Decorative Clocks
Introduction
A tower clock or turret clock is a clock designed to be installed high on the wall of a building, usually in a clock tower, in public buildings such as churches "Church (building)"), university buildings or town halls; as a public service to allow the community to know the time. It has a large face visible from afar and often a chiming or carillon mechanism, which rings the bells "Bell (instrument)") according to the hours.
The tower clock is one of the first types of clock. Beginning in the 20th century in Europe, cities and monasteries built clocks on high towers to ring bells and call the community to prayer. Public clocks played an important role in measuring time in daily life until the 19th century, when personal clocks became cheap enough that ordinary people could purchase them. Nowadays, the time-spreading functions of tower clocks are not very necessary, and they are mainly built and preserved for traditional, decorative and artistic reasons.
To rotate the large hands and operate the striking mechanism, it must be more powerful than that of normal watches. Traditional tower clocks are large pendulum clocks powered by hanging weights, but modern ones are usually powered by electricity.
History
water clocks
Water clocks were already known in the century BC. C. and were used in the ancient world, but they were domestic clocks. From the Middle Ages, around the year 1000 AD. C., striking water clocks were invented, which made the bells ring at canonical hours in order to call the community to prayer. Installed in clock towers of cathedrals, monasteries and city squares so that they could be heard over long distances, these were the first tower clocks. In the 19th century, the cities of Europe competed with each other to build the most beautiful and elaborate clocks. Water clocks kept time based on the speed of water flowing through an orifice. Since flow rate varies with pressure, which is proportional to the height of the water in the source container, and viscosity, which varies with temperature during the day, they had limited precision. Other disadvantages were that they required manually carrying water in a bucket from a well or river to fill the watch's reservoir each day, and it would freeze completely in winter.