Time is among the very few lists of things that once lost can never be recovered. Indeed, but have you ever wondered how humans record, or read time? Ages ago, ancient people relied on natural phenomenon to record time. Those were the basis of their simple activities; time for finding foods, time to eat or time to sleep. Eventually, they have invented many means of keeping track of time.

Shadow Clocks

Many historical records and archaeological discoveries indicates that the first evidence of timekeeping can be traced back on the ancient Egypt. The Ancient Egyptians developed a device that could tell the time using the sun's shadow, hence it was named the Shadow Clock. They divided the day into 12-hour periods and the enormous obelisks that they have build were used to track the movement of the sun. This would surely measure the time during daytime, but that would be its flaws. It can be only used during daytime when there is a sunlight, but how about nighttime?

Water Clocks

These shortcomings were filled up by inventing the water clock. However, still no one is certain about when and where the first water clock was made. But the oldest one example is found in the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep I, and it is believed to be dated back to 1500 BC. The usage of such tools was so popular that even the Ancient Greek (with their clepsydra) and Chinese adopted and made their own water clock.

The mechanism of those water clocks were so simple. They just needed a reservoir of water, then tiny holes under the container made the water flow constantly. Hours were determined by the lines drawn inside the container.

Candle Clocks

Another ancient timekeeping device used in the ancient times is Candle Clocks. It is widely used during antiquity—from Asia to Europe and Mesopotamia. Its usual mechanism is that, the candle has the markings indicated the time. So as the time goes by, the lit candle were melted down to a certain markings, that would be the indication of the duration of time passage.

Candle clock also functions as an alarm clock or a timer. They've inserted a heavy nail into it. So when the wax around the nail melted away, the nail would fall into the metal plate under it and made a clattering sounds—witty, right?

Mechanical Clocks.

But those mentioned above have the same issue of being inaccurate. Shadow clocks works only with the availability of sunlight. Water clocks don't quite works during winter because the water freezes. Candle clock also have a problem in accuracy because the candle will be unlit with just a small wind. So people look for more accurate means of telling time. The "escapement" on those inaccuracies of telling time was happened when they made mechanical clock. The first known mechanical clock was around the 3rd Century BC in Greece. They made a water-powered versions that used water to transfer rotational energy into intermittent motion. Chinese also developed their own using mercury around 10th Century.

During 14th Century, Europeans made their true mechanical clocks employed a balance wheel for accuracy timekeeping. They were so huge that they were built in tall towers and lasted a long period.

Pendulum Clocks.

A great breakthrough in timekeeping happened in the 17th century when Christiaan Huygens invented the Pendulum clock. It is said that the constant swinging of the pendulum would help the clock's accuracy. Its inventions was the pioneering in producing portable clocks. Then smaller mechanical began appearing during the 17th century. Wristwatches also appeared that time.

Today, we are now more advanced than before. Mechanical clock is already a thing in a past because we are now using digitalize clock. It can be found in our mobile phones or in our digital wristwatches. And we can also tell the time from other places in the world using the world clock in our phones.

Thank you for reading.

Lead photo credit to megapixl.com