Clocks in the interior: wall, floor, decorative

Time loop

The first instruments for measuring time appeared at least 13 centuries BC and since then have evolved to ultra-precise quantum instruments. In the Middle Ages, it was believed that the clock was invented by the Old Testament king Solomon, however, it was not specified which ones – solar, water, sand or mechanical. By the way, one gets the impression that from the very beginning consumers were concerned not so much with the question “what time is it?” As with the appearance of this device. Therefore, every century it became more luxurious and refined.

Fashion victims

The first portable clock was made at the beginning of the XNUMXth century by the master from Nuremberg Peter Henlein. Their mechanism was so small that they fit easily in a pocket. But the watch became a truly fashionable accessory only in the XNUMXth century, with the light hand of the favorite of King Louis XV, the Marquise de Pompadour. She ordered the jeweler for earrings in the form of a miniature watch, after which all Paris rushed to order jewelry with watches. Men wore them on their belts among other trinkets-trinkets, adored publicly twirling in their hands and did not spare money to decorate their toys. Often the dial and lid were covered with drawings of erotic and even pornographic content.

After the vest took pride of place in the men’s wardrobe, the watch case became flatter from convex to fit in a pocket. Fashionistas who did not have the means to buy an expensive accessory (the price of the “vigilant Breguet” praised by Pushkin reached three thousand rubles) resorted to tricks – they wore only a watch chain, one end of it was attached to a vest, the other was hidden in the folds of clothes. We also owe men’s fashion to wristwatches. True, at first only the military wore them. But in 1911, the House of Cartier released the first batch of wristwatches, which went not to the army, but to fashionable stores. Their prototype was a watch designed by Louis Cartier for the aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont, so that he could look at the dial without removing his hands from the steering wheel of the aircraft.

On the wall and on the table

In the 1629th century, no decent house could do without a table clock in a metal case. Often they took the most bizarre shape – a wooded mountain with a castle, a tower, a ship with sails. Wall clocks competed with table clocks. The German burghers were especially fond of the “picture clock”. Behind the picturesque image, a clock mechanism was hidden in them, which not only showed the time, but also set in motion the figures drawn on the canvas. In XNUMX, the Augsburg craftsmen presented the first cuckoo clock to the Elector August of Saxony, which is still a symbol of home comfort.

Grandfather clock

This is how the grandfather clock has been called for many centuries. The British even have a song “grandfather’s clock was too big for the shelf, so it stood on the floor for 90 years.” However, they were not invented by the British, but by the Germans, around the beginning of the 12th century. Then the grandfather clock reached two meters in height and required a winding every XNUMX hours. After a couple of centuries, they grew up and acquired a pendulum. The decor and shape of the body were made in accordance with the furniture fashion of their time. However, even then, carpenters often imitated the work of their predecessors. Watches in lacquered cases were especially appreciated, so dealers in luxury goods sent ready-made wooden cases to the Far East and received them back painted and varnished, and in the XNUMXth century they began to import Japanese lacquered cases to Europe.

Switzerland

Everyone knows that Swiss watches are the benchmark for quality. But not everyone knows that the heyday of watchmaking in Switzerland, oddly enough, contributed to the Reformation. From all over Europe, supporters of John Calvin fled to this quiet haven, who preached the rejection of corrupting luxury. Former jewelers became watchmakers, but they could not forget their old profession and richly decorated their products with fine engraving, enamel and inlay. During the French Revolution, many Parisian artisans fled to Switzerland, among whom was probably the most famous watchmaker of all times and peoples, Abraham Louis Breguet.

In the 70s of the last century, the Swiss watch industry was going through a terrible crisis. Mechanical watches could not compete with cheap Asian electronics. The situation was saved by financial analyst Nicholas Hayek, who came up with the idea of ​​reorienting the market to mass, less expensive, but at the same time Swiss quality products. Today, the Swatch group, created by Hayek, among other things, owns such luxury brands as Breguet, Tissot, Omega, etc.

