Clock history. Watchmaking

In the blue bedroom Winter Palace the exhibition “Watch Art. Hours of the 16th-17th centuries in the Hermitage collection”, which presents the first unique monuments of watchmaking art created by European masters. The exhibition includes about a hundred items - desktop, wall, pocket mechanical clocks, as well as their predecessors - solar, lunar and stellar devices for measuring time.

Clock Creation - Region applied arts, which combined several activities: the manufacture of the mechanism - the "heart" of the watch and the corresponding case-case. AT early period watches were especially highly valued, they were made from rare, expensive materials and were intended, first of all, for the first persons of the state, influential people and the nobility.

In Russia, watches began to be used from the 16th century, later obsolete specimens became a collector's item. At the exhibition you can see items of various shapes, technical and artistic solutions, purchased by Peter I, Elizaveta Petrovna, Catherine II, as well as representatives Petersburg nobility.

The appearance of the first mechanical clock was preceded by other time measuring devices: water, sand, solar, high points. The exposition includes: the oldest sundial in Russia, made by the Augsburg craftsman Klieber; the most complex astronomical instrument, created in 1584 by other Augsburg masters Georg Roll and Johann Reingold, is an astronomical clock with star and earth globes - a kind of system of the world in the representation of its era. A special place is occupied by the universal equatorial sundial, made by the masters of the Turnery of Peter the Great.

The first mechanical portable clocks were table clocks; in the Hermitage they are presented mainly by the works of German masters of the middle and second half of the 16th century. The earliest copies date from the first third of the 16th century. Only a few names of the first watchmaking masters have survived to our time. Their rare works are shown at the exhibition - watches by German watchmakers Hans Grüber with allegorical engraved scenes and watches with a crucifixion scene by Hans Lucas Thorn. The French school is represented by a unique example of the Renaissance - a cylindrical clock made by Mathieu Bachelet.

Table polygonal clocks were widely used, in the side walls of which plates of transparent rock crystal or glass were mounted, which made it possible to observe the movement of wheels, springs, gears and other parts of the mechanism.

The first pocket watches are presented at the exhibition in all their variety of forms: in the form of a book, an icon, a flower bud, a skull, a cross. More often, miniature clocks were made in the form of a circle, oval, octagon, square.

The most popular form of pocket watch was the circle, which became dominant in the second half of the 17th century. The materials of round cases are varied: gold, silver, carved from stone, with rock crystal lids, decorated precious stones and enamel paintings.

01/11/2017 at 23:25

The history of the origin of mechanical watches clearly demonstrates the beginning of the development of complex technical devices. When the clock was invented, it remained a major technical invention for several centuries. And up today historians cannot agree on who actually invented the first mechanical watch, based on historical facts.

Watch History

Even before the revolutionary discovery - the development of mechanical watches, the first and simplest device for measuring time was a sundial. Already more than 3.5 thousand years ago, based on the correlation of the movement of the Sun and the length, position of the shadow from objects, the sundial was the most widely used instrument for determining time. Also, in the future, mentions of a water clock appeared in history, with the help of which they tried to cover the shortcomings and errors of the solar invention.

A little later in history there were references to fire clocks or candle clocks. This method measurements - thin candles, the length of which reached up to a meter, with a time scale applied along the entire length. Sometimes, in addition to the sides of the candle, metal rods were attached, and when the wax burned out, the side fasteners, falling down, emitted characteristic blows on the metal bowl of the candlestick - meaning a sound signal of a certain period of time. In addition, candles helped not only to determine the time, but also helped to illuminate the premises at night.
The next, not unimportant invention before mechanical devices, is to highlight the hourglass, which made it possible to measure only small periods of time, no more than half an hour. But, like the fire device, the hourglass could not achieve the accuracy of the sun.
Step by step, with each device, people developed a clearer idea of ​​\u200b\u200btime, and the search for a perfect way to measure it continued unceasingly. A uniquely new, revolutionary device was the invention of the first wheel clock, and since its inception, the era of chronometry has come.

Creation of the first mechanical watch

This is a clock that measures time. mechanical vibrations pendulum or balance-spring system. Unfortunately, the exact date and names of the masters of the invention of the first mechanical watch in history remain unknown. And it remains only to turn to historical facts, testifying to the stages of creating a revolutionary device.

