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This is a clock that features an almost too clever LED face. In each of four slots, 1-9 colorful lights illuminate depending on the time. For instance, in the top picture shown there is 1 light in the first slot, 2 lights in the second slot, 3 lights in the third, and 4 in the fourth. That particular arrangement means that it is 12:34.

While this clock is cool, and modern, and fun to look at decoratively, it seams like it would be an awful lot of work to get used to telling time this way. Personally when I have a clock in a space, I want it to be as easy as possible to read what time it is, without having to worry about counting out and converting things in my mind. Maybe its lazy, but thats just me.

However, if your home decor is set up to look like something out of star trek, this piece is probably a must have accessory.

This is a delightfully whimsical wall clock design from Platypus Productions. The clock itself features a square hardwood backboard with a pendulum which swings below the piece, depicting a brightly colored aviator in his bold yellow plane, hurtling forward and backward in time with the passing of time itself.

This is an exquisite wall clock, that is crafted from select hardwoods, finished in rich black satin. The piece features a curved glass case that presents its rich features in an elegant and formal manner.

One of the best things about this clock for me, is that it plays Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” in chimes every hour. One of my absolute favorite songs. The only problem with this is that I can see such an upbeat, almost Christmasey song getting a little annoying, every single hour, day after day. Luckily this clock has the option to mute the chime, or to have it automatically mute during night time hours.

This wall clock is a Howard Miller design that combines the natural dignity of real hardwood with the unique sensibility of modern artistic forms. The back panel features an offset design whose asymmetrical shape gives the piece a sassy and irreverent personality. This controlled mirth is mirrored in the pendulum which swings in a matched pattern.

The raised Nickel Bezel, housing the stately but joyful face of the clocks dial, is a perfect circle, whose intrinsic unity and harmony acts as the leash to the chaotic impulses of the rest of the piece.

A beautiful union of nature and art, chaos and order, all combined in this attractive timepiece.

This is a fascinating new clock designed by Alvin Aronson, a student at RISD. It features an intricate series of interlocking pieces of Corian, which rise and fall to form the various numbers of time throughout the day.

The fact that sucha complex and starteling design was crafted by a student, makes me very interested to see what Mr. Aronson can come up with next.

One of the great things about this clock is that while it is starteling and modern, it also has a soft wooded complexion that makes it sioft naturally into a rooms decor.

The following piece explores the evolution of clocks, and some of the revolutionary leaps in technology that have been made over the years.

Up until about the 16th Century, time keeping was approximate at best. There were the beginnings of mechanical clocks that would sit in the homes of the wealthy or in the towers of churches, but they would start to slow in their time keeping — up to one-half hour per day — as the mechanical mechanisms would slowly wind down. It was at about this time that a young Galileo observed that the chandeliers of the church would sway in perfect rhythm moving from one spot to another quite methodically.

Galileo’s observations led him to start measuring the sway of the chandeliers against his own pulse. When he did this he saw that movement was consistent. He also observed that the relative timing remained the same even if the sway was large or small. Thus we have what many consider as being the first observations that a pendulum clock could accurately keep time.

It was discovered that there were variances in the timekeeping based on the pattern of the swinging, if not its distance. The swaying pendulum was then fashioned so that it could keep a swinging pattern with a curve that is called a cycloid.

In 1656 the first truly accurate pendulum clock was created by a Dutch astronomer, Christian Huygens. His clock used shorter pendulums that moved several times per second. Less than two decades later, William Clement, an English clockmaker, discovered that longer pendulums with weights took a full second to move back and forth and could measure that full unit of time more accurately.

Clock maker, George Graham was able to improve the pendulum’s accuracy in the early 1700s by controlling the pendulum length that was constantly fluctuating with temperature changes. He did this by enclosing the mechanism in a wooden box. From there, the pendulum clock grew increasingly accurate. This was perfected at the beginning of the 20th century with the addition of the perfect amount of weight.

Up until this point, most clocks only had an hour hand. Chimes would sound on the quarter hour, but with the loss of so much time in a day, it was hard to measure the true time with this method. Clement’s pendulum clock, which came to be known as the Grandfather Clock, now had minute hands added that would move one spot after 60 complete swings of the pendulum. Now with the accuracy improved, most astronomical observatories of the day recognized the pendulum clock as the standard by which time would be measured.

