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In the ancient world sundials were commonly used as a method of measuring time, however, it had its flaws. Sundials would, of course, would only function when there was sunlight, and they could not be used at night or on a cloudy day. To compensate for these shortcomings, the water clock was invented.
Around 325 BC, water clocks began to be used by the Greeks, who called the device the clepsydra (‘water thief’).
How does it work?
In an outflow water clock, the inside of a container is marked with lines of measurement. Water leaks out of the container at a steady pace and observers tell time by measuring how much the water level has changed. For instance, if it takes one hour for the water level in the container to drop down one centimetre, then a three-centimetre drop in water level
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Either way, the measurement vessel is often bowl-shaped to ensure that it fills up gradually.
What was it used for?
One of the uses of the water clock in Greece, especially in Athens, was for the timing of speeches in law courts. Some Athenian sources indicate that the water clock was used during the speeches of various well-known Greeks, including Aristotle, Aristophanes the playwright, and Demosthenes the statesman. Apart from timing their speeches, the water clock also prevented their speeches from running too long. Depending on the type of speech or trial that was going on, different amounts of water would be filled into the vessels.
A Greek astronomer, Andronikos, supervised the construction of the Tower of the Winds in Athens in the 1st century B.C. This octagonal structure featured a 24-hour clepsydra (water clock) and indicators for the eight winds from which the tower got its name, and it displayed the seasons of the year and astrological dates and periods.
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Ancient Greek astronomers made some amazing mathematical and philosophical discovers about our universe. From the Hellenistic Greek observations in approximately 300 B.C.E., to the invention of the first telescope in the seventeenth century, to the launching of today’s space probes, one thing is evident: astrological observations are imperative to creating a calendar.
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