The history of telling time began over 5,000 years ago with the Egyptians, who developed the first calendar. Before the advent of docks and watches, a variety of instruments were used to measure time. Some items, such as sand glasses and waterclocks, calculated the passage of time, while others indicated the actual time. During the Middle Ages mechanical devices took many years to perfect. Some clock mechanisms with gears and weights achieved a high degree of sophistication. The gears were developed before there was any accurate way to regulate their motion. In 1500 a coiled spring was developed in Germany that allowed for the making of smaller timepieces, but accuracy remained a problem until the eighteenth century. Timekeeping in the United States owed much to British and European technology, but unique designs were eventually created. The first of these designs was the Banjo clock built in 1802.By the middle of the nineteenth century, as factory owners sought greater efficiency and ...more

Horology