Knowing gravity’s role in pulling the weighted pendulum and the rotation of the earth, scientists understood how the Foucault pendulum worked. This is a single weight at a specific length that swings in the cycloid pattern and appears to move around a large circle marked on the floor. Many science museums demonstrate the Foucault pendulum by having it knock over pegs with each hour that passes. Although it seems to be moving around the circle in order to reach each peg at the appointed hour, in reality it is the earth beneath it that is rotating to mark off the hours while the pendulum remains in its fixed pattern.

Grandfather and pendulums are still recognized as accurate ways of keeping time so long as the pendulums are properly weighted and climate can be controlled to keep the length consistent. Not only are they good at keeping time but pendulum clocks remain a decorative addition to many homes blending a timeless beauty with precision timekeeping.

Thomas Young is a watch collector. Visit http://www.internationalwatchclub.com for information on over 200 different brands of watches, including popular brands like Citizen Watch and Rolex Watch. It is purely an informational site.

Here the Rev Bresciani gives us some of his thoughts on the nature of time, and what we should understand about its significance in our lives.

Homeostasis is a relatively new and obscure science. It is the study of the effect of time on man and on other living creatures. It is also the study of our perception and response to time. Some of the latest discoveries in this realm of science may not win a Nobel prize but they guarantee to fascinate even the dullest curiosity.

In one experiment people were placed deep in underground facilities where they had no way of knowing sunrise or sunset and they had no clocks or any other means of telling time. After a brief period of disorientation they all began develop a routine of sleep, productivity and recreation time that fell into a perfect twenty four hour period. Where did that come from? It seems that providence has placed a twenty four hour clock in the human psyche apart from external stimuli.

Another interesting fact has been uncovered through the science of homeostasis about our adaptations to time and climate. Put quite simply. man adapts to time first and always before any other natural influences. For example, man can live in extremes like cold or heat as long as the twenty four hour internal clock is working. Other species cannot do that. Some bears hibernate until winter has passed conversely there is a badger like creature in the Northeast US that can’t stand the summer heat so it hibernates until cooler weather returns.

When I was performing Celtic and American style folk music I loved a particular song called, “You Won’t Make Old Bones” In it was one of the most intriguing lines I have ever heard. “The young man sits and curses the time upon his hands…The old man sits and curses time’s slipping sands” Every time I sang this song I could hear echoes of my mother warning me about how time only seemed slow because I was young. She would always add that when I grew older time would fly so swiftly that I would be asking myself where it had gone. The line in the song is right, ma was right and I’m still seeking answers to the reasons why this is true.

The feeling that time is short comes to me daily now, and I question whether I have time left to accomplish something worthwhile in my life. The Bible tells me that the days of our years are three score years and ten. It says that, should we make it over the seventy year mark that it will still be filled with labor and sorrow. Psalm 90:10 I’m too old and well experienced to argue with the Bible at this point. I have plenty of proof to corroborate this scripture passage. Yet I see this fact as a very good thing, it is what gives me the ability to concentrate on what is good and differentiate more accurately about what is dross. Here is a key!

Perhaps the very best advice I have heard in my entire life about how to better handle time is this. Always make a distinction between the urgent, and the important. The phone ringing, the knock on the door, three children all calling to you at the same time, this is urgent, but is it important?

This is not just another tip or piece of easy advice. If taken seriously you will see a positive effect immediately in your life. Whether you make mental notes about what you need to do daily or if you’re a corporate executive with a secretary to tell you what’s next, you need to take a hard look at your “to do” list. With complete honesty sit down and remove every item that is only “urgent” and leave only those things that come under the heading of “important” and you will feel a weight lifting as you do. The functional word here is “honestly.”

We are traveling through something we all recognize as time and space. In youth we are mostly involved with the space aspect of life. Later in life we all realize that our travels through time are far more important than we had ever thought. It is our consciousness of this traveling through time that raises some of life’s most important questions. Questions that have to do with quality of life, relationships, love and true productivity.

Rev Bresciani has written many articles over the past thirty years in such periodicals as Guideposts and Catholic Digest. He is the author of two books available on Amazon.com, Alibris, Barnes and Noble and many other places. Rev Bresciani wrote “Hook Line and Sinker or what has Your Church Been Teaching You,” publisher, PublishAmerica of Baltimore MD. He also wrote a book published by Xulon Press entitled “An American Prophet and His Message, Questions and Answers on the Second Coming of Christ.” His book is now being heralded as the clearest book on the subject of the second coming of Christ since Hal Lindsey’s “Late Great Planet Earth” Rev Bresciani’s website is,

http://americanprophet.org

In this piece the author explores the philosophical considerations that one makes subconsciously when choosing an alarm clock. Being the first thing you hear when you wake up in the morning, this can be a powerful and self revealing exercise in introspection.

