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Clockwork
Clockwork refers to the inner workings of either mechanical devices called clocks and watches (where it is also called the movement (clockwork), movement) or other mechanisms that work similarly, using a series of gears driven by a spring or weight. A clockwork mechanism is often powered by a clockwork motor, description of the clockwork motor in an antique phonograph consisting of a mainspring, a spiral torsion spring of metal ribbon. Energy is stored in the mainspring manually by ''winding it up'', turning a key attached to a ratchet (device), ratchet which twists the mainspring tighter. Then the force of the mainspring turns the clockwork gears, until the stored energy is used up. The adjectives ''wind-up'' and ''spring-powered'' refer to mainspring-powered clockwork devices, which include clocks and watches, kitchen timers, music boxes, and wind-up toys. History The earliest known example of a clockwork set-up is the Antikythera mechanism. This device functioned as a gear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clock
A clock or chronometer is a device that measures and displays time. The clock is one of the oldest Invention, human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month, and the year. Devices operating on several physical processes have been used over the Millennium, millennia. Some predecessors to the modern clock may be considered "clocks" that are based on movement in nature: A sundial shows the time by displaying the position of a shadow on a flat surface. There is a range of duration timers, a well-known example being the hourglass. Water clocks, along with sundials, are possibly the oldest time-measuring instruments. A major advance occurred with the invention of the verge escapement, which made possible the first mechanical clocks around 1300 in Europe, which kept time with oscillating timekeepers like balance wheels., pp. 103–104., p. 31. Traditionally, in horology (the study of timekeeping), the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wind-up Toy
A wind-up toy is an automaton toy powered by a clockwork motor. Background Automata built for the sake of art, amusement, and simulation have been described since antiquity, in cases such as Heron of Alexandria designing clockwork birds during the Hellenistic Period. Leonardo da Vinci is frequently credited with constructing a mechanical lion, which he presented to King Francois I in Lyon in 1515. Although no record of the device's original designs remain, a recreation of this piece is housed at the Château du Clos Lucé. Some misinformation exists with regards to Regiomontanus's contribution, and his supposed construction of a flight-capable mechanical eagle and fly, which are frequently credited as the first wind-up toys. This story of an eagle which flew from Nuremberg to greet Friedrich III, alongside that of a fly which could circulate the room before returning to its inventor's hand, was spread by Petrus Ramus after a visit to Nuremberg in 1571, and is apparently fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Watch
A watch is a timepiece carried or worn by a person. It is designed to maintain a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is worn around the wrist, attached by a watch strap or another type of bracelet, including metal bands or leather straps. A pocket watch is carried in a pocket, often attached to a chain. A stopwatch is a type of watch that measures intervals of time. During most of their history, beginning in the 16th century, watches were mechanical devices, driven by clockwork, powered by winding a mainspring, and keeping time with an oscillating balance wheel. These are known as '' mechanical watches''. In the 1960s the electronic ''quartz watch'' was invented, powered by a battery and keeping time with a vibrating quartz crystal. By the 1980s it had taken over most of the watch market, in what became known as the quartz revolution (or the quartz crisis in Switzerland, whose renowned watch industry it decima ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Movement (clockwork)
In horology, a movement, also known as a caliber or calibre (British English), is the mechanism of a watch or Clock, timepiece, as opposed to the ''case'', which encloses and protects the movement, and the ''clock face, face'', which displays the time. The term originated with mechanical timepieces, whose clockwork movements are made of many moving parts. The movement of a digital watch is more commonly known as a module. In modern mass-produced clocks and watches, the same movement is often inserted into many different styles of case. When buying a quality pocketwatch from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century, for example, the customer would select a movement and case individually. Mechanical movements get dirty and the lubricants dry up, so they must periodically be disassembled, cleaned, and lubricated. One source recommends servicing intervals of: 3–5 years for watches, 15–20 years for grandfather clocks, 10–15 years for wall or mantel clocks, 15–20 years for anniv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mainspring
A mainspring is a spiral torsion spring of metal ribbon—commonly spring steel—used as a power source in mechanical watches, some clocks, and other clockwork mechanisms. ''Winding'' the timepiece, by turning a knob or key, stores energy in the mainspring by twisting the spiral tighter. The force of the mainspring then turns the clock's wheels as it unwinds, until the next winding is needed. The adjectives wind-up and spring-powered refer to mechanisms powered by mainsprings, which also include kitchen timers, metronomes, music boxes, wind-up toys and clockwork radios. Modern mainsprings A modern watch mainspring is a long strip of hardened and blued steel, or specialised steel alloy, 20–30 cm long and 0.05-0.2 mm thick. The mainspring in the common 1-day movement is calculated to enable the watch to run for 36 to 40 hours, i.e. 24 hours between daily windings with a power-reserve of 12 to 16 hours, in case the owner is late winding the watch. This is the no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antikythera Mechanism
