Digital clock

Abstract

HOROLOGY is the science embracing the whole field of the determination of time i.e. the time of day and the design and construction of instruments to denote and record time. When a person pauses to think what life would be like without clocks and watches, he would realise that it would be very difficult for us, to plan our work and play, and quite impossible for the life of the modern world to continue in its usual complicated pattern. Quite early in the history of the civilised world, man needed some more exact way of telling time time than the daily rising and setting of the sun. Initially, his limitations could only permit him to produce a water clock, which was a bowl marked on the inside and had a small hole at the bottom through which water could leak away. Thus as the water level falls, the position of water level relative to the scale could indicate the passing of time. The sun dials of ancient Egypt and Greece were simple blocks of stone, so placed that the shadow of a part of one block fell across a scale of time marked upon another block. It is interesting to note that, in this era the duration of daylight was divided into twelve equal parts, thus the 'hour' in summer was longer than the winter hour. [...]