Everyday we get from one place to another, rushing to and fro along our busy action-packed day. Ok so some days are a bore but we need to go through them anyway for each day, dark makes way for light and brand new possibilities await. But first, we must get out of bed.

Our altered consciousness in slumber cannot tell time and to be able to rouse from sleep in the morning in time for work, an alarm clock comes in handy. There are different kinds of ingenious alarm clock designs available in the market assured to get even the laziest person out of bed.

What makes you tick?

Alarm clock shopping is fun because you will find out just how creative the options are out there. There are talking alarm clocks and there are alarm clocks with shrill alarming noises designed to rouse you from the deepest slumber. There are also alarm clocks that escalate its alarms as you keep hitting the “snooze” button assuring that you do not miss the alarms. For the hopeless procrastinator, there is an alarm clock designed to roll off the table when the snooze button is hit so that when it alarms again, the clock and inadvertently its snooze button will be out of reach and its alarm will continue to crack until you get out of bed and find the clock.

Versatility and mobility

Something that jump starts your day like the alarm clock is important enough to keep handy all through out the day to make sure you’re kept on time for all the important activities of the day.

Yes while you cannot drag your bulky bedside alarm clock with you since it hardly becomes the image of a successful business person, rest assured that you have an alarm clock with you anyway.

Yes, almost every single digital gadget has a built in alarm clock to keep you on time all the time for daily tasks.

The calendar

Every digital gadget you have with you is bound to have a calendar with an alarm function. Input your schedule into the digital calendar and set alarms for yourself so you’ll never miss a thing again. Your mobile phone and PDA will have this function. It’s there for a reason. Use it.

Software for your hardware

If you’re stuck at or around the vicinity of your desk and you’re too absorbed to notice the passing of time, there are also alarm clock software available for installation in your PC. There are even built-in alarm functions in some Office-based programs because their developers realize the very important function of the alarm clock.

Sliced bread

A lot of people attribute sliced bread as one of the best of man’s inventions. Of course, there’s the wheel and the harnessing of the power of fire along with the countless list but alarm clocks definitely deserve its place in that roster for its invaluable contribution to society. We have come a long way from depending on nature’s natural alarms to tell time. Now we have harnessed the precision and convenience of alarms into tiny versatile and mobile gadgets that help us tell time and keep it. So the next time you open your eyes to a new day after being roused by your very dependable alarm clock, don’t forget to realize the history and importance of this gadget in your life. Your alarm clock will continuously serve you with a not so silent dignity as long as you don’t forget to keep the batteries fresh.

Robert Thatcher is a freelance publisher based in Cupertino, California. He publishes articles and reports in various ezines and provides alarm clock resources on http://www.justalarmclocks.info

This article is a philosophical look into the real mechanics of the clock. It explores the relationship between time, space, and the world around us, and brings together concepts of the clock, and time itself.

Methods of keeping track of time date back to ancient days, but it wasn’t until the 19th and 20th centuries that the science behind more accurate timekeeping and how that relates to the universe around us was more understood — or at least investigated. Key players in science and mathematics also played an important role in trying to understand how time works. Prominent scientific figures such as Galileo and Dutch astronomer Christian Huygens led the understanding of time in the 16th and 17th centuries, but it was Albert Einstein, Carl Neumann, and the like who looked at absolute and mathematical time at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries and then questioned those theories even further to try to explain the workings of modern timekeeping.

Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) was an English mathematician upon whose theory more investigation into time was based. Newton’s law of inertia, which meant that one particle in space, not acted upon by other forces, continued to move in the same direction and would remain at the same speed, was the basis of Carl Neumann’s (1832-1925) development of the inertial clock in 1883. He believed, however, that absolute time didn’t rely upon absolute space. This meant the law of inertia given intervals which could be measured would measure absolute time.

At the beginning of the 20th Century it was Albert Einstein (1879-1955) who refuted the idea that time is absolutely defined and hypothesized that time is connected to the speed of light, thus giving birth to the theory of special relativity. Einstein reportedly said, “My solution was really for the very concept of time, that is, that time is not absolutely defined but there is an inseparable connection between time and the velocity of light.”

