An electronic clock is very convenient, but many still use a mechanical one. Or specifically set up a dial with arrows on smartphones.
Most of us are so accustomed to watches and their looks that not many people wonder why they look that way. And why do arrows run from left to right?
The first hours: what were they like?
Until the first mechanical watch, the sun was widely used. The first of them were created in Egypt, more than 3.5 thousand years BC. It is important to note that Egypt is in the Northern Hemisphere. And therefore, the shadow from the pole of the sundial moved precisely from right to left.
Interesting fact: in the southern hemisphere, it moves in the opposite direction.
So, the shadow from the pole of the sundial moves in the opposite direction, like the Sun. And it also goes from left to right, from East to West. This is exactly what happens in the Northern Hemisphere, where the first great civilizations lived, making scientific discoveries.
Subsequently, not only the Egyptians used the sundial, this discovery spread widely around the world, reaching Europe. It is logical that people are accustomed to such a solution, which has remained relevant and informative for them for centuries. And when the first mechanical watch appeared, the hands were launched in the direction familiar to all. Other options were not even considered.
The first mechanical watch: when did it appear?
Until the Middle Ages, people dispensed with a mechanical watch. But do not assume that only solar was in use. Yes, they were very popular, they were often placed in the squares so that people could find out the current time. However, the accuracy was not always high enough.
People also used hourglass, especially when it was necessary to detect a short period of time. There were water clocks. All of them worked on the same principle. The substance, which was in the upper part, had to flow to the lower for a certain period of time. After which they needed to be turned over. Of course, such devices had to be watched. It required a separate person who would fill the upper tank in a timely manner, or turn over the mechanism.
Interesting fact: even flower clocks were invented. One gardener noted that some types of plants open their buds only for a certain period of time, always at the same hours. And he skillfully took advantage of this by creating a flower bed clock.
All of these options, like many others invented by mankind for millennia, had a number of drawbacks. The main ones were inaccuracy and the need for frequent maintenance, almost constant attention. And therefore, progress on them did not stop.
In 1657, the world saw the first mechanical watch. They were invented by Christian Huygens, a resident of Holland. It was he who first guessed to use a pendulum to regulate the course of such a complex mechanism.Due to him, he was able to minimize the error and achieve accuracy high enough for his time. In the future, his followers were able to reduce the backlog or "rush" of hours to a minimum, bringing them to the ideal.
So, to satisfy the interest it can be noted that the first Huygens clock gave a 10-second error per day. For previous inventors who could not succeed, the daily error reached an hour, and was at least 15 minutes. But modern Swiss watches, for example, get off only for a split second, which allows them to be considered perfectly accurate. After all, they may not need to be adjusted for years.
Thus, the clock hands go from left to right, because we live in the Northern Hemisphere, and because the first watches were also invented in its open spaces. After all, the shadow of the first invention for measuring time, a sundial, moved in the same direction. And people are used to seeing the dial in this display. If the watchmakers would have acted differently and reversed the hands of the hands, this would have brought a lot of confusion to the minds of ordinary people. Moreover, at first mechanical watches could well coexist with solar ones.
