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The advent of mechanical watches. The history of watch creation in brief

Very old. Since ancient times, man has tried to somehow define himself in time and space. I tried to find out my land and get to new, foreign ones, made various discoveries. Naturally, a person understood that there is a relationship between the changes of the seasons, days, hours. And I wanted to understand this relationship and somehow calculate it in order to feel more confident.

The Sumerians were the first to measure time. They invented the sundial. A fairly simple invention, but it worked well for them.

The Sumerians lived on the territory of today's Iraq, there are a lot of sunny days a year. And for the operation of a sundial, this is a decisive factor. At night and on cloudy days, the sundial was, alas, useless.

At first it was just a stick stuck in the ground, and divisions (hours) were marked around it, and it was possible to determine the time by the shadow cast from the stick (gnomon). Then the invention was improved. Instead of a stick, they began to build beautiful steles and columns.

And the ancient sundial has survived to this day.

They even came up with a portable sundial. The design consisted of two rings with a hole for the sunbeam.

Around the same time, water clocks appeared. It was a vessel with carved marks, from which water poured drop by drop. They were used right up to the 17th century!

It is believed that the first alarm clock was also water and was invented by Plato for his school. It consisted of two vessels, water was slowly pouring from one into the other, displacing air, and a pipe was attached to the second vessel, and, at a certain moment, it began to whistle.

Later fire clocks were invented. These were long thin candles with divisions that were lit, and as they burned down, time was measured by divisions. Several such candles were spent per day.

Then they were improved. Beads were attached to some divisions on a strong thread. And the flame, as the candle burned, burned through this thread, and the beads fell with a roar onto the metal tray. It was a kind of alarm clock.

There were also oil clocks. A wick was installed in the lamp with oil, and divisions were applied on the lamp itself, as the oil burned, its level changed and the time could be determined from the divisions.

Also came up with a flower clock. They planted certain varieties of flowers in a sunny place and determined the time as the flowers opened and closed in the morning and evening.

Later, about 1000 years ago, with the development of glassblowing skills, the well-known hourglass appeared. They determine quite accurately small periods of time, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, half an hour. They even made sets consisting of several vessels of different sizes with sand, each of which determined a different period of time.

But all these watches were imperfect, they did not work under all conditions, they had to be constantly monitored. Therefore, it was impossible to determine the exact time from them. But, in any case, they gave some guidelines in time.

Mechanical watches

And only with the advent of mechanical watches, people were able to accurately find out the time and not constantly track the work of the clock.

The first mechanical clock was made in China in 725 AD.

The pendulum and pendulum clocks were invented in the 11th century by Abbot Herbert, and after a while, in the 17th century, they were improved by Galileo Galilei, but they began to use it in watches much later. In 1675, H. Huygens patented a pocket watch. And only after a while wristwatches appeared, at first they were only for women. They were richly decorated with stones, but they showed the time extremely inaccurately. And at the end of the 19th century, men's wristwatches appeared.

Further, with the development of progress, quartz, electronic, atomic clocks appeared in the 20th century. Everything is constantly changing, improving at a breakneck pace. And watches are no exception. There are new functions, new models, new developments are being introduced.

It is even difficult to predict what further development awaits the watch!

If you know about watch history any other facts, be sure to share in the comments!

And for your kids it will be interesting to see which tell about the history of watches, how watches work and how you can slow down time. Interesting viewing!

01/11/2017 at 23:25

The history of the origin of mechanical watches clearly demonstrates the beginning of the development of complex technical devices. When the clock was invented, it remained a major technical invention for several centuries. And to this day, historians cannot agree on who actually invented the first mechanical watch, based on historical facts.

Watch History

Even before the revolutionary discovery - the development of mechanical watches, the first and simplest device for measuring time was a sundial. Already more than 3.5 thousand years ago, based on the correlation of the movement of the Sun and the length, position of the shadow from objects, the sundial was the most widely used instrument for determining time. Also, in the future, references to the water clock appeared in history, with the help of which they tried to cover the shortcomings and errors of the solar invention.