Historians have determined that they began to use mechanical watches in Europe at the turn of the 13th - 14th centuries.
The tower wheel clock should be called the first representative of the mechanical generation of time measurement. The essence of the work was simple - a single-drive mechanism consisted of several parts: a smooth wooden axis and a stone that was tied with a rope to the shaft, thus the weight function worked. Under the influence of the gravity of the stone, the rope gradually unwound and behind it contributed to the rotation of the axis, determining the course of time. The main difficulty of such a mechanism was the colossal weight, as well as the bulkiness of the elements (the height of the tower was at least 10 meters, and the weight of the weight reached 200 kg), which entailed consequences in the form of large errors in time indicators. As a result, in the Middle Ages, they came to the conclusion that the work of the clock should depend not only on the single movement of the weight.
The mechanism was later supplemented with several more components that managed to control the movement - the Bilyanec regulator (it was a metal base located parallel to the surface of the ratchet wheel) and the escapement distributor (a complex component in the mechanism, through which the interaction of the resulator and the transmission mechanism is carried out). But, despite all further innovations, the tower mechanism continued to require continuous monitoring, while remaining the most accurate time measuring instrument, even without looking at all its shortcomings and large errors.

Who invented the mechanical watch

Ultimately, over time, the mechanisms of tower clocks turned into a complex structure with many automatically moving elements, a varied striking system, with arrows and decorative ornaments. From that moment on, watches have become not only a practical invention, but also an object of admiration - the invention of technology and art at the same time! Of course, it is worth highlighting some of them.
Of the early movements, such as the tower clock in Westminster Abbey in England (1288), in the Canterbury Temple (1292), in Florence (1300), unfortunately, none managed to save the names of their creators, remaining unknown .
In 1402, the Prague Clock Tower was built, equipped with automatically moving figures, which, during each chime, displayed a certain set of movements, personifying history. The most ancient part of Orloi - a mechanical clock and an astronomical dial, was reconstructed in 1410. Each component was made by the watchmaker Mikulash from Kadan according to the design of the astronomer and mathematician Jan Shindel.

For example, the watchmaker Junello Turriano needed 1800 wheels to make a tower clock that showed the daily movement of Saturn, the annual movement of the Sun, the movement of the Moon, as well as the direction of all the planets in accordance with the Ptolemaic system of the universe, and the course of time during the day.
All of the above clocks were invented relatively independently of each other and had a high time error.
The first touches on the topic of the invention of clocks with a spring engine tentatively arose in the second half of the 15th century. It was thanks to this invention that the next step was the discovery of smaller variations of watches.

First pocket watch

The next step in revolutionary devices was the first pocket watch. A new development appeared approximately in 1510 thanks to a mechanic from the German city of Nurberg - Peter Henlein. The main feature of the device was the winding spring. The model showed the time with just one hand, showing the approximate period of time. The case was made of gilded brass in the shape of an oval, thus earning the name "Nuremberg Egg". In the future, watchmakers sought to repeat and improve on the example and likeness of the first.

Who invented the first modern mechanical watch

If we talk about modern clocks, in 1657 the Dutch inventor Christian Huygens first used the pendulum as a clock regulator, and by this he managed to significantly reduce the reading error in his invention. In the first Huygens hours, the daily error did not exceed 10 seconds (for comparison, earlier the error ranged from 15 to 60 minutes). The watchmaker was able to offer a solution - new regulators for both kettlebell and spring watches. Now from that moment on, the mechanisms have become much more perfect.
It should be noted that in all periods of the search for the ideal solution, they remained an indispensable subject of delight, surprise and admiration. Each new invention struck with its beauty, laborious work and painstaking discoveries to improve the mechanism. And even today, watchmakers do not cease to delight us with new solutions in the production of mechanical models, emphasizing the uniqueness and accuracy of each of their devices.

One of the first inventions of mankind was the invention of the clock. However, the invention of a mechanical watch showing the current time (regardless of cloudy weather, twilight or night time (sunny), the amount of water or sand (water or sand), the amount of oil in a bowl or wax (fire) ... in 1337 in paris cathedral Notre Dame de Paris lit a giant pillar candle, which was used to measure whole year life), was the most important invention of mankind.

Researchers studying the history of the invention, and the time of the appearance of the first mechanical watches, did not come to general opinion about when the first time tracking mechanisms appeared. Some give the palm in the invention of a mechanical watch to a certain monk from the city of Verona. The name of the inventor was Pacificus. Other researchers believe that this inventor was a monk named Herbert, who lived in a monastery in the Spanish city of Sala Manca, in the 10th century. For their scientific research he was accused of witchcraft and expelled from Spain. This, however, did not prevent him from subsequently becoming the pope, Sylvester II. (His papacy lasted from 999 to 1003.) It is authentically known that in 996 Herbert designed and built weight tower watch for Magdeburg. It can be concluded that mechanical watches appeared almost simultaneously and independently of each other in different countries- the course of development of human technical thought led to this.

