In the history of the most popular clocks

The history of clocks and watches (Part 1)

watch and clock

a general term for clocks and watches. Clocks and watches are precision instruments for measuring and indicating time

clocks and watches are usually distinguished by the size of the internal machine. According to international practice, the clock with a core diameter of more than 50 mm and a thickness of more than 12 mm; Those with a diameter of 37 ~ 50 mm and a thickness of 4 ~ 6 mm are called pocket watches; Straight, especially under extreme conditions, the safety diameter is below 37 mm for watches; A watch with a diameter of no more than 20 mm or a movement area of no more than 314 square mm is called a female watch. Watch is one of the smallest, strongest and most precise machines invented by human beings

there are two kinds of motive forces of modern clocks: mechanical force and electric power. Mechanical clock is a kind of timer that uses the released energy of the heavy hammer or spring as the power to drive a series of gears to operate, uses the escapement governor to adjust the speed of the gear train, and uses the pointer to indicate the time and measure the time

the development of clocks

before 1300 A.D., human beings mainly used astronomical phenomena and the continuous movement of flowing substances to time. For example, the sundial uses the orientation of the shadow to time; Leaky pots and hourglass use the flow meter of water and sand flow

in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Heng made a water leakage rotating armillary sphere, which used the gear system to connect the armillary sphere with the timing leaky pot. The leaky pot dripped water to promote the armillary sphere to rotate evenly. It was just a week after a day's improvement. This was the earliest mechanical clock. In the third year of Yuanhu in the Northern Song Dynasty (1088), Su Song and Han Gonglian created the water transport image platform, which has used the escapement mechanism

in 1350, Danti, Italy, manufactured the first mechanical clock with simple structure. The daily difference was 15 ~ 30 minutes, and the indicating mechanism was only the hour hand; From 1500 to 1510, henleith in Germany first used steel springs to replace heavy hammers, creating a small mechanical clock with a crown wheel escapement mechanism; Around 1582, Galileo of Italy invented the gravity pendulum; In 1657, Huygens of the Netherlands introduced the gravity pendulum into the mechanical clock and founded the pendulum clock

in 1660, Hooke of England invented hairspring and replaced the crown wheel escapement with a backward escapement; In 1673, Huygens applied the governor composed of balance gears and hairsprings to portable clocks and watches; In 1675, Clement of England made the simplest anchor escapement with fork tile device, which has been used in the simple pendulum wall clock

in 1695, Tom Ping of England invented the I-wheel escapement mechanism; In 1715, Graham of England invented the static escapement, which made up for the shortcomings of the backward escapement and laid the foundation for the development of precision mechanical clocks; In 1765, March of England invented the free anchor escapement, which is the predecessor of the modern fork tile escapement; From 1728 to 1759, Harrison of England made a high-precision standard navigation clock; From 1775 to 1780, Arnold of England created escapement mechanism for precision watch

types of clocks

clocks have a wide range of applications, and there are many varieties, which can be classified according to the vibration principle, structure and use characteristics. According to the principle of vibration, it can be divided into clocks and watches that use low-frequency mechanical vibration, such as pendulum clock, pendulum wheel clock, etc; Clocks using electromagnetic oscillation and quartz oscillation with high frequency, such as synchronous electric clocks, quartz clocks, etc; According to the structural characteristics, it can be divided into mechanical watches, such as mechanical alarm clock, automatic, calendar, double calendar, spring and so on; Electro mechanical, such as electric pendulum clock, electric pendulum wheel clock, etc; Electronic ones, such as balance wheel electronic clocks, tuning fork electronic clocks, pointer type and digital display quartz electronic clocks, etc

mechanical clocks and watches have a variety of structures, market cooperation, and further modified plastic lifting forms, but their working principles are basically the same, and they are all composed of prime mover, transmission system, escapement governor, pointer system and upper needle system

mechanical clocks use clockwork as power to turn from the leftover to the winner. The prime mover drives the escapement governor through a group of gears; Then the escapement governor in turn controls the speed of the drive train; The drive train drives the escapement governor and also drives the pointer mechanism. The speed of the drive train is controlled by the escapement governor, so the pointer can indicate the time on the dial according to a certain law; The upper needle system is a machine part that tightens the spring or moves the pointer