For as long as I can remember, I have been attracted to clocks and watches…the more unique, the better. So, on Christmas morning I decided to take advantage of the empty streets of Chicago to photograph some of my favorite timepieces. As I wandered around I began to think about time, and pondered how we started keeping track of it so many years ago.
I did some reading and found the Egyptians began using sundials and obelisks (tall four-sided structures with a pyramid-type point at the top) to gauge shadows in order to know the approximate time of day in 3500 B.C.
Plato introduced the ancient Grecian water clock or clepsydra around 500-1 B.C. The clocks dripped water in a regular rhythm and relied on a steady rise or fall of water to show a lapse of time.
Candle clocks were used until the early 10th century. A notch was made on the candle stick every inch. Each mark represented 20 minutes. Oil lamp clocks were a variation of candle clocks. As time passed, a notable amount of oil disappeared. The measurements were used to make calculations.
Christian monks were some of the first mechanical clockmakers in the medieval times. Religious establishments were in need of timekeeping machines because of the strict prayer schedules the people followed. Peter Lightfoot, a 14th-century monk of Glastonbury, built one of the oldest clocks still in existence, which now sits in excellent condition in London’s Science Museum.¹
Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can’t buy more hours. Scientists can’t invent new minutes. And you can’t save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you’ve wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow. ~Denis Waitely
Until next week, take some time to breathe in and savor life. I hope you enjoy my images.