How Was Water Used To Measure Time?

 

A Huge Water Clock In Hornsby, Australia

Water clocks are among the oldest time-measuring instruments. A water clock or Clepsydra is any timepiece in which time is measured by the regulated flow of liquid into, or out from a vessel, where the amount is then measured.

The early Clepsydra or water clock from Persia and China was little more than a bucket with a hole in it.

In the Middle Ages, water clocks used rising or falling floats to operate a rack or a pinion, to move a pointer.

Later, water clocks became very elaborate with complicated details involving gears, wheels and shafts.

There are records of an early medieval water clock where "figures of angels would appear every hour, bells would ring, horsemen would appear, and a little man, known as jack, would strike the hour bell with a hammer".

Water clocks are important, because they tested some mechanical components that later gave rise to the Mechanical Clock in the Middle Ages.