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The references are not consistently or correctly formatted; I'm be working on them and using the Harvard system in a consistent way. Ping me with objections if you have any. Thanks, Amitchell125 ( talk) 14:30, 7 May 2021 (UTC)
Under "Shadow clocks and sundials" is stated that "In Egyptian obelisks, constructed c. 3500 BC, are among the earliest shadow clocks." which is cited to be from Encyclopedia Britannica, which makes no such claims -- EB writes "The first device for indicating the time of day was probably the gnomon, dating from about 3500 bce. It consisted of a vertical stick or pillar, and the length of the shadow it cast gave an indication of the time of day." What is worse, according to obelisk the earliest known obelisk is from the rule of Senusret 1 who ruled from 1971 BC to 1926 BC or from 1920 BC to 1875 BC. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gleb713 ( talk • contribs) 17:28, 2 January 2023 (UTC)
Just at a cursory glance, this article has numerous factual errors and omissions of important points; it should probably be removed from Featured Article status until these are corrected.
In conjunction with Amitchell125's excellent work upgrading the article, I looked at the article again and noticed some things I think could be improved. These are just my opinions:
Immediately under the heading "Ancient Egypt", it states "See also: History of the civil war", with a link to the article on the American Civil War. Nothing else under that heading has anything to do with the American Civil War, so I'm at a loss to understand why it's referenced there. Can anyone explain? Occam's Shaver ( talk) 06:54, 11 April 2015 (UTC)
Well, that's a little bizarre. Usually I sort BCE/BC issues out by looking for the earliest system but the article started out as a mess using both systems. The earlier discussions got buried in the archive but Here User:AndonicO, Grimhelm, and J-stan all supported BC/AD and only Keilana and Edmund Patrick didn't (albeit Keilana was rather forceful in reverting other users to her preference); here, same people, same deal; and here, Bibliomaniac15 and Zginder supported BC/AD and a consensus was reached. For what it's worth, I also support BC/AD as Keilana and Edmund Patrick's arguments are completely off: it's not any less religious and not any less biased and just as based on (incorrect) computations of Jesus's conception/birth/lunar phase whichever form is used.
Since the consensus has been reached, though, kindly maintain it consistently and revert or adjust well-meaning editors who don't notice the article's house style. — LlywelynII 08:42, 8 September 2015 (UTC)
Although the history of the hourglass may not be precisely known, it doesn't seem to have been used in China before the mid 16th century, and as Needham said in Science and Civilization, an hourglass implies the use of glassblowing, since it would be difficult to get an "hourglass" shape in without it. Glassblowing was not commonly done by the Chinese, thereby implying an European origin for the hourglass, although Needham himself does not specifically state that, but he does reference a source, Wang Chen-To, which does state that Chinese obtained the hourglass from the Dutch or Portuguese. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.111.162.10 ( talk) 20:54, 14 April 2019 (UTC)
While this older FA is an impressive effort, particularly if we consider that it was promoted way back in 2008, I think that there are a number of significant issues here that have to be addressed so it can meet the current FA criteria. For instance:
George Graham who invented the deadbeat escapement, orrery and mercury pendulum- there's even no mention of orrery or mercury pendulum there;
Article needs work. RetiredDuke ( talk) 13:34, 27 March 2021 (UTC)
Timekeeping is an essential tool in drawing any type of horoscope (horo =hour) yet Indian astrologers dance around the question of how birth times were recorded for commoners who later became famous. The rich elite could afford servants to oversee and maintain water clocks etc but sundials are useless at night or in the monsoon season. Yet it is glossed over as to how accurate birthtimes were ascertained and recorded.
No itinerant astrologer is capable of transporting a water clock in their travels and it would be easy to forget to turn a portable hourglass over. So just how did they record birth times? The Ascendant moves approximately one degree every four minutes so accurate timekeeping is absolutely indispensable in drawing up a chart.
I emailed one Hindu astrologer who came up with the ridiculous justification of using a 'moondial' at night... what if it's cloudy or raining? I have never come across a satisfactory explanation for this.. Every Jyotish practitioner dodges the question and dances around it as if I'm some kind of demon Ningnongtwit ( talk) 08:11, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:
Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. — Community Tech bot ( talk) 19:22, 27 August 2022 (UTC)
Although the smart phone, is not technically a timepiece, it has become "the clock" for hundreds of millions of people, and it is set to atomic clocks. I'll maybe try to add something, but someone with more energy for this article should add a section. History is now. cheers Billyshiverstick ( talk) 03:00, 1 January 2023 (UTC)
Can someone confirm the authenticity of Henry de Vick's contribution stated in the introductory paragraphs? Did he create a mechanical clock in 1360? If so, was he the inventor of mechanical clocks or did he just make a particularly famous one as the article suggests? Noel Malik ( talk) 21:34, 1 January 2023 (UTC)
This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
History of timekeeping devices article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies
|
Find sources: Google ( books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
Archives: 1, 2, 3 |
![]() | History of timekeeping devices is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() | This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on August 7, 2008, and on January 1, 2023. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
![]() | This ![]() It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
The references are not consistently or correctly formatted; I'm be working on them and using the Harvard system in a consistent way. Ping me with objections if you have any. Thanks, Amitchell125 ( talk) 14:30, 7 May 2021 (UTC)
Under "Shadow clocks and sundials" is stated that "In Egyptian obelisks, constructed c. 3500 BC, are among the earliest shadow clocks." which is cited to be from Encyclopedia Britannica, which makes no such claims -- EB writes "The first device for indicating the time of day was probably the gnomon, dating from about 3500 bce. It consisted of a vertical stick or pillar, and the length of the shadow it cast gave an indication of the time of day." What is worse, according to obelisk the earliest known obelisk is from the rule of Senusret 1 who ruled from 1971 BC to 1926 BC or from 1920 BC to 1875 BC. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gleb713 ( talk • contribs) 17:28, 2 January 2023 (UTC)
Just at a cursory glance, this article has numerous factual errors and omissions of important points; it should probably be removed from Featured Article status until these are corrected.
