In 2019, there is a very good review of the ancient costume TV series, mainly about the twelve hours, that is, twenty-four hours within the things produced, so in the drama can often see a variety of images about timekeeping and chimes, in fact, in addition to the ancient times there are all sorts of timekeeping units, such as a moment, an incense burner, a tea, a few shifts of the day and so on the saying.

The most commonly used timekeeping instruments in ancient times are mainly these, the use of the shadow cast by the sun to determine the time of the device, that is, we all know the sundial.

There is the use of fire to burn incense timekeeping methods, in the film and television drama of the dragon boat incense leakage is this approach, its principle is to rely on incense burning a section of the line after burning, so that the metal ball falling and active timekeeping.

In addition to these two methods of timing, there is the use of water flow how much to time, this is the funnel carving or perhaps also known as the funnel pot, in fact, this timekeeping instrument and we are still using the hourglass is very similar.

Hourglass is filled with sand through the glass ball, from one end to the other end of the flow to measure the time of the device, generally will be loaded with a certain amount of fine sand inside, so that a glass ball of fine sand through the narrow pipeline slowly flow to another glass ball, the time needed to measure the time, will be the hourglass inverted can continue to measure the time, the amount of sand in the hourglass and the size of the channel resolution of the measurement of the time of the length of the hourglass.

History of Hourglass

It is said that the hourglass first appeared in the 12th century, used for night sailing use, due to the daytime can be queried by the sun to account for the time, while the night can only through the hourglass to account for the time.

The earliest record of the hourglass was found on a fresco in Italy in 1338.

By the 15th century hourglass began to be widely used, the market has been sold in the hourglass, mainly used in maritime navigation, industry and cooking and other industries.

China in 1360 in the Yuan Dynasty, also produced the use of quicksand to timekeeping equipment, which relies on quicksand to drive the gears rotating on the dial to show the time, this equipment is more messy will form the timekeeping is not accurate.

Leak Carving/Leak Pot

In China's history will also use the hourglass to time, but the longest use of time, the most widely used timekeeping equipment is still funnel carving, it has the same with the hourglass, are based on the object falling at a constant speed to record the time of the way.

The earliest funnel carving is a container that looks like a bucket, the ancients used it to account for time, people will be injected into the water, according to how much water from the mouth of the pot to account for time.

In the use of the funnel pot, the first in the funnel pot into a prick with a scale rod, this rod is also called the arrow, when the water flows out or into the pot, the arrow rod will be with the water level changes and rise or sink, to the mouth of the arrow on the scale of the indication of the time, but this method of accounting for the time of the water will be affected by the water is shallow or full of water to influence the water flow out of the speed, and thus can not accurately accounting for the time, so can only be used as a rough accounting of time. Time as a tool.

In order to solve this problem, the ancients developed a multi-stage leakage carving device, the so-called multi-stage leakage carving device is to use multiple leakage pots at a time, they will be up and down sequentially connected to form a group, each leakage pot are in turn to the next leakage pot in the drip, so that you can ensure that the lower end of the kettle in the water level basically to maintain a constant, so that the speed of the water dripping from the bottom of the kettle can also be maintained uniformly, so that the measured time is also more accurate. .