LIQUID SAND TIMERS  HISTORY

It is commonly accepted that the origin of the sand-glass began in Italy during the 14th Century. While the Romans and the Greeks had the necessary technical knowledge and skill in glass making, there is no evidence that supports the existence of a sand-glass at that time. The earliest reference to the ³sand-glass² comes from text dating back to 1346-1360.

The sand-glass is later described with reference to a ³Sand Clock². It is now thought that the early sand-glass was invented for the purpose of measuring distance traveled by a ship in open sea. Columbus is known to have passed time with the use of a half-hour sand-glass that was turned as it emptied to keep track of the seven ³canonical² hours.

This unique application of the sand-glass was used throughout the sixteenth century as a way of measuring a ship¹s speed. Knots were tied at seven-fathom intervals on a line tied to a ³log chip² that would float astern of the vessel. A sailor would drop the ³log line² off the end of the moving ship and count off the number of knots ³paid² out while a small sand-glass measured a half-minute. If five knots passed in the interval, the ship was making five nautical miles per hour. This method of measuring distance by calculating speed lasted well into the nineteenth century.

As artisans working with glass began to master the art of hand & blown glass, more practical and precise sand-glasses evolved into the common day hourglass. It is said that Charlemagne ordered an hourglass so large that it had to be turned only once every twelve hours. Eventually the sand-glass or hourglass found it¹s way into the English House of Commons, over church pulpits, near the work areas of craftsmen, and into the halls of education and now your home.

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