In conjunction with Amitchell125's excellent work upgrading the article, I looked at the article again and noticed some things I think could be improved. These are just my opinions:
Immediately under the heading "Ancient Egypt", it states "See also: History of the civil war", with a link to the article on the American Civil War. Nothing else under that heading has anything to do with the American Civil War, so I'm at a loss to understand why it's referenced there. Can anyone explain? Occam's Shaver ( talk) 06:54, 11 April 2015 (UTC)
Well, that's a little bizarre. Usually I sort BCE/BC issues out by looking for the earliest system but the article started out as a mess using both systems. The earlier discussions got buried in the archive but Here User:AndonicO, Grimhelm, and J-stan all supported BC/AD and only Keilana and Edmund Patrick didn't (albeit Keilana was rather forceful in reverting other users to her preference); here, same people, same deal; and here, Bibliomaniac15 and Zginder supported BC/AD and a consensus was reached. For what it's worth, I also support BC/AD as Keilana and Edmund Patrick's arguments are completely off: it's not any less religious and not any less biased and just as based on (incorrect) computations of Jesus's conception/birth/lunar phase whichever form is used.
Since the consensus has been reached, though, kindly maintain it consistently and revert or adjust well-meaning editors who don't notice the article's house style. — LlywelynII 08:42, 8 September 2015 (UTC)
Although the history of the hourglass may not be precisely known, it doesn't seem to have been used in China before the mid 16th century, and as Needham said in Science and Civilization, an hourglass implies the use of glassblowing, since it would be difficult to get an "hourglass" shape in without it. Glassblowing was not commonly done by the Chinese, thereby implying an European origin for the hourglass, although Needham himself does not specifically state that, but he does reference a source, Wang Chen-To, which does state that Chinese obtained the hourglass from the Dutch or Portuguese. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.111.162.10 ( talk) 20:54, 14 April 2019 (UTC)
While this older FA is an impressive effort, particularly if we consider that it was promoted way back in 2008, I think that there are a number of significant issues here that have to be addressed so it can meet the current FA criteria. For instance:
George Graham who invented the deadbeat escapement, orrery and mercury pendulum- there's even no mention of orrery or mercury pendulum there;
Article needs work. RetiredDuke ( talk) 13:34, 27 March 2021 (UTC)
Timekeeping is an essential tool in drawing any type of horoscope (horo =hour) yet Indian astrologers dance around the question of how birth times were recorded for commoners who later became famous. The rich elite could afford servants to oversee and maintain water clocks etc but sundials are useless at night or in the monsoon season. Yet it is glossed over as to how accurate birthtimes were ascertained and recorded.
No itinerant astrologer is capable of transporting a water clock in their travels and it would be easy to forget to turn a portable hourglass over. So just how did they record birth times? The Ascendant moves approximately one degree every four minutes so accurate timekeeping is absolutely indispensable in drawing up a chart.
I emailed one Hindu astrologer who came up with the ridiculous justification of using a 'moondial' at night... what if it's cloudy or raining? I have never come across a satisfactory explanation for this.. Every Jyotish practitioner dodges the question and dances around it as if I'm some kind of demon Ningnongtwit ( talk) 08:11, 1 April 2021 (UTC)
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:
Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. — Community Tech bot ( talk) 19:22, 27 August 2022 (UTC)
Although the smart phone, is not technically a timepiece, it has become "the clock" for hundreds of millions of people, and it is set to atomic clocks. I'll maybe try to add something, but someone with more energy for this article should add a section. History is now. cheers Billyshiverstick ( talk) 03:00, 1 January 2023 (UTC)
Can someone confirm the authenticity of Henry de Vick's contribution stated in the introductory paragraphs? Did he create a mechanical clock in 1360? If so, was he the inventor of mechanical clocks or did he just make a particularly famous one as the article suggests? Noel Malik ( talk) 21:34, 1 January 2023 (UTC)