--- title: Clocks before clocks: sundials, water clocks, candles and hourglasses — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Clocks before clocks: sundials, water clocks, candles and hourglasses», a lesson of the world course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Anything that changes at a steady speed can be a clock: a shadow sliding round, water dripping out, a --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/) / Clocks before clocks: sundials, water… # Clocks before clocks: sundials, water clocks, candles and hourglasses Lesson 122 of the world course of Mova's primary school: 24 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/0/) — Anything that changes at a steady speed can be a clock: a shadow sliding round, water dripping out, a candle burning down, sand trickling through a glass. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/1/) — People used all of them long before springs and batteries. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/2/) — About 3,500 years ago the ancient Egyptians used shadow clocks and split the day into 12 hours, one reason our clocks still show 12. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/3/) — But a shadow needs sunshine, so for nights and cloudy days people made water clocks: a pot with a small hole and lines inside, the water level falling past a mark each hour. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/4/) — The Greeks called it a clepsydra, "water thief", and gave every speaker in court the same amount of water, just like a debate-club timer. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/5/) — Candle clocks had hour marks down the side; the story says King Alfred of England used candles that each burned 4 hours, kept in a lantern so draughts couldn't make them burn faster. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/6/) — In China, incense sticks burned slowly, and little balls on threads dropped onto a plate with a clang: an alarm with no electricity. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/7/) — An hourglass is a timer you can watch: sand falls through a narrow neck. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/8/) — Sailors turned a half-hour glass and rang the ship's bell each time, and eight bells ended a 4-hour watch (a sailor's turn on duty). - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/9/) — In 1088 in China, Su Song built a water-powered clock tower over 10 metres high with a turning globe of the stars on top. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/10/) — Europe's first mechanical clocks, about 700 years ago, often had one hand or none at all. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/11/) — The word "clock" comes from an old word for bell, because they rang the hours: Salisbury Cathedral's clock, from about 1386, still has no face and just strikes the hours. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/12/) — The ancient Egyptians used shadow clocks about 3,500 years ago, around 1500 BC. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/13/) — The Egyptians split the day into 12 hours, one reason clocks still show 12 hours. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/14/) — A water clock lets water drip out at a steady speed, and the level falls past a mark for each hour; it works at night and on cloudy days. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/15/) — The Greeks called the water clock a clepsydra, meaning "water thief", and used it to give each speaker in court the same time. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/16/) — Candle clocks had hour marks down the side; King Alfred's candles are said to have burned 4 hours each, so 6 candles lasted a whole day. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/17/) — In China and Japan, incense clocks burned slowly; balls tied on threads dropped onto a plate at set times, like an alarm. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/18/) — An hourglass times with sand falling through a narrow neck; hourglasses became common in Europe about 700 years ago. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/19/) — Sailors turned a half-hour glass and rang the ship's bell each time: 8 bells = 8 × 30 minutes = 4 hours, one watch. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/20/) — In 1088 in China, Su Song built a water-powered clock tower over 10 metres high that also showed the movement of the stars; that was 938 years before 2026. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/21/) — Early mechanical clocks in Europe, about 700 years ago, often had only an hour hand. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/22/) — The word "clock" comes from an old word for bell, "clocca". - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/122-clocks-before-clocks/23/) — The clock at Salisbury Cathedral, built around 1386, is one of the oldest working clocks in the world; it has no face and just strikes the hours. - ← previous: [The date line and summer time: clocks going forward and back](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/121-date-line-and-summer-time/) - next →: [Pendulums, Greenwich and railway time, atomic clocks and phones](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/123-pendulums-greenwich-atomic-clocks/) - ↑ back to [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/)