In today’s ‘I am an Inventor’ page, let us take a look at that which practically runs and controls us: Time! Imagine not being able to measure time, you wouldn’t know when to go to school, when to meet your friend or play in the park, when to go to the movies and so on. It would be so difficult to plan your day if time was not measured. So the next great invention on our list is the clock! In ancient times, people followed the movement of the sun and the moon to tell time. Our calendars are based on this, too. However, people began to realise that they needed some standard time that would allow them to work together.
Also, keeping the sun as a guide only allowed them to measure time during the day. So, then came water clocks and candle clocks. By the 13th century, mechanical clocks came into being in Europe. These were used by the church to call people for mass.
Today, we mostly use quartz clocks and watches that do not need winding.
It is impossible to think of not being able to tell time. The world is divided into 24 main time zones with the help pf longitudes*. The 0º longitude called the Greenwich meridian is the central longitude and we measure time as before and after Greenwich Mean Time.
Today, GMT is also called Universal Coordinated Time. This way all the countries in the world have a standard time to follow. We have come a long way in timekeeping and, therefore, clocks are also one of mankind’s greatest inventions! *Longitudes are imaginary lines drawn on the Earth to divide it vertically.