Six main components could be distinguished in the first watch movements:
. Engine;
. Transmission mechanism of gears; (the period of rotation of the wheels in a gear train depends on the ratio of the diameters of the wheels included in it or, which is the same, the ratio of the number of teeth. Choosing wheels with a different number of teeth, it was easy to choose the ratio of the number of teeth on the wheels that are in engagement, so that one of them makes a turn in exactly 12 hours.If you "put" an arrow on the axis of this wheel, then it will also make a turn in 12 hours.It was also possible to pick up wheels with such a ratio of the number of teeth so that one of them could make its revolution in one hour or one minute. Accordingly, minute or second hands could be connected to their axes. But such an improvement will be made later. Only in the 18th century. And until then, the clock had only one hand - the hour.
. Bilyanets. (Bilyanets or, in Russian, - yoke) - an oscillatory system, a prototype of the balance, which does not have its own oscillation period; it was used in stationary and portable clocks until the 19th century. The device that ensures the uniform movement of the gears of the clock mechanism is called BILYANEC by experts;
. Trigger distributor;
. Arrow mechanism;
. Arrow switch mechanism.

The engine of the first mechanical watch was set in motion by the potential kinetic energy of the load due to the influence of the earth's gravity on it. The load - a stone or later a weight - was attached to a smooth shaft on a rope. Initially, the shaft was made of wood. Later, it was replaced by a shaft made of metal. The force of gravity caused the load to fall, the rope or chain to unwind, and, in turn, made the shaft rotate. The power reserve was determined by the length of the rope: the longer the rope, the longer the power reserve of the watch. The clock mechanism should have been located, possibly higher. This was a problem for such a device of the mechanism - the load needed to “fall” somewhere. To satisfy the condition, a structure was built, as a rule, in the form of a tower (hence the first mechanical clock got its name - tower clock). The height of the tower had to be at least 10 meters, and the weight of the load sometimes reached 200 kilograms. Through the intermediate gears, the shaft was connected to the ratchet wheel. The latter, in turn, set the arrow in motion. The first mechanical clock had one hand (like the "primitive" sundial, in which the gnomon, a single pole, indicated the current time of day). And the direction of movement of the arrow of the first mechanical watch was not chosen by chance, but was determined by the direction of movement of the shadow cast by the gnomon. The number of time indices (divisions on the dial) was also inherited from the sundial.

The very first mechanical escapement clock was made in the Tang Dynasty (June 18, 618 - June 4, 907) in China in 725 AD by Yixing and Liang Lingzan.

From China, the secret of the clock mechanism came to the Arabs. And only from them appeared in Europe.

The prototype of the first mechanical watch was the Atnikitere mechanism, discovered by the Greek diver Lykopantis near the island of Antikythera in the Aegean Sea, at a depth of 43 to 62 meters on a sunken ancient Roman ship.

This event took place on April 4, 1900. The Antikythera mechanism had 37 bronze gears enclosed in a wooden case. On the case there were several dials with arrows.

The Antikythera Mechanism was used to calculate the motion celestial bodies. The dial on the front wall served to display the signs of the zodiac and the days of the year.

The two dials on the back of the case were used to simulate the position of the Sun and Moon relative to the fixed stars.

The first tower clock in Europe appeared in the 14th century. It is interesting that the English word clock, Latin - clocca and a number of similar words in other European languages, originally meant not “hours”, but “bell” (very similar to the sound in Russian: bell -clocca - clock). The explanation is banal - the first tower clock had neither a dial nor hands. They did not show the time at all, but made signals by striking the bell. The first such clocks were located on the monastery towers, where there was a need to inform the monks about the time of work or prayer.

A clear evidence of the existence in the XIV century of the tradition coming from the monastery clocks is the tower clock in England and France - with a fight, but without a dial. The first mechanical watch with a dial and an arrow (so far one) appeared in Europe in the 15th century. And it was not the arrow that rotated in them, but the dial itself. The dial was traditionally divided into 6, 12 and 24 divisions. The only arrow was located vertically.

The tower clock, which was invented and built in the XIV - XV centuries, was also called astronomical. Such clocks were built in Norwich, Strasbourg, Paris, Prague. The tower astronomical clock was the pride of the city.

The cathedral, located in the French city of Strasbourg, is one of the oldest in Europe. The tower clock appeared on it in 1354. The height of the clock reaches 12 meters, and the diameter of the annual calendar wheel is 3 meters.

Every noon, instead of the standard ringing, the clock showed a whole performance: under the crowing of a rooster, guards came out and three wise men prayed before the Mother of God. The clock showed not only the time, but the current year.

