Now that I am retired, I have time to look back, reflect and shine a light on the development of clocks and time keeping over the years.
I remember my granny’s house and the various shapes and makes of timepieces they owned and their cuckoo clock with its double cuckoo sound. I listened to their stories about how their parents told the time before the mass production of clocks began in America in the 1820s.and every family aspired to getting a clock. They spoke about getting up at sunrise and going to bed at sunset. They judged the time during the day by the height of the sun in the sky. In wintertime they just worked from dawn to dusk.
I remember during my school days we often cycled around the Dingle Peninsula. We visited Kilmalkedar Church, with the beautiful view of Dún Chaoin, to examine the early Christian Monastic sundial which was marked in 12 parts according to the monastic day. This was home to St Maoilcethair from the 7th century and what a lovely picturesque peaceful setting he chose for his prayer base.
Later, we learned about people returning from The Crusades and bringing the significance of 60 with them which was the counting unit in Ancient Babylonia. We were told that was how the hour with its 60 minutes, and the 12-hour day came about. I gave the same information to my own students during my teaching years. Was it all true and accurate? I hope it was.
In 1656 a Dutch Scientist invented the pendulum clock which was a big development. As a result of this we had grandfather clocks with their deep resonant solemn sound. We also saw the development of other large scale wall clocks.
Most of you have come across Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” and published in 1751. In it he has that lovely line “The curfew tolls the knell of parting day’. This was the time to put out the fire and go to bed. This was their clock. "Curfew" is a bell that rings at the end of the day, but a "knell" is a bell that rings when someone dies. So, it's like the "parting day" is dying.
I encountered that knelling word again in college. We read the poem,” Mid Term break” by Seamus Heaney when he speaks about sitting in class counting bells knelling classes to a close. There is a certain solemnity about the word knelling used in the context of the inevitability of death, as it is in those two poems. There is something funereal about the school bell knelling because Heaney’s brother had died, and he was waiting to be collected and brought home for the funeral.
In my father’s time we had clocks which had to be wound every day, and the alarm was set each night. There was always a very loud eerie ticking sound which filled the house. There was a problem because the clocks seemed to be too fast or too slow and there was no checking mechanism.
All that changed with the arrival of the Radio into our lives. The clock’s time was set correctly when the news came on at 8 o clock in the morning. That was our time to pack up and cycle to school.
Later in our lives we saw the introduction of the pocket watch which had a cover over the dial. This watch, as the name denotes, was kept in the pocket with a chain attached and when you asked the time it was ceremoniously withdrawn and duly returned to the safety and security of the pocket after the notification of the correct time.
Then of course the wristwatch appeared, and it was met with unanimous approval with all and sundry proudly displaying the timepiece on their wrists with a vast array of straps and bracelets.
There was however another force emerging that would change the world’s communication systems. I read recently what Mark R Sullivan, President of Pacific Telephone Corporation said in 1953.In the first development the telephone will be carried around by the individual, perhaps as we carry a watch. It probably will require no dial, and I think we will be able to see each other, if they want to, as they talk and who knows but they might translate material.
We have travelled a long journey in the last 71 year since Mark Sullivan’s prophetic vision.
Today’s generation rely totally on their phones for all communication and timing with every piece synchronised with Greenwich Mean Time and time is accurate to the last second. We can see each other, translate, send messages, scan and do a multiplicity of tasks which are major advances during my lifetime.
I remember getting our first television in 1965 .The advances in TV systems has been phenomenal evolving from a huge square box set,weighing a ton, to the slim lined trimmed down versions we have today.
The progress in phone development has been mind boggling.In my youth we had phone messages delivered by the telegram boy.We had public pay phone boxes in every town in Ireland.
Many people will remember the arrival of the first bulky Motorola mobile phone in 1973.
This was followed by the Blackberry in 2000, iPhone in 2007 and a litany of others since then..
Now our phones are our timepieces, our health and fitness monitors, our wallets, while with AI and Augmented Reality and increased battery life or maybe wireless transmission the future looks like it will continue to be interesting with lots of exciting developments in our communications world.
It’s all Tik Tok and many other systems nowadays. Farewell to Tick Tock.
Time and progress wait for no one.
P.S Its funny that we say tick tock not tock tick, mish mash, chit chat, hip hop, flip flop ,sing song. Its the i,a,o rule or to give it the full title 'the rule of ablaut reduplication, Now as they say in the Kingdom 'put that in your pipe and smoke it'.
One reply I got to the time is of the essence piece
‘That was a fascinating read Mick...Something that might amuse you, re 'time'. Many years ago (circa 1983/4) I visited the arran island of Inisheer (the smallest one).I was intrigued watching the dismantling of the stone walls to move a cow or whatever from one patch of land to another. In my towny ignorance I enquired, "Would it not save a lot of time to have a gate”.to which the reply came, "Sure what's your hurry?!".Never forgot it. To that man, there was daylight and dark. No rush needed!
And another reply
Brings back memories of my father He refused point blank to change his watch to new time
What time is it da?
Well, it's three o clock new time which means it's two old time and half one god's time
So, we hardly ever knew the time!!!!
Agus ceann eile
Píosa an-bhreá, a Mhíchíl. Mo mhíle buíochas. Tárlaíonn go bhfuil an-spéis agam i gcloig: cloig le hanam, cloig le luascadán, cloig atá beo. Deisím cloig, nuair atá ar mo chumas. Tuigim go bhfuil na cloig ghrianchloiche (quartz) thar a bheith cruinn, ach níl anam iontu.
Tá an tigh agam, lán le cloig; mór agus beag, sean agus ana-shean. Is saghas comhluadar iad, i ngach aon tseomra. Is fada uainn an lá gur shochraíomar and clog, díreach sular thosnaigh and nuacht.
Lean ort ag scríobh, mo chara. Cuimhní; téann siad in éag, ó radharc, imithe, muna gcuirtear ar phár iad.
Good read Mick,
In Gorey we had the Chapel Bell, the Convent Bell and the Leather Factory Hooter. And some of us had the Train (on Dublin time!)
And before WW2 (I imagine) there was a travelling Rag Man who sold bits ‘n bobs. He was selling wall clocks which were not selling fast enough. He wanted to get to mainland England in a hurry, so he reduced the price of his £3.00 clocks to 30 bob. He sold them and that's how the first clocks arrived into Gorey town.
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