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Myriad Year Clock
The , was a universal clock designed by the Japanese inventor Hisashige Tanaka in 1851. It belongs to the category of Japanese clocks called ''Wadokei''. This clock is designated as an Important Cultural Property and a Mechanical Engineering Heritage by the Japanese government. The clock is driven by a spring. Once it is fully wound, it can work for one year without another winding. It can show the time in 7 ways (such as usual time, the day of the week, month, moon phase, Japanese time, Solar term). Since the time system in Japan at that time was temporal hour, a day was 12 hours, and a day was divided into day and night, and each divided into 6 equal parts was regarded as 1 hour. Because the length of the day and night changes according to the season, the time dial was automatically movable, and it was linked with the other six clocks, making it an extremely complicated mechanism. It also rings chimes every hour. It consists of more than 1,000 parts to realize these comple ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Universal Clock
Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a television channel owned by NBCUniversal ** Universal Kids, an American current television channel, formerly known as Sprout, owned by NBCUniversal ** Universal Pictures, an American film studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal Television, a television division owned by NBCUniversal Content Studios ** Universal Parks & Resorts, the theme park unit of NBCUniversal * Universal Airlines (other) * Universal Avionics, a manufacturer of flight control components * Universal Corporation, an American tobacco company * Universal Display Corporation, a manufacturer of displays * Universal Edition, a classical music publishing firm, founded in Vienna in 1901 * Universal Entertainment Corporation, a Japanese software producer and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hisashige Tanaka
was a Japanese rangaku scholar, engineer and inventor during the Bakumatsu and early Meiji period in Japan. In 1875, he founded what became the Toshiba Corporation. He has been called the "Thomas Edison of Japan" or "Karakuri Giemon." Biography Tanaka was born in Kurume, Chikugo province (present-day Fukuoka prefecture) as the eldest son of a tortoise shell craftsman. Apprenticed at an early age, he was a gifted artisan. At the age of eight, he invented an inkstone case with a secret lock, which required a cord to be twisted in a certain manner to open it. At the age of 14, he had invented a loom capable of weaving intricate designs into fabric. From age 20 he began to make ''karakuri'' puppet dolls, autonomous dolls powered by springs, pneumatics and hydraulics, capable of relatively complex movements, which were much in demand by the aristocrats of Kyoto, ''daimyō'' in feudal domains, and by the Shōgun's court in Edo. At age 21, he was performing around the country a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wadokei
A is a mechanical clock that has been made to tell traditional Japanese time, a system in which daytime and nighttime are always divided into six periods whose lengths consequently change with the season. Mechanical clocks were introduced into Japan by Jesuit missionaries (in the 16th century) or Dutch merchants (in the 17th century). These clocks were of the lantern clock design, typically made of brass or iron, and used the relatively primitive verge and foliot escapement. Tokugawa Ieyasu owned a lantern clock of European manufacture. Neither the pendulum nor the balance spring were in use among European clocks of the period, and as such they were not included among the technologies available to the Japanese clockmakers at the start of the isolationist period in Japanese history, which began in 1641. The isolationist period meant that Japanese clockmakers would have to find their own way without significant further inputs from Western developments in clockmaking. Neve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Important Cultural Property (Japan)
An The term is often shortened into just is an item officially classified as Tangible Cultural Property by the Japanese government's Agency for Cultural Affairs (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) and judged to be of particular importance to the history, arts, and culture of the Japanese people. Classification of Cultural Properties To protect the cultural heritage of Japan, the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties was created as a under which important items are appropriated as Cultural Properties,In this article, capitals indicate an official designation as opposed to a simple, unofficial definition, e.g "Cultural Properties" as opposed to "cultural properties". thus imposing restrictions to their alteration, repair and export. Besides the "designation system", there exists a , which guarantees a lower level of protection and support to Registered Cultural Properties. Cultural Properties are classified according to their nature. Items de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mechanical Engineering Heritage (Japan)
The is a list of sites, landmarks, machines, and documents that made significant contributions to the development of mechanical engineering in Japan. Items in the list are certified by the . Overview The ''Mechanical Engineering Heritage'' program was inaugurated in June 2007 in connection with the 110th anniversary of the founding of the JSME. The program recognizes machines, related systems, factories, specification documents, textbooks, and other items that had a significant impact on the development of mechanical engineering. When a certified item can no longer be maintained by its current owner, the JSME acts to prevent its loss by arranging a transfer to the National Science Museum of Japan or to a local government institution. The JSME plans to certify several items of high heritage value over years. Categories Items in the Mechanical Engineering Heritage (Japan) are classified into four categories: # Sites: Historical sites that contain heritage items. # Landmarks: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spring (device)