They displayed the dates of the main church holidays in the coming year. An astrolabe was built in front of the clock, which showed the movement of the Moon, the Sun and the stars. AT certain time a solemn anthem was played on special gongs. The clock was repeatedly reconstructed later. So, after the Great French Revolution(1789 - 1794) a large globe appeared in front of them, showing the location of more than 5,000 stars of the Galaxy in the sky above the city.

Higher accuracy has been acquired astronomical clock with the invention of a pendulum device that provides a countdown of equal time intervals. This invention was made in 1657 by Christian Huygens van Zeilichem (Dutch mechanic, physicist, astronomer, inventor 04/14/1629 - 07/08/1695).

The history of watchmaking in Ancient Russia.

.... In the Novgorod chronicle about the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380, you can find: “Blood was shed from 6 hours before the 9th. If we do not know that the time in the annals is indicated according to the church account, then the essence of the issue would remain unknown to us. AT ancient Russia daytime and nighttime were counted separately. And the countdown was from sunrise to sunset (daytime hours) and from sunset to sunrise (night hours).

It was traditionally believed that watchmaking in Russia was not held in high esteem. But the first tower clock in Russia appeared almost simultaneously with the tower clock in Europe. With a more thorough study of archival documents, it became clear that even the chroniclers of Veliky Novgorod of the 11th century indicated not only the days, but also the hours of the most worthy and noteworthy events.

The first tower clock in Moscow was erected by the monk (monk) Lazar in 1404. The clock was built in the courtyard of Grand Duke Vasily, son of Dmitry Donskoy, whose palace was located exactly on the same spot where the Grand Kremlin Palace now stands. Then it was the second watch in Europe.

Lazar Serbin was born in Serbia from here and got this nickname. Lazar came to Moscow from the Holy Mountain. This is Mount Athos, located in the southeastern part of the Greek island of Aion Oros in the Aegean Sea. Monastery near the mountain was founded in 963.

How these hours were arranged is not known for certain. Published in Moscow in the third quarter of the 16th century, "Face chronicle Ivan the Terrible" or "Tsar-Book", there is a colored miniature depicting the launch of the "chasnik" (these clocks were also called "watch clocks").

Monk Lazar tells Grand Duke Vasily I about the construction of his clock. Judging by the drawing, they had three weights, which indicates the complexity of the clockwork. It can be assumed that one weight actuated the clock mechanism, the other - the bell ringing mechanism and the third - the planetary mechanism. The planetary mechanism showed the phases of the moon.

There are no hands on the clock disk. Most likely, the dial itself rotated. Rather, "literal blat" because instead of numbers it had Old Slavonic letters: az-1, beeches-2, lead-3, verb-4, dobro-5 and further alphabetically Cyril and Methodius.
The clock caused genuine delight among the population and was considered a real curiosity. Vasily the First paid Lazar Serbin for them "one and a half old rubles." (at the rate of the beginning of the 20th century, this amount would have amounted to 20,000 gold rubles).

For decades, this tower clock was not only the only one in Moscow, but throughout Russia. The installation of the first tower clock in Moscow was mentioned in chronicles as an event of great national importance.

….55.752544 degrees north latitude and 37.621425 degrees east longitude. Geographic coordinates of the location of the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin ...

Most famous clock Russia and Russia - Kremlin chimes, clock-chimes installed on the Spasskaya tower of the Moscow Kremlin.

Courante (fr.) - chimes (dance, first salon), from dancecourante - (literally) “running dance, from courir - to run< лат.сurrerre - бежать. Музыка этого танца использовалась в старинных настольных часах.

In 1585, the clock was already on three gates of the Moscow Kremlin towers. Spasskaya, Tainitskaya and Troitskaya.

In 1625, the English mechanic and watchmaker Christopher Galloway, together with the Russian blacksmith-watchmakers Zhdan, his son Shumila Zhdanov and grandson Alexei Shumilov, who helped him, installed a tower clock on Spasskaya. 13 bells were cast for them by Kirill Samoilov, a foundry worker. During the fire of 1626, the clock burned down, in 1668 the same Christopher Galloway restored it again. The clock "played music" and showed the time: day and night, indicated Slavic letters and numbers. Yes, and the dial then was not a "dial", but an "indicative verbal circle, a familiar circle." The role of the arrow was played by the image of the sun with a long ray, fixed vertically and motionless in the upper part of the noble circle. The disk itself, divided into 17 equal parts, rotated. (This was the maximum longitude of the day in the summer).

AT different time the chimes performed: the march of the Preobrazhensky regiment, the melody of D.S. Bortnyansky “How glorious is our Lord in Zion”, the song “Oh, my dear Augustine”, “International”, “You fell a victim”, works by M.I. Glinka: “Patriotic song" and "Glory". Now the Russian anthem is being played to the music of A.V. Alexandrova.

