, which is useful for making pre-arranged phone calls. Some equation clocks have two displays, one showing mean time and the other solar time, as would be shown by a sundial. Some clocks have both analog and digital displays. Clocks with Braille displays usually also have conventional digits so they can be read by sighted people.

Purposes

Clocks are in homes, offices and many other places; smaller ones (watches) are carried on the wrist or in a pocket; larger ones are in public places, e.g. a railway station or church. A small clock is often shown in a corner of computer displays, mobile phones and many MP3 players.

The primary purpose of a clock is to display the time. Clocks may also have the facility to make a loud alert signal at a specified time, typically to waken a sleeper at a preset time; they are referred to as alarm clocks. The alarm may start at a low volume and become louder, or have the facility to be switched off for a few minutes then resume. Alarm clocks with visible indicators are sometimes used to indicate to children too young to read the time that the time for sleep has finished; they are sometimes called training clocks.

A clock mechanism may be used to control a device according to time, e.g. a central heating system, a VCR, or a time bomb (see: counter). Such mechanisms are usually called timers. Clock mechanisms are also used to drive devices such as solar trackers and astronomical telescopes, which have to turn at accurately controlled speeds to counteract the rotation of the Earth.

Most digital computers depend on an internal signal at constant frequency to synchronize processing; this is referred to as a clock signal. (A few research projects are developing CPUs based on asynchronous circuits.) Some equipment, including computers, also maintains time and date for use as required; this is referred to as time-of-day clock, and is distinct from the system clock signal, although possibly based on counting its cycles.

Time standards

Main articles: Time standard and Atomic clock

For some scientific work timing of the utmost accuracy is essential. It is also necessary to have a standard of the maximum accuracy against which working clocks can be calibrated. An ideal clock would give the time to unlimited accuracy, but this is of course not realisable.

Many physical processes, in particular including some transitions between atomic energy levels, occur at exceedingly stable frequency; counting cycles of such a process can give a very accurate and consistent time—clocks which work this way are usually called atomic clocks. Such clocks are typically large, very expensive, require a controlled environment, and are far more accurate than required for most purposes; they are typically used in a standards laboratory.

Navigation

Until advances in the late twentieth century, navigation depended on the ability to measure latitude and longitude. Latitude can be determined through celestial navigation; the measurement of longitude requires accurate knowledge of time. This need was a major motivation for the development of accurate mechanical clocks. John Harrison created the first highly accurate marine chronometer in the mid-18th century. The Noon gun in Cape Town still fires an accurate signal to allow ships to check their chronometers. Many buildings near major ports used to have (some still do) a large ball mounted on a tower or mast arranged to drop at a pre-determined time, for the same purpose.

While satellite navigation systems such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) require unprecedentedly accurate knowledge of time, this is supplied by equipment on the satellites; vehicles no longer need timekeeping equipment.

Seismology

In determining the location of an earthquake, the arrival time of several types of seismic wave at a minimum of four dispersed observers is dependent upon each observer recording wave arrival times according to a common clock.

Specific types of clocks

By mechanism:	By function:	By style:
Astronomical clock Atomic clock Candle clock Congreve clock Digital clock Electric clock Flip clock Hourglass Incense clock Mechanical watch Oil-lamp clock Pendulum clock Pipe organ clock Projection clock Pulsar clock Quantum clock Quartz clock Radio clock Rolling ball clock Spring drive watch Steam clock Sundial Torsion pendulum clock Water clock	10-hour clock Alarm clock Binary clock Chiming clock Chronometer watch Cuckoo clock Equation clock Game clock Japanese clock Master clock Musical clock Railroad chronometer Slave clock Speaking clock Stopwatch Striking clock Talking clock Tide clock Time ball Time clock World clock	American clock Automaton clock Balloon clock Banjo clock Bracket clock Carriage clock Cartel clock Cat clock Clock tower Cuckoo clock Doll's head clock Floral clock French Empire mantel clock Granddaughter clock Grandfather clock Grandmother clock Lantern clock Lighthouse clock Longcase clock (or tall-case clock) Mantel clock Skeleton clock Tower clock Turret clock Watch

