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Hourglass Sand Timers

History of the Hourglass Sand Timer. It is only with the introduction of the mechanical clock that time began to be measured in discrete units. Before the 15th century time was thought to be flowing. That concept resulted in the clepsydra, but heat and cold rendered water unreliable as a time medium. Dried sand passing from one container to another through a narrow aperature was unaffected by weather, so the hourglass sand timer became the ultimate expression of flowing time measuring a unit.

Public speeches and sermons were the most notable events timed with a sandglass. One of the greatest pleasures of our Puritan ancenstors was the two hour Sunday sermon. Hourglasses were placed upon the pulpit and woe betide he who overran the two full hours. Certain of the clergy did overdo it, however, and during the reign of Queen Victoria an eighteen minute glass appeared in her church. Newspapers ran comments on the matter as being a direct protest from Her Majesty at the length of the sermons.

Because hourglass sand timers remain relatively unaffected by heat, cold and swinging about, they have a long history at sea. There are records of sandglasses in ships' inventories from about 1400 A.D. Small sandglasses were used as interval timers to measure speed in navigation. A log was thrown over the side with a line knotted about every 47 feet attached to it. The speed at which the knots ran out was measured by the 28 second glass, giving nautical speed in "knots."

Today, only your imagination limits the use of the hourglass. You can use them to time meetings, phone calls, games and cooking. Or keep one in sight to remind you of the sweetly passing hours.

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