Spring clocks.

From the type of water meter, people seek to invent another device that measures time. The first person to do a watch was a mechanical monk Gerbert, an astronomer. The Benedictian priest invented the "escapement" mechanism in 996. At that time, the watch's machinery was very complicated. Transported by a heavy block, the watch is very large and bulky. At first the clock was fitted with a bell and the bell reminded the monks to pray. So there is the Latin word 'clocca' and 'clock' in English.

Pendulum of pendulum clock

In 1288 a large watch, beating each bell and several times a day, was installed on the tower of Westminster Hall, England. It is also said that King Henry 8, while losing money and being too short of money, ordered to remove the bells and sell them to pay the debt.

Clock technology improved gradually and by the 14th century, watches were seen everywhere. At that time there were many types of watches but they were big and transporting because the fruits weighed more than 50kg. There is also a type with a 24-hour engraving surface and this face rotates in front of a fixed hour. At that time, the most famous watch was King Charles 5. The first astronomical watch was abbot Richard Wellington built the Saint Albans church in the years 1326 and 1344. another watch made for the royal castle in Paris by Henry De Vick of Wurttemberg in Germany (today the Ministry of Justice = Palais de Justice), the watch has an hour hand and uses a 227 kilogram weight (about 500 pounds) fell from a height of 9.8 meters (32 feet).

Due to the use of watches, many people have made watches with machines that make this craft even more developed. If big watches are bulky, nobles or wealthy men want small watches for their own use. People find a way to build a watch.The first 'neck strap' watch was made by Peter Henlein in Nuremberg, Germany and imitated by all other watchmakers . Henlein used a spring as a transport force. Thanks to his rich imagination, Henlein has built a watch that looks and looks like an egg, so this watch is called 'Nuremberg Egg' (Nuremberg Egg). This watch is very expensive and it is said that Marquis De Laborde had to buy one for 26 gold coins in 1377.

At the end of the 14th century, the watch became an expensive piece of jewelry. People often use a gold necklace to wear a watch in front of their chest. The clock has many styles so the usage is also different. In 1520, Fr Frederic Pistorius, superior of Nuremberg, gave a monk Luther a watch. Martin Luther thanked the following sentence: '. . . This gift is really precious. I have to ask mathematicians to understand how to do and how to use this watch because I have never seen a similar one before . '

Since the 16th century, the watchmakers of Europe have tried hard to build watches that are getting smaller and smaller, more beautiful, encrusted with diamonds and they also use precious metals. to make watch case. At that time, if the nobles were proud of their watches, the churches were also honored about the big watch attached to the facade.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, a series of scientific inventions increased the accuracy of the clock and reduced the heavy mass used in watches. In the early 17th century, Galileo described the nature of pendulum (pendulum). The movement of the pendulum concerns the physicists. On July 16, 1675, Christian Huyghens, a Dutch physicist and astronomer, presented to the Dutch government the first pendulum clock and then on December 30, 1675, Huyghens re-released the broadcast. proving about the screwed-up springs. This invention has greatly helped the watch industry and has promised scientists an instrument that can accurately measure short periods of time like seconds.

Clock type made by Peter Henlein

In 1676, another important improvement was made: the English physicist Robert Hooke came up with the anchor escapement. This component was originally used for the clock set in astronomical astronomers, but later, a watchmaker named Thomas Tompion brought it into the watch made by his family.

Robert Hooke's initiative on watches is much more positive but has a flaw: at the base the hook has a hook, producing a 'kick' (kickback) and this affects the accuracy of the watch. so in 1715, George Graham improved the clock technique with a "escape" (the 'deadbeat' escapement). Thanks to the appropriate modifications, the pendulum clock became an accurate tool in 1800.

Spring watches at first carry many defects. Springs become weaker when they expand and the pendulum inside moves irregularly when the clock is tilted. Although from 1550, people made bronze cog wheels instead of iron, but the clock was not only on time, so the minute hand, even if added, did not make many people pay attention to the entry. In this period, the clock may be wrong from half an hour to two hours.

