New Year’s Day brings reflection and resolutions. It is represented by Father Time, a figure buried in mythology. This aging Grim Reaper illustrates man’s fascination with, and attempts to control, or at least track, TIME.

How important is a fraction of a second? When spanning history, not much; if running computer programs, critical. Timing affects proper sequencing in distributed procedures, synchronization of file updates across several computers, and perhaps most importantly, flight pattern coordination by air traffic controllers, to name a few. 

To avoid problems caused by missing a beat, clock times in networked computers are synchronized using the Network Time Protocol (NTP). This uses Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) to synchronize computer clock times to a millisecond, or less. This Internet standard was developed by David Mills at the University of Delaware and refined over two decades. 

Earth’s inhabitants have constantly strived to get a handle on Time. The technology to do so has a long historic progression: sun dials, water clocks, mechanical, quartz, and atomic clocks. 

Time permeates, and in many cases controls, modern civilization. The techniques man has used to measure this elusive element are complex. We have divided our world into 24 standard and 16 nonstandard time zones. A business traveler, and e-zine publishers, must coordinate meeting, publication, and conference call times in various parts of the world. Many software developers have responded to the challenge. 

Before computers, time keeping was eclectic, and less related to getting to an appointment on time, as it was related to the cycles of the universe, agricultural planning, astrology, and superstition. The Prague Astronomical Clock made in 1410 has an astronomical dial whose mechanism still works, an anomaly in today’s market of quickly-obsolete versions of technologies. The clock’s workings are described by Joseph Siry of Rollins College: “… there are three great co-axial wheels of the same diameter, driven by the same pinion, with 365, 366 and 379 cogs. The first of these gearing the zodiac and the indicator … rotates once a sidereal day. The second gears the indicator of the Sun and rotates once a mean solar day. The third gearing the Moon's pointer rotates accordingly with the mean apparent motion of the Moon.” 

The most primitive and ancient form of time keeping technology was a simple stick, the shadow of which marked the passage of the sun. In ancient Egypt, an obelisk’s shadow provided more stable, measurable data. Man evolved this concept into smaller sun dials with equi-distant markings. The year, country of origin, and historic inventor involved in time keeping instruments is arguable, but the sequence holds. 

The second technological advance is said to have occurred earlier than 2,000 BC in Mesopotamia and India when men developed the water clock. Accuracy was the goal even then. Those new fangled time tracking devices were calibrated against the existing sun dials. One higher vessel dripped water at a constant rate into a lower vessel which had markings to measure the water level. Those markings served to incrementally measure the passing of time. 

Around 350 BC, per John G. Landels in his article“Water-Clocks and Time Measurement in Classical Antiquity,” published by “Endeavour” a quarterly scientific magazine, such clocks were being used in Greek brothels to limit client visits, and by the physician/anatomist Herophilos to measure the pulse rates of his patients. 

Varahamihira, an Indian astronomer who contributed to trigonometry through his mathematical discoveries, mentions early water clocks in his book, Pancha Siddhantika, written in 575 CE. Over centuries, water clocks became more elaborate, as evidenced by the reproduction of the 1206 AD Elephant Clock that sits in the India Court of a shopping mall in Dubai. 

For nearly a thousand years, time keeping innovations stood still. Skipping to the 14th century, large mechanical clocks were in vogue in city squares, many being weight-driven and regulated by a verge and foliot escapement. Don Rathjen from the Exploratorium Teacher Institute describes the guts of a mechanical clock: “All mechanical clocks include some sort of escapement mechanism, whose function is to control the energy the clock receives, and portion it out into small regular bits of movement. The term escapement is associated with regulating the “escape” of energy from the weight or spring.” An escapement includes a gear with teeth. An anchor which interacts with the teeth is attached to a pallet. As gears move, the mechanism marks the passage of time. Tick, tock. 

A spring-powered clock made by Henlein in Germany replaced heavy drive weights, resulting in smaller and portable timepieces. The French mathematician, Blaise Pascal, in whose honour the computing language was named, is supposed to have attached his pocket watch to his wrist with string, becoming the first person to wear a wrist watch. 

A large step forward was the pendulum clock designed by Dutch scientist Huygens, but it still experienced friction, the ever-present cog in the machinery. However, his pendulum clock brought accuracy down to a daily error of only 10 seconds. Man, though, always striving and creative, was driven to further experimentation. By the 1920’s, scientists were developing quartz clocks, the first step towards today’s atomic clock. Quartz clocks operate using the piezoelectric property of quartz crystals. The crystals when stimulated vibrate, generating an electric signal of comparatively regular frequency that operates the clock, without gears or escapements. 

The frequency depends on size, shape, and temperature of the quartz. Scientists felt that an atom of hydrogen or caesium was more stable. The first atomic clock was based on ammonia in 1949. England’s National Physical Laboratory built the first practical cesium atomic frequency standard. Caesium standards replaced those of the original design, and in 1960, they were incorporated into the official timekeeping system of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) a non-regulatory federal agency within the US Department of Commerce which promotes innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology. In 1967, the cesium atom’s natural frequency was formally recognized as the new international unit of time, and the second was defined as exactly 9,192,631,770 oscillations or cycles of its resonant frequency, replacing the old second that was defined in terms of the Earth’s motion. 

The atomic clock is not the end of man’s fascination with knowing “What time is it?” 

A global competition sponsored by Timex, resulted in a watch the size of, and worn on, a thumbnail. Translucent, it is only visible when activated. The TX54 concept design (the prototype apparently has not been brought to market yet) allows the user to select text color, and can make it glow for night viewing. Much more functional than a sun dial that only works in daylight.  X

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