The Ancient Greek Water Clock That Kept the Most Accurate Time for 1,800 Years

40 pointsposted a day ago
by Brajeshwar

11 Comments

realo

a day ago

I would love to see someone better than me at CAD design propose a 3D printable model of that clock!

freshpots

a day ago

You would be surprised at what AI can do now, it may be possible to use it for this purpose.

This file is similar, but not the same: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3407682

staplung

a day ago

That file doesn't seem like it would work for a number of reasons.

The gear with integrated hour hand wouldn't be able to rotate in the space that it's mounted. In order to tell the time against the ring, the hand would need to be much further away from the gear.

Secondly, the funnel bit seems to have no real purpose; if you have to pipe water to the funnel, why not just bring it directly to the cup at the bottom? In real water clocks there is usually a primary collector but it's built in such a way that it overflows at a certain level so that the pressure on the outgoing line stays constant. The funnel here does essentially nothing and there is nothing else in the clock that would provide any kind of flow rate calibration; you'd have to do that externally.

Lastly, it's not clear how you'd reset the clock. Can the collector be removed separately or do you need to turn the whole clock upside down to pour the water out and get the float back down to the bottom?

dddw

11 hours ago

Very clever invention. Wonder how long he had to tinker with the exact sizes and lengths and flowrates to get this just right.

pmdulaney

a day ago

If you are a tinkerer you will be impressed by the video.

beej71

a day ago

Very cool. I love that, as someone steeped in digital programming, such solutions would not have occurred to me. It's a good argument for breaking out of ones shell now and then.

zshn

a day ago

seems like it's down? hn hug of death?

peesem

a day ago

seemingly hugged, unless they're doing overzealous IP blocking