Gravity, Einstein discovered also has an impact on time. He observed that the passage of time is slower where there is more gravitational pull compared to where there is not as much. The Earth’s gravitational pull and rotation meant that a clock on Earth will loose about 1 one-billionth of a second per hour.

In the 20th Century we also have the discovery of quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics had an impact on the understanding of time and introduced the idea that there are several dimensions that impact time.

As many scientific theories as there are related to time and how it is measured, it is still the basis of the quartz clock that has standardized how time is measured today. It relies on the theory that a quartz crystal will vibrate in an electric field at the same standardized frequency. These findings utilized the principles related to the way a mechanical and free pendulum works. (Link to article #3 on the pendulum.)

Even today, new ideas are emerging about time and its relationship to the universe. What is “now” and how does that impact the “future” and measure the “past?” Those were questions posed by Einstein himself and still at the forefront of research. Perhaps an understanding of “now” is “outside the realm of science,” as suggested by Einstein, and we must simple rely on the modern interpretation set forth by organizations like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their double pendulum clock to measure time.

Thomas Young is a watch collector. Visit http://www.internationalwatchclub.com for information on over 200 different brands of watches, including popular brands like Citizen Watch and Rolex Watch. It is purely an informational site.

This article answers the query, how did time begin? and how did humans begin to form their perceptions of time? Intrinsic in these questions, the simple mechanical question of how did humans measure time before the clock is answered as well.

How many times have you wondered, “What time is it?” and turned to your wrist only to find you forgot to put on your watch. We have become so programmed to know what time it is and schedule our lives around it that it is second nature to bend your arm, turn your wrist and get the answer. It has not always been so easy, or even necessary as you will see by looking back to a time before clocks and watches.

Like Night and Day

The precision with which we measure time today is light years away from how it was done, not so long ago. Time was once measured completely by the universe around us – and still is in a sense when you understand the science and physics behind the measurement of time and what makes a clock work (more on this in part 2). What earlier civilizations knew and relied upon each day was that the sun came up and went down and that block of time became a day. To measure greater expanses, the moon and its reliable cycles were also observed. The moon was used to measure the time period which came to be known as a month – more technically a lunar month of 28 days – or the time it took for the moon to go from new to crescent to full and new again.

Ancient Civilization

Even more than just observing the moon, sun, and planets, there are artifacts that show us that time was measured a bit more precisely. Early calendars and “clocks” were found in what is now Iraq, once the dwelling place of the ancient Sumerians, and consisted of a calendar that was divided into 30 day segments according to the cycle of the moon. It was then divided into 12 sections which corresponded to 2 hours of today’s time. Further, the calendar was sectioned off into 30 more parts equivalent to 4 modern-day minutes.

Stonehenge is located in England and was built more than 4,000 years ago. Not much is completely understood about this mysterious structure, but the way it is positioned has scientists believing that it somehow was used to record seasons and the phenomenon of lunar eclipses and the like.

Sundials

The Sumerian culture passed away without the information about their timekeeping being discovered until more modern times. The next phase of more precise time measurement was used by the Egyptians. They created the Obelisk around 3500 BC which looked like today’s Washington Monument, well-known to visitors of the Nation’s capital. This tall, tapered monument would cast shadows throughout the day, but was primitive still in how closely the time periods could be measured. It mostly reflected a change between morning and afternoon, and how the days would get shorter or longer with the seasons.

The sundial on the other hand was first used about 1500 BC and was a much smaller and more portable timekeeping device. It was divided into 10 equal parts with two additional segments representing twilight and dawn. The sundial itself then emerged from a horizontal plate to a bowl shape with pointer and inscribed lines to mark off the hours. It is believed that by 30 BC there were more than 13 different styles of sundials used in the evolving societies of Asia Minor, Italy, and Greece.

When one thinks about the precision of a finely crafted Swiss timepiece it is hard to imagine a time when time was so ambiguous. Could society function without time measurements to the very minute? Perhaps in another millennium society will wonder how we functioned living in just one time.

This is the first of a series of articles on the evolution of time measuring and how timepieces come to become what they are today.

Thomas Young is a watch collector. Visit http://www.internationalwatchclub.com for information on over 200 different brands of watches, including popular brands like Citizen Watch and Rolex Watch. It is purely an informational site.