1. We do not know who first invented the clock. Of course, the same goes for many other venerable inventions—the originators of writing, paper, movable type and cast iron are similarly obscure—but the humble clock is so familiar that it is shocking to learn how little we know about its genesis. Happily, once the dark ages of the clock are dispensed with, Eric Bruton has a lot of recorded history to work with. There are the sundials of Babylon and Egypt; the water clocks of Greece, China and the Arab world; and the hourglasses of Italy and Germany. There is the disconcerting concept of “temporal hours,” first used in Ancient Egypt, which divided the day into 12 equal periods, each lengthened in summer and shortened in winter as daylight waxed and waned. When it comes to more recent clocks, Mr. Bruton lays bare the seductive elegance of the jewels, springs, escapements and complications that make analog timepieces tick—or simply tickle their owners’ fancy. The mechanical clock may be an anachronism, but it remains a joyful and satisfying thing to contemplate.
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