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Clocks Time-edition: 2002

The clocks of Alexander II This story lives in Mamadbekovs family still. Once Alexandre was going trough Tiflis. All authorities were staying on the railway station in hope to see Alexander. There was a clargy- man among them. When Alexandre came, he was very pleasent, said some warm words to all. Than Alexander noticed young priest. He looked at him and said: " What a beautiful material of your mantle!" Priest throws the mantle over Alexander's shoulders. Alexander tried to turn down, but priest said that it was a tradition. Alexander said: "I 'll take it, but I 'll give you something". This clock was a gift of Alexander II to young priest. Mechanical hours. Devices for measurement of time, arising in various epoch in China, in the Arabian world and in Europe, reached sometimes improbable perfection. Some of them were actuated by a current of water, others - strueniem sand, the third - combustion of a cord. In result there were hours - babies and hours - giants, hours - alarm clocks and hours - theatres with tens moving puppets (ancestors of a present modest cuckoo). Solar, water and fair chronometric devices have finished the first phase of development hronometrii and its methods. The revolutionary invention which has marked completely new stages of development in this direction, was creation of the first wheel hours from which occurrence was begun with modern era hronometri. The name " wheel hours ", started by old Czech watch-makers, apparently, was deduced from a German word "Raderuhr", but it not completely reflected essence of these hours. Here the question was mechanical hours with the trigger mechanism and ostsilljatorom with which these hourse essentially differ from all former hours. With another, much later, the message on mechanical hours we meet and in " the Divine comedy " Dante Alig'eri. The idea of the mechanical hours resulted in movement by smoothly falling weight with slower, for the first time was reflected about 1250 in an album of projects of French inventor Vijjara de Gonkura. As soon this project was embodied in practice, precisely it is not known. Probably, the numerous hours appearing in sources of the end XIII - the beginnings of XIV centuries, were all the same still water. Early hours sometimes were forged under that bell with which they were called to replace (not without reason English clock is related to German Glocke, the bell), in them was absent a dial, and the mechanism was crowned with an iron figure with ground, periodically striked in a bell. Mechanical wheel hours have appeared in XIII century. It were constructions big and heavy. A principle of their action the following: if on a horizontal shaft to wind a cord, on the end of it to strengthen the weight and to give it freely to fall, itwill pull a cord and to rotate a shaft