See also

• Allan variance
• American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute
• BaselWorld
• Biological clock
• Castle clock
• Clock as herald of the Industrial Revolution (Lewis Mumford)
• Clock face
• Clock network
• Clock of the Long Now
• Clock signal (digital circuits)
• Clockkeeper
• Clockmaker
• Colgate Clock (Indiana)
• Colgate Clock (New Jersey), largest clock in USA

• Corpus Clock
• Cosmo Clock 21, world's largest clock
• Cox's timepiece
• Cuckooland Museum
• Death Clock
• Le Défenseur du Temps (automata)
• Department of Defense master clock (U.S.)
• Doomsday Clock
• Earth clock
• Equation clock
• Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH
• Guard tour patrol system (watchclocks)
• Iron Ring Clock
• Jens Olsen's World Clock
• Jewel bearing

• List of biggest clock faces
• List of clocks
• List of international common standards
• List of world's largest cuckoo clocks
• Metrology
• Mora clock
• National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors
• Replica watch
• Star clock
• Singing bird box
• System time
• Time to digital converter
• Timeline of time measurement technology
• Timer
• Watchmaker
• Rubik's Clock

Newsgroup

• alt.horology

References

• Baillie, G.H., O. Clutton, & C.A. Ilbert. Britten’s Old Clocks and Watches and Their Makers (7th ed.). Bonanza Books (1956).
• Bolter, David J. Turing's Man: Western Culture in the Computer Age. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, N.C. (1984). ISBN 0-8078-4108-0 pbk. Very good, readable summary of the role of "the clock" in its setting the direction of philosophic movement for the "Western World". Cf. picture on p. 25 showing the verge and foliot. Bolton derived the picture from Macey, p. 20.
• Bruton, Eric (1982). The History of Clocks and Watches. New York: Crescent Books Distributed by Crown. ISBN 978-0-517-37744-4.
• Dohrn-van Rossum, Gerhard (1996). History of the Hour: Clocks and Modern Temporal Orders. Trans. Thomas Dunlap. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-15510-2.
• Edey, Winthrop. French Clocks. New York: Walker & Co. (1967).
• Kak, Subhash, Babylonian and Indian Astronomy: Early Connections. February 17, 2003.
• Kumar, Narendra "Science in Ancient India" (2004). ISBN 81-261-2056-8.
• Landes, David S. Revolution in Time: Clocks and the Making of the Modern World. Cambridge: Harvard University Press (1983).
• Landes, David S. Clocks & the Wealth of Nations, Daedalus Journal, Spring 2003.
• Lloyd, Alan H. “Mechanical Timekeepers”, A History of Technology, Vol. III. Edited by Charles Joseph Singer et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press (1957), pp. 648–675.
• Macey, Samuel L., Clocks and the Cosmos: Time in Western Life and Thought, Archon Books, Hamden, Conn. (1980).
• Needham, Joseph (2000) [1965]. Science & Civilisation in China, Vol. 4, Part 2: Mechanical Engineering. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-05803-1.
• North, John. God's Clockmaker: Richard of Wallingford and the Invention of Time. London: Hambledon and London (2005).
• Palmer, Brooks. The Book of American Clocks, The Macmillan Co. (1979).
• Robinson, Tom. The Longcase Clock. Suffolk, England: Antique Collector’s Club (1981).
• Smith, Alan. The International Dictionary of Clocks. London: Chancellor Press (1996).
• Tardy. French Clocks the World Over. Part I and II. Translated with the assistance of Alexander Ballantyne. Paris: Tardy (1981).
• Yoder, Joella Gerstmeyer. Unrolling Time: Christiaan Huygens and the Mathematization of Nature. New York: Cambridge University Press (1988).
• Zea, Philip, & Robert Cheney. Clock Making in New England: 1725–1825. Old Sturbridge Village (1992).

External links

• American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute
• History of the Antique longcase clock
• National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors Museum
• Article, by a key figure in the development of quartz crystal clocks, on the history of timekeeping up to the late 1940s from The Bell System Technical Journal, Vol. XXVII, pp. 510-588, 1948
• Information on Dutch clocks
• Information on Black Forest Horology
• Science Museum - Time Measurement
• World's largest Grid Clock
• Understanding a mechanical clock - with animations
• Civic-Time-Assorted public clocks and timepieces
• Excel Unusual - How to Make an Analog Clock in MS Excel
• Excel Unusual - An Animated Digital Clock Model in MS Excel