Abstract
In this chapter the ancient device to measure time such as sundials and water clock are presented. In particular, a virtual and a functional reconstruction of the water clock by Ctesibius is shown. The latter had a very interesting particularity: it could automatically adjust, in each of the days of the year, the length of the hour. In fact, except at the equinoxes, the length of the single hour for the Greeks and Romans was different from a day to the other and from the day to the night.
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Rossi, C., Russo, F. (2017). Measuring Time. In: Ancient Engineers' Inventions. History of Mechanism and Machine Science, vol 33. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44476-5_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44476-5_4
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Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-44475-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-44476-5
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