The Antikythera mechanism ( , ) is an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek hand-powered orrery (model of the Solar System). It is the oldest known example of an Analog computer, analogue computer. It could be used to predict astronomy, astronomical positions and eclipses decades in advance. It could also be used to track the four-year cycle of athletic games similar to an Olympiad, the cycle of the ancient Olympic Games. The artefact was among wreckage retrieved from Antikythera wreck, a shipwreck off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera in 1901. In 1902, during a visit to the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, National Archaeological Museum in Athens, it was noticed by Greek politician Spyridon Stais as containing a gear, prompting the first study of the fragment by his cousin, Valerios Stais, the museum director. The device, housed in the remains of a wooden-framed case of (uncertain) overall size , was found as one lump, later separated into three main fragments which ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astrolabe
An astrolabe (; ; ) is an astronomy, astronomical list of astronomical instruments, instrument dating to ancient times. It serves as a star chart and Model#Physical model, physical model of the visible celestial sphere, half-dome of the sky. Its various functions also make it an elaborate inclinometer and an analog computer, analog calculation device capable of working out several kinds of problems in astronomy. In its simplest form it is a metal disc with a pattern of wires, cutouts, and perforations that allows a user to calculate astronomical positions precisely. It is able to measure the horizontal coordinate system, altitude above the horizon of a celestial body, day or night; it can be used to identify stars or planets, to determine local latitude given local time (and vice versa), to survey, or to triangulation, triangulate. It was used in classical antiquity, the Islamic Golden Age, the European Middle Ages and the Age of Discovery for all these purposes. The astrolabe, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Timer
A timer or countdown timer is a type of clock that starts from a specified time duration and stops upon reaching 00:00. It can also usually be stopped manually before the whole duration has elapsed. An example of a simple timer is an hourglass. Commonly, a timer triggers an alarm when it ends. A timer can be implemented through hardware or software. ''Stopwatches'' operate in the opposite direction, upwards from 00:00, measuring elapsed time since a given time instant. '' Time switches'' are timers that control an electric switch. Hardware Mechanical Mechanical timers use clockwork to measure time. Manual timers are typically set by turning a dial to the time interval desired, turning the dial stores energy in a mainspring to run the mechanism. They function similarly to a mechanical alarm clock, the energy in the mainspring causes a balance wheel to rotate back and forth. Each swing of the wheel releases the gear train to move forward by a small fixed amount, causing t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Music Box
A music box (American English) or musical box (British English) is an automatic musical instrument in a box that produces Musical note, musical notes by using a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder (geometry), cylinder or disc to pluck the tuned teeth (or lamellophone, ''lamellae'') of a steel comb#Making music, comb. The popular device best known today as a "music box" developed from musical decorative boxes#Snuff box, snuff boxes of the 18th century and were originally called (French for "chimes of music"). Some of the more complex boxes also contain a tiny drum and/or bells in addition to the metal comb. History The Symphonium company started business in 1885 as the first manufacturers of disc-playing music boxes. Two of the founders of the company, Gustave Brachhausen and Paul Riessner, left to set up a new firm, Polyphon, in direct competition with their original business and their third partner, Oscar Paul Lochmann. Following the establishment of the Original Mus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and surpass the ideas and achievements of classical antiquity. Associated with great social change in most fields and disciplines, including Renaissance art, art, Renaissance architecture, architecture, politics, Renaissance literature, literature, Renaissance exploration, exploration and Science in the Renaissance, science, the Renaissance was first centered in the Republic of Florence, then spread to the Italian Renaissance, rest of Italy and later throughout Europe. The term ''rinascita'' ("rebirth") first appeared in ''Lives of the Artists'' () by Giorgio Vasari, while the corresponding French word was adopted into English as the term for this period during the 1830s. The Renaissance's intellectual basis was founded in its version of Renaiss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judaism
Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of observing the Mosaic covenant, which they believe was established between God in Judaism, God and the Jewish people. The religion is considered one of the earliest monotheistic religions. Jewish religious doctrine encompasses a wide body of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Among Judaism's core texts is the Torah—the first five books of the Hebrew Bible—and a collection of ancient Hebrew scriptures. The Tanakh, known in English as the Hebrew Bible, has the same books as Protestant Christianity's Old Testament, with some differences in order and content. In addition to the original written scripture, the supplemental Oral Torah is represented by later texts, such as the Midrash and the Talmud. The Hebrew ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solomon
Solomon (), also called Jedidiah, was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel and Judah, according to the Hebrew Bible. The successor of his father David, he is described as having been the penultimate ruler of all Twelve Tribes of Israel under an amalgamated History of ancient Israel and Judah, Israel and Judah. The hypothesized dates of Solomon's reign are from 970 to 931 BCE. According to the biblical narrative, after Solomon's death, his son and successor Rehoboam adopted harsh policies towards the northern Israelites, who then rejected the reign of the Davidic line, House of David and sought Jeroboam as their king. In the aftermath of Jeroboam's Revolt, the Israelites were split between the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), Kingdom of Israel in the north (Samaria) and the Kingdom of Judah in the south (Judea); the Bible depicts Rehoboam and the rest of Solomon's Patrilineality#In the Bible, patrilineal descendants ruling over independent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