On the mainland, Huygens' pendulum clock, though perfectly flawless on the wall, is not suitable for the ship's swaying, which has caused many navigators to worry. In 1598, King of Spain Philippe III hung a great prize for those who invented a clock that could be used on ships to go to sea but no one received a prize.

In the past centuries, sailors had gone into the sea without knowing what latitude they were at, so every year, there were thousands of ships, thousands of people and many tons of goods were lost and despite people We have outlined meridians on the map, no one has found a way to determine longitude. In latitude, the search is not difficult. Seafarers often use sextant to measure the height of the sun or some of the known stars and open the high table to find the results, but the longitude determination is much more difficult. For the latitude, the base is based on the equator and the meridians are imaginary lines connecting the two poles and there is no point in the standard. In 1675, King Charles II of England set up the Royal Observatory in Greenwich to 'search for longitude positions with the aim of perfecting the maritime industry and astronomy'. However, the meridian through Greenwich Astronomy was only accepted as the original meridian until later, in 1884.

Since there are watches, navigators have hoped for this time measuring device to be able to deduce the longitude of a place. Because the earth revolves around itself 360 degrees for 24 hours, one can compare the local time of a place with the time of the place where the meridian is available to determine longitude. By the 17th century, the number of ships increased greatly, but no method was found to determine the coordinates on the sea. Due to the mistake on the sea surface, many ships had accidents and were most serious The British team commanded by Sir Cloudesley Shovel, has strayed and crashed into the reef near Sorlingues (Scilly Islands). About 2,000 sailors were killed. This accident happened in 1707. After this tragedy, the British Parliament declared a prize of £ 20,000 to the inventor who invented something next to it (chronomètre) for beach users. Many models and drawings of this instrument were sent to the Navy Department but no initiative met the demands.

14 years after the award of the British Parliament, there was John Harrison, the Yorkshireman, presenting one thing, then using a spring and a pendulum. A council considered Harrison's proposal and the inventor was encouraged to try this type of watch. At the age of 42, Mr. Harrison presented the first one, but received only a symbolic reward because the Admiralty also demanded better inventions at home.

At the age of 66, Mr. Harrison presented the Council with all four successors. During a trip to the Central American islands (West Indies), Harrison's fourth successor ran very right, only 5 seconds wrong which meant that users could confuse a nautical mile với compared to previous mistakes. can be up to 100 knots. At the age of 76 and despite his poor vision, Harrison presented another type of design, but he received only an uncertain promise from the Navy Department about the amount of £ 20,000. By this time, the inventor was no longer patient enough, he asked to see King George III. The King was happy to hear about the fervent heart for a long time without being awarded. John Harrison devoted his life to the task of determining the longitude, so in the end, he received the prize when he was 80 years old. Three years later, John Harrison died. At the end of the 18th century, many people sought to build then. In France and Switzerland, technologists have succeeded quite a lot and significantly more in 1781 by Thomas Earnshaw, an English watchmaker.

In the 17th century, watches had minute needles and seconds seconds and then the 18th century, jeweled bearings were used to reduce friction and increase the durability of watches. Clock manufacturing techniques require sophisticated and precise parts. The watchmaker unions gradually came to life to protect the rights of those in the profession. In 1544, the Paris Guild of Clockmakers appeared in the Paris Guild of Clockmakers, and in 1630, The Clockmakers Company was established in the city of London and the company survived. Until today. The countries of Holland, Germany and Switzerland are also famous places for producing beautiful and perfect mechanical watches.

Previously in the 16th century, watches were used by many people but no one thought of making watches. Finally the wristwatch was born and today we do not know when and who thought of that initiative. Regarding the origin of the wristwatch, it is said that the cause is as follows: on a beautiful morning, a young woman who looked after her in the park in Geneva wrapped a watch around her wrist to watch time Suddenly there was a watchmaker passing by and seeing, causing him to come up with the idea of ​​making the first watch. Another theory is that the ancestor of the bracelet is the watch of Queen Elizabeth I. The Earl of Leicester, the knight of the Queen, gave the King a round watch attached to the jeweled ring. diamonds on the first day of 1572.

The birth of a wristwatch did not interest everyone until 1806, Queen Joséphine de Beauharnais gave her daughter-in-law, Bavière, two rings of pearl and jade, on one These two rings have a very small watch attached. These two special items are made by the Nitot jeweler in Paris.

