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The first water clocks to employ complex segmental and epicyclic gearing was invented earlier by the Arab engineer Ibn Khalaf al-Muradi in Islamic Iberia c. 1000. His water clocks were driven by water wheels, as was also the case for several Chinese water clocks in the 11th century. [45] Comparable water clocks were built in Damascus and Fez.
Complex gearing for uniquely Chinese clockworks were continued in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), with new designs driven by the power of falling sand instead of water to provide motive power to the wheel drive, and some Ming clocks perhaps featured reduction gearing rather than the earlier escapement of Su Song. [12]
[2] kè literally means "mark" or "engraving", referring to the marks placed on sundials [4] or water clocks [5] to help keep time. Using the definition of kè as 1 ⁄ 100 of a day, each kè is equal to 0.24 hours, 14.4 minutes, or 14 minutes 24 seconds. Every shí contains 8 1 ⁄ 3 kè, with 7 or 8 full kè and partial beginning or ending kè.
Sundials and water clocks were first used in ancient Egypt c. 1200 BC (or equally acceptable BCE) and later by the Babylonians, the Greeks and the Chinese. Incense clocks were being used in China by the 6th century. In the medieval period, Islamic water clocks were unrivalled in their sophistication until the mid-14th century.
He invented a mechanized water clock with the Tantric monk and mathematician Yi Xing (Chinese: 一行; pinyin: Yī Xíng; Wade–Giles: I-Hsing). [1] [2] [3] It was actually an astronomical instrument that served as a clock, made of bronze in the capital of Chang'an in the 720s. It was described by a contemporary text this way:
The clepsydra, or water clock, was the most prevalent of time-keeping devices for astronomers. The clepsydra was also used as the official state time-keeping device. The Astronomical Bureau used a three-chamber-intake clepsydra, although there is no record of a water clock at Nanjing.
It is known that the ancient Chinese developed a form of sundials c. 800 BCE, and the sundials eventually evolved to very sophisticated water clocks by 1000 CE, and sometime in the Song dynasty (1000–1400 CE), a compass would sometimes also be constructed on the sundial. [13]
Like the earlier water-power employed by Zhang Heng and the later escapement mechanism in the astronomical clock tower engineered and erected by Su Song (1020–1101), Yi Xing's celestial globe employed water-power in order for it to rotate and function properly. [5] [6]