A little later in history there were references to fire clocks or candle clocks. This method of measurement - thin candles, the length of which reached up to a meter, with a time scale applied along the entire length. Sometimes, in addition to the sides of the candle, metal rods were attached, and when the wax burned out, the side fasteners, falling down, emitted characteristic blows on the metal bowl of the candlestick - meaning a sound signal of a certain period of time. In addition, candles helped not only to determine the time, but also helped to illuminate the premises at night.
The next, not unimportant invention before mechanical devices, is to highlight the hourglass, which made it possible to measure only small periods of time, no more than half an hour. But, like the fire device, the hourglass could not achieve the accuracy of the sun.
Step by step, with each device, people developed a clearer idea of ​​\u200b\u200btime, and the search for a perfect way to measure it continued unceasingly. A uniquely new, revolutionary device was the invention of the first wheel clock, and since its inception, the era of chronometry has come.

Creation of the first mechanical watch

This is a clock with which time is measured by the mechanical oscillations of a pendulum or a balance-spring system. Unfortunately, the exact date and names of the masters of the invention of the first mechanical watch in history remain unknown. And it remains only to turn to historical facts that testify to the stages in the creation of a revolutionary device.

Historians have determined that they began to use mechanical watches in Europe at the turn of the 13th - 14th centuries.
The tower wheel clock should be called the first representative of the mechanical generation of time measurement. The essence of the work was simple - a single-drive mechanism consisted of several parts: a smooth wooden axis and a stone, which was tied with a rope to the shaft, thus the weight function worked. Under the influence of the gravity of the stone, the rope gradually unwound and behind it contributed to the rotation of the axis, determining the course of time. The main difficulty of such a mechanism was the colossal weight, as well as the bulkiness of the elements (the height of the tower was at least 10 meters, and the weight of the weight reached 200 kg), which entailed consequences in the form of large errors in time indicators. As a result, in the Middle Ages, they came to the conclusion that the work of the clock should depend not only on the single movement of the weight.
The mechanism was later supplemented with several more components that managed to control the movement - the Bilyanec regulator (it was a metal base located parallel to the surface of the ratchet wheel) and the escapement distributor (a complex component in the mechanism, through which the interaction of the resulator and the transmission mechanism is carried out). But, despite all the further innovations, the tower mechanism continued to require continuous monitoring, while remaining the most accurate instrument for measuring time, even without looking at all its shortcomings and large errors.

Who invented the mechanical watch

Ultimately, over time, the mechanisms of tower clocks turned into a complex structure with many automatically moving elements, a varied striking system, with arrows and decorative ornaments. From that moment on, watches have become not only a practical invention, but also an object of admiration - the invention of technology and art at the same time! Of course, it is worth highlighting some of them.
Of the early mechanisms, such as the tower clock in Westminster Abbey in England (1288), in the Canterbury Temple (1292), in Florence (1300), unfortunately, none managed to save the names of their creators, remaining unknown .
In 1402, the Prague Clock Tower was built, equipped with automatically moving figures, which, during each chime, displayed a certain set of movements, personifying history. The most ancient part of Orloi - a mechanical clock and an astronomical dial, was reconstructed in 1410. Each component was made by the watchmaker Mikulash from Kadan according to the design of the astronomer and mathematician Jan Shindel.

For example, the watchmaker Junello Turriano needed 1800 wheels to make a tower clock that showed the daily movement of Saturn, the annual movement of the Sun, the movement of the Moon, as well as the direction of all the planets in accordance with the Ptolemaic system of the universe, and the course of time during the day.
All of the above clocks were invented relatively independently of each other and had a high time error.
The first touches on the topic of the invention of clocks with a spring engine tentatively arose in the second half of the 15th century. It was thanks to this invention that the next step was the discovery of smaller variations of watches.