Amazing mechanics

Did you know that the prototype of the modern tape recorder can be called the watch of the Strasbourg master Isaac Hebrecht? Every hour they play music written to the words of the Lord’s Prayer. The tower clock in Piazza San Marco in Venice, made in 1495 by the father and son of Ranieri, celebrates every hour with the sound of a bell, shows the phases of the moon, zodiac signs, and on Christmas and Easter they give a theatrical performance with the participation of the Holy Family, angels and magi. For 500 years, the clock has stopped only three times (for example, when in 1549 the keeper sawed off parts of the mechanism). In the XNUMXth century, automatic clocks were very popular, which amused the public. For example, the Peacock clock from the Hermitage demonstrates all the achievements of mechanics of that time: from the melody to the peacock spreading its tail.

Time travel … is possible!

The fact that one can move in time as easily as in space was for the first time publicly announced by the janitor of a haberdashery store, Herbert Wells, who wrote the book “The Time Machine” at his leisure. Naturally, his contemporaries considered his prophecy to be nonsense. Then the physicist Albert Einstein proved that time is a relative category. In 1949 the mathematician Kurt Gödel substantiated the possibility of such a journey, and in 1988 the physicist Kip Thorne stated that the moment people learn to find and disperse holes in space, they will be able to permeate time. While scientists are struggling with theory, the American company The Time Travel Fund is practicing. Quite smartly ($ 10 each) she sells tickets to the future. Customers are assured that the company will survive until 2500, in which a time machine will certainly be built. She will transfer all those who paid for the trip from the past to the future. Moreover, one dollar from each ticket is deposited by the firm in the bank on the client’s account. At 5% per annum over five centuries, one dollar will grow to $ 39, and the one who was nothing will become Onassis of the XXVI century.

What’s new?

Sundial

The fact that the hands on our watches move from left to right, we owe the ancient sundial, the shadow in them followed the sun. By the way, the obelisks of Ancient Egypt are nothing more than parts of a sundial.

Water clock

The sundial was too weather dependent and therefore unreliable. The restless human mind has found a replacement for them – a water clock. On their basis, Plato constructed the first alarm clock in history: pouring from one vessel to another, water displaced air from there. He went up the tube to the flute, which began to play.

Hourglass

appeared in the VIII century among sailors. Once every half hour, sand was poured from one reservoir to another, after which the clock was turned over and struck the onboard bell. This is where the expression “hit the flasks” came from.

Tower clock

Vertical sundials on the walls of temples appeared in Byzantium. The tower clock in the Middle Ages was most likely a water clock. The first mechanical tower clock that has come down to us (70th century) adorns the Belarusian Grodno church. They are set in motion by a XNUMX-kilogram weight, which is lifted every day to the height of a five-story building by the watch keeper.

Mechanical watches

The year of birth of mechanical watches is considered to be 1250, and their father is the Frenchman Villard de Goncourt, who left us the first drawing of a clock that was set in motion by a weight. The oldest mechanical watches that have come down to us date back to 1348.

Quantum clock

Designed by the Japanese in 2005, this watch is considered the most accurate today. Strontium atoms play the role of a pendulum in them. The error of the clock is only one quintillion second per day.

In the 1675st century BC. this Roman architect improved the water clock by equipping it with a dial and an hour hand. The minute hand appeared on the clock only in 1700, and the second – in XNUMX, but for a long time it was considered optional nonsense.

Marie Antoinette (1755-1793)

In 1783, the watchmaker Abraham Louis Breguet decided to present the Queen of France with a watch with all the technical innovations of that time: an auto plant, a perpetual calendar, a stopwatch, a thermometer, a power reserve indicator … Work on the watch was completed only in 1827, 34 years after the Queen’s execution.

Jean Casez

The largest movement in the world was created by Jean Cazes. Its 30-meter Guinness World Record watch adorns the Cornavin Hotel in Geneva.