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There never seems to be enough time in the day when you are trying to accomplish so many things. Before you know it, the day is done and you feel like you have done nothing all day. But you know you have. And then there is still more to do and you can’t seem to get it all done.

The star sirius appears near the sun every 365 days. The ancient Egyptians developed a calendar knowing this in the year 4236 BC. Old clocks, many made of sticks, were based on this calendar and lunar and tidal acitivity and were operated manually by moving the stick to align with the sun. Other indicators to help gauge the annual time included the flooding of the nile river.

Sundials made their appearance briefly and while based on a fascinating theory, the shifting of the Earth’s rotation as well as cloudy days rendered them unreliable. Additionally, they were worthless during the dark. Although many of the old clocks were based on the movement of the sun and over time were adjusted according to the seasons as they became better understood.

Old Alarm Clocks Came Preset

In 1787 in New Hampshire, the very first mechanical alarm was made. This alarm had one problem. The bell only went off at one time of the day, 4 am. Then in 1876 and alarm that was adjustable was made. Seth Thomas had the patent for that basic alarm and many of those manufactured today.

Prior to 1912 all clocks were operated either by winding the main spring or the mechanical action of a pendulum. In this year the Warren Clock Company introduced old clocks that were operated by battery. As pocket watches became prevalent in the early 17th century, a French mathematician tied a strong to it and wore it around his wrist, becoming the first person to wear a wrist watch, the most common timepiece now in use.

Lots of old clocks used weight mechanisms to operate. This meant that the clocks tended to be quite large and not very portable. Grandfather clocks are a good example. Even relative smaller mantel clocks were quite bulky. Innovation in the methods of clock construction have evolved over the years. The one thing which has not changed is man’s fascination with time.