Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to re: That's funny. However, wristwatches were a reality.

Visiting a clock and watch museum yesterday...
Mary Anne — (archived)

I didn't see any "wrist" sundials, but they had several very old pocket models on display.

Travellers didn't have to buy or make a garden model to tell the time. Everyone knew where east was as soon as the sun rose, but not all uprights are straight, and making accurate gradations on the ground wasn't always simple either.

I also found out that "muddying the waters" is a time-telling expression. The Egyptians used an earthenware pot marked with gradations and containing a small hole at the bottom, plugged by a little metal cylinder, to time the duration of a task. The pot was filled with water to one of the marks and the plug would be removed. The flow of water would time the activity. If someone wanted to have more time, or to give someone else more time, which particularly happened during a timed competition, he would put some dirt in the pot to slow the flow of the water.

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