History of movement of clock hands

15:39 - 5.06.2018


Why do the hands of the clock move from left to right, and not vice versa? We even use term "clockwise movement".

It is linked with the area where the first clock was invented.

Altitude dial is considered the most ancient clock. And the first sundial was invented by the ancient Egyptians. Watching the Sun, they noticed that the sun rises every day from one point and, moving through the sky in the exact path, comes in the same direction.

The shadows of objects change their direction in accordance with the movement of the Sun. Using this fact, the Egyptians invented the first sundial. It was just a simple device. Straight stick is mounted in the center of the flat surface.  In sunny weather, this stick cast a shadow on the area replacing the current watch face, and thus, following the movement of the stick shadow during the movement of the Sun, time was measured.

As the Sun rises from the East and sets in the West, the shadow changed its direction from left to right. Subsequently, when the mechanical clock was created, the movement of the arrows also set in the direction from left to right. And it was not by accident. Thus, the first mechanical clock was made in the XIII century in France, which is the country of the northern hemisphere. At that time, science knew nothing about the existence of the southern hemisphere, and people did not know that the Sun at the other end of the world is moving in the opposite direction.

 

 

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