First pocket watch

The next step in revolutionary devices was the first pocket watch. A new development appeared approximately in 1510 thanks to a mechanic from the German city of Nurberg - Peter Henlein. The main feature of the device was the winding spring. The model showed the time with just one hand, showing the approximate period of time. The case was made of gold-plated brass in the shape of an oval, and as a result received the name "Nuremberg Egg". In the future, watchmakers sought to repeat and improve on the example and likeness of the first.

Who invented the first modern mechanical watch

If we talk about modern clocks, in 1657 the Dutch inventor Christian Huygens first used the pendulum as a clock regulator, and by this he managed to significantly reduce the reading error in his invention. In the first Huygens hours, the daily error did not exceed 10 seconds (for comparison, earlier the error ranged from 15 to 60 minutes). The watchmaker was able to offer a solution - new regulators for both kettlebell and spring watches. Now from that moment on, the mechanisms have become much more perfect.
It should be noted that in all periods of the search for the ideal solution, they remained an indispensable subject of delight, surprise and admiration. Each new invention struck with its beauty, laborious work and painstaking discoveries to improve the mechanism. And even today, watchmakers do not cease to delight us with new solutions in the production of mechanical models, emphasizing the uniqueness and accuracy of each of their devices.

Watches are an essential item in everyday life. Now it's hard to imagine how you can do without it. It is curious to know where the history of the emergence of such a necessary and interesting invention originates, and what the first watch was like. The history of watch creation.

Over the entire period of its existence, watches have changed in form and style more than once. These transformations took more than one hundred years. The first time the expression "clock" was mentioned in the XIV century. In Latin, this expression meant "call". Before the advent of the clock, it was not easy to determine the exact time: in ancient times, people did this by the movement of the sun in the sky. There are several positions of the sun relative to the sky: in the morning the sun is at sunrise, at noon - in the center, in the evening - at sunset.

The history of watch creation began with the world-famous - solar. They appeared and first began to be used in everyday life as early as 3500 BC. The main idea of ​​their device is as follows: a stick was installed, from which the sun's shadow should fall. Accordingly, the time was calculated from the shadow, which was directed to the numbers on the disk.

The next type of clock functioning with the help of water, called clepsydra, appeared in 1400 BC. They were two vessels with a liquid, water. One of them contained more liquid than the other. They were installed at different levels: one is higher than the other, and a connecting tube is stretched between them. Through it, the liquid moved from the upper vessel to the lower one. Vessels were marked with marks, and from them they found out what time it was, taking into account the level of the liquid. Such watches received great popularity and recognition from the Greeks. Here they are further developed. In the lower vessel was a float with marks. When the water from the upper vessel dripped into the lower vessel, the float rose, and from the marks on it one could tell what time it was.

In addition, another brilliant discovery belongs to Greece: the division of the year into 12 identical parts: months, and the month into 30 identical days. Given this division, in ancient Greece the year was 360 days. Later, the inhabitants of ancient Greece and Babylon divided hours, minutes and seconds into equal parts. At first, it was customary to divide the day into 12 parts from sunrise to sunset. Then these parts began to be called hours. However, the duration of the night in different seasons was not the same. It was necessary to come up with something to eliminate these differences. In this regard, soon the day was divided and made up 24 hours. Still, there was one unresolved question: why divide the day and night into 12 equal intervals? It turned out that this is the number of moon cycles in one year. But the idea of ​​dividing the hour and minute into 60 parts belonged to the Sumerian culture, although numbers in ancient times were an important component in almost all cultures.

But the first watch with an arrow appeared in 1577 and was far from ideal in use. Clocks with a pendulum most accurately determined the time, they appeared in the years 1656-1660. The main disadvantage of such clocks was the pendulum: it had to be wound after it periodically stopped. The clock was marked with 12 numbers, so the hand makes two full circles per day. In this regard, in some countries, special abbreviations appeared: the time before and after noon (A.M. and R.M., respectively). In 1504, the wristwatch, which was attached to the wrist with a thread, recognized the world. And in 1927, a quartz watch was invented in Germany (quartz is a type of crystal), which most accurately determines time, unlike previously invented ones.

