Time And Clocks: A Description Of Ancient And Modern Methods Of Measuring Time

by Henry Hardinge Cunynghame

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216 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1906

Reviews

[Prakash Yadav · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mechanics, in its purest form, is indistinguishable from art. Something akin to art and philosophy has been lost* with commercialization and digitization of watches and time keepers. The modernization is a wonderful achievement of science without a doubt, yet a feeling has been lost; the curiosity at ticking of a clock, the miniscule fragments of metal and plastic ticking in all sincerity, to measure something quite conceptual, ephemeral yet perpetual, as time.
Cunynghame gives a nice description to the science and history or watch making, from pendulum based grandfather clocks to modern spring loaded watches that tick without gravity. Modern by 1906 standards, he even discusses the use of tuning forks to measure sub second intervals of time. Different escapements are discussed in detail and meaningful illustrations (I spent an entire evening just staring at Fig. 45 !). I particularly liked how the book progresses from ancient arts of time keeping and the fundamentals of Astronomy and Newtonian physics to gradually complex sections on escapements, actuator and compensator mechanisms, pulleys, electricity and pure practical mechanics. Its hard to come across good books like this.
The book finishes with the author's personal views on science of time keeping, he stresses on instilling a scientific acumen and building a personal discipline towards research and engineering.
Highly recommended for those who don't mind indulging in vain anachronistic curiosities from time to time.
* - By lost I do not mean a complete destruction, its only transmuted to a million other genres of curiosities : in physics and astronomy, from quantum physics to black holes, there has never been a more fascinating time to be alive. Yet I am nostalgic for a feeling I never possessed, a simple inquisitiveness for how a watch ticks. tick, tock, tick, tock, tapping into the silent heartbeat of existence.