READING PASSAGE 7

A Chronicle of Timekeeping
Our conception of time depends on the way we measure it
A
According to archaeological evidence, at least 5,000 years ago, and long before the advent of the Roman
Empire, the Babylonians began to measure time, introducing calendars to co-ordinate communal activities, to
plan the shipment of goods and, in particular, to regulate planting and harvesting. They based their calendars
on three natural cycles: the solar day, marked by the successive periods of light and darkness as the earth
rotates on its axis; the lunar month, following the phases of the moon as it orbits the earth; and the solar year,
defined by the changing seasons that accompany our planet's revolution around the sun.
B
Before the invention of artificial light, the moon had greater social impact. And, for those living near the
equator in particular, its waxing and waning was more conspicuous than the passing of the seasons. Hence, the
calendars that were developed at the lower latitudes were influenced more by the lunar cycle than by the solar
year. In more northern climes, however, where seasonal agriculture was practised, the solar year became
more crucial. As the Roman Empire expanded northward, it organised its activity chart for the most
part around the solar year.
C
Centuries before the Roman Empire, the Egyptians had formulated a municipal calendar having 12 months of
30 days, with five days added to approximate the solar year. Each period of ten days was marked by the
appearance of special groups of stars called decans. At the rise of the star Sirius just before sunrise, which
occurred around the all-important annual flooding of the Nile, 12 decans could be seen spanning the heavens.
The cosmic significance the Egyptians placed in the 12 decans led them to develop a system in
which each interval of darkness (and later, each interval of daylight) was divided into a dozen equal parts.
These periods became known as temporal hours because their duration varied according to the changing length
of days and nights with the passing of the seasons. Summer hours were long, winter ones short; only at the
spring and autumn equinoxes were the hours of daylight and darkness equal. Temporal hours, which were first
adopted by the Greeks and then the Romans, who disseminated them through Europe, remained in use for
more than 2,500 years.
D
In order to track temporal hours during the day, inventors created sundials, which indicate time by the length
or direction of the sun's shadow. The sundial's counterpart, the water clock, was designed to measure temporal
hours at night. One of the first water clocks was a basin with a small hole near the bottom through which the
water dripped out. The falling water level denoted the passing hour as it dipped below hour lines inscribed on
the inner surface. Although these devices performed satisfactorily around the Mediterranean, they could not
always be depended on in the cloudy and often freezing weather of northern Europe.
E
The advent of the mechanical clock meant that although it could be adjusted to maintain temporal hours, it was
naturally suited to keeping equal ones. With these, however, arose the question of when to begin counting, and
so, in the early 14th century, a number of systems evolved. The schemes that divided the day into 24 equal
parts varied according to the start of the count: Italian hours began at sunset, Babylonian hours at
sunrise, astronomical hours at midday and 'great clock' hours, used for some large public clocks in Germany, at
midnight. Eventually these were superseded by 'small clock', or French, hours, which split the day into two 12-
hour periods commencing at midnight.
F
The earliest recorded weight-driven mechanical clock was built in 1283 in Bedfordshire in England.
The revolutionary aspect of this new timekeeper was neither the descending weight that provided
its motive force nor the gear wheels (which had been around for at least 1,300 years) that transferred the
power; It was the part called the escapement. In the early 1400s came the invention of the coiled spring or
fusee which maintained constant force to the gear wheels of the timekeeper despite the changing tension of its
mainspring. By the 16th century, a pendulum clock had been devised, but the pendulum swung in a large arc
and thus was not very efficient.

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G
To address this, a variation on the original escapement was invented in 1670, in England. It was called the
anchor escapement, which was a lever-based device shaped like a ship's anchor. The motion of a pendulum
rocks this device so that it catches and then releases each tooth of the escape wheel, in turn allowing it to turn
a precise amount. Unlike the original form used in early pendulum clocks, the anchor escapement permitted
the pendulum to travel in a very small arc. Moreover, this invention allowed the use of a long pendulum which
could beat once a second and thus led to the development of a new floorstanding case design, which became
known as the grandfather clock.
H
Today, highly accurate timekeeping instruments set the beat for most electronic devices. Nearly all computers
contain a quartz-crystal clock to regulate their operation. Moreover, not only do time signals beamed down
from Global Positioning System satellites calibrate the functions of precision navigation equipment, they do so
as well for mobile phones, instant stock-trading systems and nationwide power-distribution grids.
So integral have these time-based technologies become to day-to-day existence that our dependency on them is
recognised only when they fail to work.

Questions 31-35

Label the diagram below.

How the 1670 lever-based device worke

31………………..

32…………………

33……………………

34……………………..

35…………………..

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