A spring is an elastic object that stores mechanical energy. In everyday use the term often refers to coil springs, but there are many different spring designs. Modern springs are typically manufactured from spring steel, although some non-metallic objects like the bow are also springs. When a conventional spring, without stiffness variability features, is compressed or stretched from its resting position, it exerts an opposing force approximately proportional to its change in length (this approximation breaks down for larger deflections). The ''rate'' or ''spring constant'' of a spring is the change in the force it exerts, divided by the change in deflection of the spring. That is, it is the gradient of the force versus deflection curve. An extension or compression spring's rate is expressed in units of force divided by distance, for example or N/m or lbf/in. A torsion spring is a spring that works by twisting; when it is twisted about its axis by an angle, it produc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solar Term
A solar term is any of twenty-four periods in traditional Chinese lunisolar calendars that matches a particular astronomical event or signifies some natural phenomenon. The points are spaced 15° apart along the ecliptic and are used by lunisolar calendars to stay synchronized with the seasons, which is crucial for agrarian societies. The solar terms are also used to calculate intercalary months; which month is repeated depends on the position of the sun at the time. According to the ''Book of Documents'', the first determined term was Dongzhi (Winter Solstice) by Dan, the Duke of Zhou, while he was trying to locate the geological center of the Western Zhou dynasty, by measuring the length of the sun's shadow on an ancient timekeeper instrument named Tu Gui (土圭). Then four terms of seasons were set, which were soon evolved as eight terms; until 104 BC in the book Taichu Calendar, the entire twenty-four solar terms were officially included in the Chinese calendar. Becaus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Temporal Hour
Unequal hours are the division of the light day and the night into 12 sections each, whatever the season. They are also called temporal hours, seasonal hours, biblical or Jewish hours, as well as ancient or Roman hours (). They are ''unequal duration'' periods of time because days are longer and nights shorter in summer than in winter. Their use in everyday life was replaced in the late Middle Ages by the now common ones of equal duration. The first temporal hour of daylight begins at Sunrise, the first of night at Sunset. For example, if daylight and night are each divided into twelve temporal hours, Midday and Midnight are each the beginning of the seventh hour. A clock that displays the temporal hours is called a temporal clock. Astronomical basics To the concept of ''light day'' corresponds the astronomical concept '' Day arc of the Sun''. With the exception of the equator, the duration of daylight depends on the latitude and the season. At 49° north/south latitude (e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Expo 2005
Expo 2005 was a World Expo held for 185 days between Friday, March 25 and Sunday, September 25, 2005, in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, east of the city of Nagoya. Japan has also hosted Expo '70 Osaka (World Expo), Expo '75 Okinawa (Specialised Expo), Expo '85 Tsukuba (Specialised Expo), and Expo '90 Osaka (Horticultural Expo) and will host Expo 2025 Osaka (World Expo). Theme The theme of the Expo was "Nature's Wisdom", with national and corporate pavilions expressing themes of ecological co-existence, renewable technology, and the wonders of nature. In Japanese, this is rendered as ''Ai-chikyūhaku'' (愛・地球博), which means (roughly) "Love the Earth Expo," as well as being a play on the name of the host prefecture, 愛知 (Aichi). According to the official website: : ''We must come together and share our experience and wisdom, in order to create a new direction for humanity which is both sustainable and harmonious with nature.'' Location The main site of the Expo was a fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Museum Of Nature And Science
The is in the northeast corner of Ueno Park in Tokyo. The museum has exhibitions on pre- Meiji science in Japan. It is the venue of the taxidermied bodies of the legendary dogs Hachikō and Taro and Jiro. A life-size blue whale model and a steam locomotive are also on display outside. History Blue whale Life size model. Opened in 1871, it has had several names, including Ministry of Education Museum, Tokyo Museum, Tokyo Science Museum, the National Science Museum of Japan, and the National Museum of Nature and Science as of 2007. It was renovated in the 1990s and 2000s, and offers a wide variety of natural history exhibitions and interactive scientific experiences. It was completed as the main building of the Tokyo Science Museum in September 1931 as part of the reconstruction project after the Great Kanto Earthquake. Neo-Renaissance style. Designed by Kenzo Akitani, an engineer of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Building Division. The b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