Although the wristwatch was born, many people only like the collar because it is both a jewelry and a symbol of the better. By 1880 the German Navy Ministry had noticed that wristwatches were a useful item for officers. The department set up a batch of wristwatches and the German Navy officers were the first to wear this type of watch. The wristwatches of that time were made of western gold, with large faces, large needles and metal wires also made of metal.

After a series of German Navy orders, watch makers thought about launching the wristwatch. These commercial watches are gold, encrusted with pearls and are smaller than those of Navy officers. Then a woman's watch is also produced with sophisticated touches. But despite being a new product, wristwatches are still not popular and manufacturer Girard has to export that to Chili in the Americas. However, in Chili, the situation is even more dramatic because people do not need to know the time and if anyone uses the watch it is uncomfortable to wear it at the wrist but work. The wristwatch is therefore again sold in North America and it still suffers from the same fate.

It was not until 1902 and although the wristwatch was not demanded by anyone, Wilsdorf, a Swiss watchmaker, kept exporting this kind to England because he recognized its importance. But the situation was not much better and the British also thought that the watch could be paralyzed because of the normal movements of the arm.

The wristwatch suffered a fateful fate until 1927 and then a coincidence made people pay attention to it. Originally a young typing secretary named Mercédès Gleitze intended to swim across the Sea of ​​Sea and she succeeded on October 7, 1927. Ms Gleitze's achievement is not new because at that time, there were many women crossing the sea before her. But the people who picked up Gleitze on the shore were surprised to see her wearing a watch on her wrist that they thought she had forgotten to take it off before entering the water. If so, this watch was damaged because of the sea water.

When answering this watch, Miss Gleitze laughed.She told everyone that it was something that didn't absorb water and she used it to watch the time when she was swimming. The next day, the Daily Mail newspaper posted a report without forgetting to talk about Ms. Gleitze's special watch. This unprecedented fascinating news makes people pay attention and the British people like you like sports are even more interested. They competed to buy watches to use when playing football, horse racing or fishing. . . From there, wearing watches at hand becomes a movement. The wristwatch class became more and more popular and in 1937, wristwatches reached a record level of success. The technique of making wristwatches is more and more developed, more sophisticated, to advance from non-absorbent to non-magnetically-affected types, of collisions and also with automatic wiring.

In the United States, the first large watch made for New York City was in 1716 and then in 1753, another watch was embedded in Philadelphia's Independence Hall. , Pennsylvania. After the American Revolution (1775/1783), many watches were produced. In the 1800s, Simon Willard of the province of Roxbury, Massachusetts and Eli Terry in Connecticut was a patenter for two special watches (called the banjo clock and pillar-and-scroll clock). At the same time, Seth Thomas established the Seth Thomas Clock Company in Connecticut's Thomaston Province. The company became one of the world's largest watchmaking facilities in the mid-20th century.

In the 1920s, a clock type appeared using electric clock. At this time, the electric meter may be wrong for a few seconds a day so it is only suitable for indoor use. In physics and astronomical laboratories, in contrast, the time needed to be calculated in milliseconds and sometimes billionths of a second, so in 1929 scientists applied the seismic properties. the dynamics of quartz crystals into the watchmaking method. Thanks to quartz, this new quartz-based clock can run about 2 thousandths of a second faster in a year.

In 1948, the US National Bureau of Standards succeeded in making an atomic clock using vibrations of ammonia at a frequency of 23,870 mégacycles. The accuracy of this watch is up to a part of 100 million.

Later in 1955, Dr. Charles H. Townes of Columbia University, USA, built a watch called ammonia maser. This type of watch can only run for 1 second in 2 centuries. At Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Dr. Jerrold R. Zacharias succeeded in the cesium atomic clock (cesium atomic clock). Dr. Zacharias has calculated that if this watch runs from the Savior to today, it will be fast or slow ½ second.

Because of the technical momentum, scientists believe that the most important application of an atomic clock is the establishment of a pattern of time and this pattern is completely independent of the movement of the earth and the star.

Pham Van Tuan

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