We have to measure, compare, count time in life in various fields of activity - technology, science, in everyday life. All sorts of devices help us in this, the common name of which is watches. Time mechanical watch inventions exactly unknown. There is a version that they were invented by the monk Herbert of Auvergne, who later became Pope Sylvester II. And it was at the end of the 10th century, however, nothing concrete about the structure of the tower clock he created for Magdeburg is known, because. This clock has not survived. The first mentions of mechanical clocks in Europe come at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries. The appearance of the oldest watch mechanisms in England is attributed to the 2nd half of the 13th century, Pierre Pipenard (circa 1300) is considered the inventor of the first clock in Paris, but the continuous production of mechanical watches began in Italy only at the beginning of the 14th century. In Russia, the first tower clock was installed in the Moscow Kremlin in 1404 by the monk Lazar Serbin.

The design of all watches was approximately the same. The main components of the clock mechanism were: the engine; gear system, which is a transmission mechanism; regulator to create a uniform movement; distributor or trigger mechanism; pointer mechanism, as well as a mechanism designed for winding and transferring hours. The first mechanical clocks were driven by a falling weight. As a drive mechanism, there was a smooth wooden horizontal shaft with a rope wound around it, to the end of which a stone, and later a metal weight was attached. Under the weight of the weight, the rope gradually unwound and began to rotate the shaft, on which a large gear wheel was fixed. This wheel was in direct engagement with the wheels of the transmission mechanism. The rotation from the shaft through a system of wheels with teeth was transmitted to the main (ratchet) wheel, which was connected to the hands indicating the time. For correct measurement of time, the clock hand must make revolutions with the same frequency. If the weight falls freely, then the shaft will begin to rotate rapidly, which means that the arrow will make each next revolution faster.

Medieval mechanics decided to supplement the mechanism with a regulator for uniform rotation of the ratchet wheel. Bilyane (yoke) became such a regulator. Since ancient times, the rocker property has been used in scales. If weights of the same weight are placed on each scale pan, and then their balance is disturbed, then the rocker arm will begin to make almost equal oscillations similar to a pendulum. Such an oscillatory system began to be successfully used in clocks, although in many respects it was inferior to the pendulum, which began to be used as a regulator only in the 2nd half of the 17th century. If the oscillations of the regulator are not constantly maintained, then it will stop. In order to direct part of the motive energy from the wheel to the bilyants or pendulum, a trigger distributor was invented.

The descent is the most difficult knot, the exact course of the clock depends on it. The connection between the transmission mechanism and the regulator is made through the escapement. It transmits impulses directly from the engine to the governor in order to constantly keep it oscillating. At the same time, it subordinates the movement of the transmission mechanism to the laws of the movement of the regulator. The first descent was the spindle with raids, the trigger mechanism is called the spindle. True, the accuracy of the course with such a regulator was low, and the error was more than 60 minutes per day.

The first watches did not have a special winding mechanism, which made it very difficult to prepare the watch for work. T a heavy weight had to be lifted to a great height several times a day. In addition, it was necessary to overcome the strong resistance of the gear wheels of the transmission mechanism. In this regard, the main wheel began to be fixed so that when the shaft rotates counterclockwise (reverse rotation), it remains stationary.

Over time, watchmaking has become more complex. They have a lot of arrows, additional intermediate wheels in the transmission mechanism, a diverse combat system. In 1657, H. Huygens first assembled a mechanical clock, using a pendulum as a clock regulator. The daily error of such clocks did not exceed 10 seconds. Huygens is rightfully considered the creator of modern mechanical watches. Later, the rope with the load will be replaced by a spring, the pendulum was replaced by a small flywheel, oscillating about the equilibrium position in one direction and the other. This is how the pocket watch was invented, and later the wrist watch.

Starting from the first push to the creation of the Universe, everything living and non-living exists in time. It is impossible to comprehend and change its course, it remains only to cherish and not waste it in vain. The only time control option is the clock. The history of watches is a long journey from a stick stuck in the ground to the latest electronics.

