The Waterclock

The name "Clepsydra" (gr. κλεψύδρα) comes from two Greek words: - "klepto" (gr. κλέπτειν) - steal and "hydros" (gr. uδωρ) – water. Clepsydra is incorrectly associated only to the clocks that flow with sand, which appeared only in the Middle Ages.

The determination of the time regardless the season of the year was possible after the first timer water constructed. The Water clock had a bigger progress compared to the solar clock, because it was not dependent on the time of the day or the weather. It was probably the first such a device but the date of the water clock is not known to anyone.

The first version of the invention was simple, but also inaccurate. Inside a bowl shapped object was the water at the left bottom of the container it was a hole, so the water could escape to the outside. The biggest problem was the irregular speed of the water exiting the water clock, the more it was inside, the faster it flew out to the outside and with a decreasing amount of (water pressure) the speed was decreased by giving irregular effects, so the clock was not accurate.

Then somebody sought a modification to the water clock, which was that they were used for specific purposes, each clock ticked a specific amount of time and was used repeatedly to dispense the same amount of time (for example, when public speaking to count down the time within which they could speak their speeches, also in the antiquity were also used to measure the duration of the night guard services).  The improved water clock have survived until the fourteenth century, the same time that probably was born the sand clock, also called Hourglass.

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