Assignment 1: Posted by Caila Anderson

[The post below was selected as an excellent example of a response to blog assignment 1]

from Caila Anderson:

The clock.

There have been a  number of clock designs throughout time beginning with the sundial, the hourglass, the water clock, and then then pendulum and quartz clocks.  The invention of the clock has changed the world by allowing us to measure our day in increments that were impossible with just the sundial.  Moreover, it has separated our movement through time from that of nature and has contributed to a number of other world altering innovations; global time zones, mass-production, the 9-5 work day, and eating at a particular time rather than eating when we are hungry, to name a few. Interestingly, for such an important innovation there appears to still be much contention on the actual civilization responsible for it’s original design.  However, that being said, Galileo is cited as the inventor of the pendulum clock, though as he never built one the credit for the first built model goes to a Christian Huygens, 1656.

References:

Bellis, Mary. . The Invention of Clocks. InventorsGuide. 

http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa072801a.htm

Images:  http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/images/object_images/535x535/10308827.jpg