The path to the invention of the sundial

Primitive people quickly realized that it was possible to determine a successful hunting or fishing watch by the movement of the sun. They watched the flowers unfold, the shadows. The first simplest dial is a stick stuck into the ground. From it it was easy to determine how sunlight changes during the day. In addition to the first astronomical experiments, there was a primitive control over time. Egyptians in 3500 B.C. e. improved this method and began to erect obelisks. Four-sided constructions made it possible to divide the day into two parts of 12 hours each. So people knew when it was noon. A little later, markings appeared on the poles, thanks to which it was possible to determine other intervals of the day. However, the sundial was absolutely useless at night or on cloudy days.

How time passed


Water clocks have become a more perfect way to control time. They were a device called clepsydra (from the ancient Greek "steal", "hide" + "water"). Drop by drop, the water subsided from the vessel, showing by the notches on the wall how much time had passed - literally. This device was actively used by the ancient Romans in order to determine the length of the speech of speakers. Viewers could observe a similar design in the popular TV show Fort Boyard.

fire watch

Fire clocks became a useful invention - two thin meter-long torches with inflicted notches not only determined the time, but also illuminated the room at night. To the question: "What time is it", one could get the answer: "Two candles", which equaled approximately three o'clock in the morning - just three candles were enough for the dark time of the day. In China, this type was improved: metal balls were attached to the wax, which, falling as they burned, beat off a certain hour.

Time is sand

Hourglasses have been used by humans since before our era. Two communicating vessels work identically to a water clock - only seconds are measured by river sand. The disadvantage is obvious: you need to carefully monitor such watches and turn them over in time.

The first tower clock

Time steadily moved forward and demanded a more accurate measurement. Watch stories progressive nature of development. The best minds of mankind worked on the creation of the first mechanical watches. The clepsydra became the prototype, only the driving force - a jet of water - was replaced by a heavy weight. It remains only to add the regulator - and, behold, the first clock was solemnly hoisted onto the tower of the Palace of Westminster in 1288. Following the example of England, Strasbourg Cathedral also acquires the latest technology in 1354. Those watches had only one hand, which pointed people to church holidays. At noon, the mechanism came to life: before the skillfully made figurine of the Virgin Mary, three wise men bowed, and above them a gilded cockerel screamed and beat its wings. Now you won’t surprise anyone with a cuckoo clock, but then this mini-performance gathered crowds of people on the square in front of the cathedral. Until our time, only the rooster has survived.

Further inventions

The first pocket watch to become a luxury item was developed in Nuremberg in 1510. Their distinguishing feature was the clockwork spring. It is interesting that initially they were only for women - not a single man of that time would put a richly decorated piece of jewelry on his hand. The pendulum as an error regulator was invented in 1657. In 1680, the minute hand appeared, and in the 18th century, the second hand.



Watchmaking in Russia

As for Russia, the annals often indicated the exact time of an event. Presumably, the first sundial in Russia was the northwestern tower of the Transfiguration Cathedral in Chernigov - the sun illuminated strange patterns above the niches at certain times of the day. At the beginning of the 15th century, following Europe, tower clocks were installed in the Princely Court of the Moscow Kremlin by the Serbian master Lazar, and in the 16th century Western European portable sundials appeared.

Steps into the future

The next revolutionary step in watch history was made in 1957 by Hamilton. The first quartz watches to use crystals were the most accurate for that period of time. In 1978, they were supplemented with a microcalculator - with the help of a fountain pen, you could press miniature buttons and perform simple mathematical operations. By the end of the 20th century, the world was already determining the time using electronic clocks.

Modern watches in terms of design and function know no bounds. Art objects, interior decorations, stylish accessories - they have long been not just measuring time, but are part of the image, demonstrating to others the status of the owner. But it is not so important whether you are wearing an original brand copy or a cheap fake: the main thing is that the arrows on them go only forward, and try not to waste a single second of your life.

Kaluga region, Borovsky district, Petrovo village

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