It's About Time!

Time management is a kind of folk knowledge that I have had to learn the hard way. I guess I can attribute that to my wonderful mother who is always running on an internal clock and not actually a real one. Because of her example, time was a very confusing thing for me. I remember struggling so much because I did not understand that homework had deadlines in middle school. It wasn't until high school where I finally began to understand the concept of time (the hard way, of course). I think the experience that hit me the hardest was one day after basketball practice when I waited from 6-12 at night for my mom to pick me up. I was scared. I didn't have a phone and was too afraid to leave the school. When my mom finally pulled up, she was squealing with excitement about the furniture she purchased, and didn't even realize what time it was! I was mad. But, thankfully I started to see a little more of my dad (his work got less busy), and by his example, I was able to unlearn and relearn the correct way to view time.

Time, and the way it is managed, is probably one of the most vital kinds of folk knowledge that has ever existed, or rather: always existed. The way time is measured has changed throughout history, but in actuality, has never changed; just the way we have decided to measure it.  Of course, some of the ways that we measure time are based upon the obvious:

• Days - Determined by the sunrise and sunset (broken into half: 12 hours for the day, 12 hours for the night, thus a 24-hour day).
• Years - Determined by the reoccurring seasons, and constellations that bring us full circle.

However, other breakdowns of time-such as the week, hour, minute, and second are less obvious. It is suggested that the week came from the Jewish custom of worshiping God on the seventh day (Click here for source).

The Egyptians, decided to break up their week into 10 days, their months into three weeks (30 days), and their seasons into 4 months, having only 3 seasons! Interestingly enough, they still came out to a 365-day year! (Source). The Ancient Egyptians also used Sundials and Water Clocks (Clepsydras) to measure hours. Sundials are like round discs with hours marked on them (kind of like a clock). They each have an upright, triangular structure that casts a shadow on the disk, indicating the time.  The downfall to the Sundial is, well it only works during the daytime. So they came up with another way to tell time by using water. This clock, called a Clepsydra, drips water into a measured container to with lines to indicate the time. To learn a little bit about Egyptian history and how to make a Clepsydra, CLICK HERE!

The Mayans also had an incredible time measurement system. I think the best way to illustrate this, is shown in the video below. But be sure to start at :40 seconds, and disregard the intense music and frightening narrative towards the end...

Then in 8th century Europe, they began using the hourglass and burning candles to mark time. This was a fairly reliable way to tell time, but impractical in the sense that they had to change it every hour.

It wasn't until the 1300s when someone invented faceless, handless mechanical clocks. These clocks were made of weights and springs which rotated a toothed wheel and struck a bell every hour.

In the 1400s, they used coiled springs to move hands on a clock instead of weights. This made pocket watches and wristwatches possible! Then a couple hundred years later, in 1659 they began using pendulums, which made for the most accurate clock thus far. Unfortunately, pendulum clocks do not fare very well at sea, and thousands of sailors would get shipwrecked and die because the exact time was needed to find their longitude, and they were unable to measure their position. Who knew that not knowing the time could actually kill you?

Because of this, British Parliament offered a reward for the one who could invent a clock that would function accurately at sea. in the early 1761, John Harrison invented a clock that only lost 5 seconds for every six and a half weeks). A couple years later, these clocks began to be mass produced, and most were able to have one in their home.

I found it very interesting that in the 1900s, wearing watches was a "womanly" thing to do, because "real men" liked to pull out their flashy pocket-watches; however, during WWI, it was impractical for soldiers to carry around pocket-watches, and so they sported the wristwatch. After the war, it was finally deemed appropriately fashionably for men to wear them too (as illustrated by Colbert).

Currently, we have digital watches that run electrical currents through quartz crystals, which creates vibrations that count time. (Okay, this is the Spark Note version, to check out how it works in depth, feel free to check out: HowStuffWorks.com). These Quartz watched helps us tell time very accurately. However, it doesn't stop there! Since 1967, we have had the Atomic clock which uses the oscillations of Cesium-133 atoms in a similar way that the Quartz clocks do, but the Atomic clock only has an error ratio of 1 second every 1.4 MILLION YEARS!!!

Now that we have taken a peek at the past, and have seen how many cultures have measured time, and how it has evolved over the years, it is apparent that time keeping is incredibly important. Why? Well of course, it was important for nomadic societies to plan their moves, for farmers to know when to plant and harvest, and for the religious to hold their yearly sacred rituals. This is definitely one of the very most important pieces of folk knowledge someone can pass to another. And we can't forget about the Mormons: What do we say about time?

 

"Family...Isn't it About Time?" 

PS: To see a really cool timeline, visit this link HERE