Centuries have come and gone because the early history of time keeping. Contemporary clocks and watches hardly resemble the mechanical pendulum clocks or water clocks of the past, but simple principles and parts in most 20th- and 21st-century timepieces (at least the mechanical and electric ones) are fundamentally the very same as in 15th- and 16th-century Europe.
(Think it or not, I lately discovered to my surprise that portable sundials, lots of tiny enough to hold in one hand, had been really the ancestors of today's wristwatches and had been fairly common throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance in Europe!)
The fundamental parts and principles upon which most timepieces, ancient and contemporary, are built incorporate:
1. An oscillator -- Older mechanical clocks used the common vibrations caused by the swing of a pendulum or a balance wheel. Modern day clocks use a vibrating quartz material, a tuning fork, and/or an electrical existing.
2. A controller -- In mechanical clocks, this was a device that gave a "push" to the pendulum or balance wheel to replace energy that was lost to friction. The controller also served to regulate, i.e., divide into typical measurable intervals, the motion of the pendulum or balance wheel. In mechanical clocks this was called the "escapement," and it involved gears and levers that controlled the pendulum. In contemporary clocks, the work is normally done by an electrical circuit.
3. A power source -- In mechanical clocks this was a weight suspended from a cord draped over a pulley. Or in some circumstances the power came from that stored up in a spring, i.e., the clock's mainspring. In most modern day clocks, the power comes from a battery or electrical current, even though some still use mainsprings that need winding. (Some of the far more expensive, "cutting edge" wristwatch technologies has gone from making use of battery power to far more eco-friendly mainsprings that use wrist and arm movement to wind themselves.)
4. A counter chain -- This is the device that counts the pulses or motion and adds it up into seconds, minutes, hours, etc., in mechanical clocks and in modern day clocks it does the very same factor for the pulses from an electrical present or vibrating quartz.
5. An indicator -- Inside the oldest mechanical clocks there was no readable "dial" or "face" that showed time, so the indicator was often a chime or bell that rang at regular intervals. The earliest clocks with faces or dials were analog clocks which display the time as moving hands that revolve around a circle with marked intervals on it. Modern day clocks and watches are either analog or digital, i.e., a changing light display of numeric digits indicating the time. A lot of sports chronometers are digital and include several functions and displays to show elapsed time, time divided into laps, etc.
Like it or not, most of us depend on clocks and watches to live our lives. Indeed, timepieces of one sort or one more pretty a lot shape life in our century. But they also add touches of beauty, as individual accessories and jewelry and as decor in our houses, patios, yards, and gardens.
Really, although, we owe an remarkable amount of credit to clocks and watches along with other timepieces. Without having these faithful servants of civilization keeping regular control over time and events, we would have no industrialized civilization. Can you imagine how chaotic a globe without having clocks and watches could be? Even if some of us are fairly casual about dates and times -- and deadlines! -- we still rely on clocks to mark the times of our lives!
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