In Russia, ordinary people for a long time did without hours. The main reference point for them then was the sun. As soon as it was at the highest point, everyone knew that it was noon.
Birds were peculiar watches for our ancestors: larks began to sing at 2 a.m., Orioles - at 3 a.m., if sparrows woke up - already at 6 a.m. But the main "alarm" in the village was, of course, a rooster. He crowed at certain intervals, and he was guided by his cry. They went to bed early, as soon as it became dark in the hut, in order to save on candles.
Then it was not customary to set a specific time. Usually agreed: "see you at dawn" or "let's go home at sunset". Now such a life seems unusual to us, because for many, the day is scheduled in minutes.
10 interesting facts about watches will help you learn more about this useful device, to figure out where and when they appeared.
10. The planet is conditionally divided into time zones
The entire surface of the Earth was conditionally divided into 24 time zones. At their borders, local time changes exactly for 1 hour, and within the same time zone it is the same.
The counting starts from the GMT meridian, the zones go from west to east, in this direction the clock hands move forward. If you go in the opposite direction, they will come back.
In some countries, multiple time zones apply. So, in Russia there are 11 of them, in the UK (with overseas possessions) - 8, in France, taking into account its entire territory, - 12.
Some countries choose not to divide their territory. So, China is located in 5 time zones, but the government of this country ordered: one standard time will operate throughout its territory.
9. There are many units of time.
Time units appeared for a reason. They are based on the period during which the Earth rotates around its axis and around our body.
Initially, only a day was known, which was then divided by an hour, minutes and seconds. In order to measure longer time intervals, a week, a month and a year were invented. Year is an approximate time during which our planet makes a revolution around the luminary. A month is a period of phase change of the moon, which approximately takes 30 days.
However, this was not enough. There are additional units of time. In foreign languages, such a thing as megagod, which is equal to 1 million years, and gigagod, i.e. 1 billion years. But they are more often used in cosmology or geology, when you need to evaluate the age of the Universe or our planet.
8. Sundial - the very first on the planet
The first were invented sundial. They consist of an object casting a long shadow, and a dial with many divisions. You can use them only during the day, when the sky is clear or there is little cloud cover.
The shadow cast by objects is constantly changing. It moves while changing its length. In the morning, the shadows become long, then shorten, and after 12 noon they again begin to lengthen.
In the morning they are facing west, at noon - to the north, and in the evening - to the east. Based on these observations, it was possible to count the time along the length of the shadow or in its direction.
The first sundial is a stick stuck in the ground, the dial of which was pegs placed there. You cannot call this watch accurate, because the end of the shadow describes not a circle, but a complex curve, the location of which is constantly changing.
Many thinkers of that time worked on improving watches, trying to make them so that they could be used throughout the year. For each month, its own divisions were made, so the first hours were covered with many lines.
7. Atomic clocks are the most accurate
The most reliable time measuring devices are atomic clocks, which use processes at the level of atoms and molecules. They are necessary, first of all, in navigation. They are also used by the exact time services, i.e. wherever you need to know the time to the nearest second.
The most accurate atomic clocks can make a 1 second error for 300 million years, i.e. they are practically not mistaken. For the first time that it was possible to create such a device, the English physicist Lord Kelvin spoke in 1879, but they could realize his ideas only in the middle of the twentieth century.
6. The fire watch was invented in ancient China
In China, they used special fire watches. It was an ordinary candle, for the preparation of which different varieties of wood, ground into powder, were used. They were mixed with incense, and then made sticks in the form of a spiral. An unusual composition was needed for uniform combustion.
The combustion of a certain segment of the candle corresponded to a certain period of time. Sometimes they were used as an alarm clock. Metal balls were hung in certain places. When the candle burned, they fell into the bowl, making a loud sound.
5. The tower clock appeared in the 14th century
Back in XII, the first simple devices that were needed to notify monks about the beginning of prayer appeared in monasteries and some cathedrals.
But real mechanical tower clocks were invented only in the XIV century, in Italy. The oldest of them were made in 1335, in Milan. Gradually they began to be made in other places, by the end of the 14th century, almost all Italian cities had their own watches.
4. The hour hand goes from left to right, as the shadow of the sundial moves in this direction
Once upon a time, people were guided by the Sundial. The shadow from the rod moved in the same way as the Sun moved in the sky, i.e. from left to right.
The creators of mechanical watches decided not to abandon this principle. Interestingly, this only happens in the Northern Hemisphere, if the Sundial appeared in the Southern Hemisphere, the hands would move in the other direction.
3. Hours prohibited at Las Vegas casinos
When the first casinos were designed, the designers did everything possible to distract people from the real world, to captivate them with the gameplay.
Once inside, a person ceases to notice time, forgets everything in the world. Exactly because of this reason inside many casinos, including in Las Vegas, there are no hours. Moreover, there are no windows there, so the visitor does not know how long he has been in the gaming room.
2. The first watches were created in 1812
The very first wristwatch appeared in 1571. But they were called not watches, but bracelets, because in fact, it was an ornament worn only by women. The first such unusual bracelet with diamonds and pearls Count Lester presented to Elizabeth I.
Real watches were created at the beginning of the XIX century for Eugene Beauharnais, but they still did not take root. They were appreciated only at the end of the 19th century by the military, who realized that it was much more convenient to wear them on the wrist, but they became really popular only in the 20th century.
1. The emergence of "smart watches"
They are also called smart watches. This is a computerized wristwatch that not only shows time, but also performs many other useful tasks.: calculator, translator, etc.
This is not just a clock, but small computers that can receive phone calls, answer emails and SMS, include a camera, compass, navigator, etc.