Such a detailed acquaintance with the device and the operation of the clock mechanism of the tower clock makes it easier to understand the operation of the clock mechanism of the wall clock. The use of a load (weight) as an engine that drives the gears of a clockwork, and later a spring, (photo of a balance-spring, photo of a balance-pendulum), together with the invention and use in the watch mechanism of a device that ensures the uniform movement of the clockwork gears, BILYANTSA made it possible to reduce both the dimensions and the weight of the watch. The use of a fusee in the design of the watch mechanism also greatly contributed to the reduction in the dimensions of the watch.

The engine driven by the kinetic energy of the load due to the gravitational force, where the rotation of the gear wheel mechanism was almost uniform (the weight of the changing length of the rope or chain can be neglected) was replaced by a clock with a spring. But the spring engine has its own "nuance". The steel spring, as it “opens up”, transmits a “decaying” force to the gear mechanism. It "weakens" and the torque changes. This shortcoming was eliminated by the use in the design of the watch mechanism of a device to maintain and maintain a uniform spring force. This device is called a fuzea (emphasis on the letter "e").

The invention of the fusee was attributed to the Prague watchmaker Jakob Zech. Researchers attribute the first use of this device to early XVI century (around 1525).

So far, drawings describing the same device have not been found in the archives of Leonardo da Vinci, and their author was "the genius of all times and peoples." The drawings are dated 1485. Historical justice has triumphed. The authorship of the invention was assigned to Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci.

Leonardodiser Pieroda Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 5, 1519), painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, writer, inventor. A striking example"universal man" (lat.homouniversalis).

The fusee is a truncated cone, which is connected to the mainspring drum with a special chain.

Among specialists, the chain is known as the Gaal chain. On the side surface of the fusee, a groove is machined in the form of a conical helical spiral, into which the Gaal chain is placed when the latter is wound around the fusee. The chain is attached to the cone in its lower part (at the point of the largest radius) and wound around the cone from the bottom up. At the base of the cone is a gear that transmits torque to the main wheel system of the watch. As the winding of the spring is used up, the fusee compensates for the loss of torque by increasing the gear ratio, thus increasing the uniformity of the watch, over the entire period of operation of the movement from one winding to the next. (photo 300px-Construction_fuzei). After the invention of the free escapement by the English watchmaker Thomas Muidge in 1755, the need to use the fusee in the watch mechanism disappeared.

The introduction of these inventions contributed to the reduction in the size of watches. The clock was able to "live" with people in their homes. This is how room clocks appeared.

THE FIRST ROOM CLOCK. ALUCERN WATCH.

The first clock, room, which could be used indoors, began to appear in XIV in Britain. They were so huge and heavy that it never occurred to me to hang them on the wall. For this reason, they stood on the floor - a grandfather clock. According to their scheme and structural elements, they differed little from large tower clocks. The wheel system with weights and bells was located in an iron or brass case.
The so-called "alfalfa" (modern) appeared in English watchmaking workshops around 1600. Initially, the cases of these watches were made of iron. Later, bronze or brass was used as a material for the manufacture of wall clock cases. The name "alfalfa" allegedly arose because of the shape of their body (they resembled old candle lanterns). According to another version, their name arose from the word "lactten", which meant "brass".

Both versions are quite elegant:
. From Latin lucerna - candle, lamp;
. Lactten - brass.
. Lucerne (German: Luzern)

Lucerne is a city in Switzerland on the shores of Lake Lucerne, at the foot of Mount Pilatus. The city was founded during the Roman Empire, some researchers attribute the date of its foundation even more early term. The official year of foundation of the city is 1178.

During the religious wars in France in the second half of the 16th century, the Huguenots, fleeing reprisals, were forced to emigrate to Switzerland. Among them were many talented artisans and watchmakers, including.

Today, the Swiss watch industry ranks third among its own export industries. The watch industry in Switzerland is in a special place. (This variant of the origin of the name "alfalfa Wall Clock” has not yet been taken into account or considered by anyone as a possible explanation for the origin of the definition “alfalfa”).

As for the first household or pocket watches in Russia, here, before the beginning of the 20th century, foreign watchmakers played the first creak. The first watches were very expensive and looked more like a piece of jewelry art. They began to be imported to Russia under Ivan III at the beginning of the 16th century. They were either embassy gifts to the king and his court or expensive goods for the rich. At the beginning of the 17th century, the first wall clocks appeared in Russia. They began to be made by English watchmakers.

THE FIRST ROOM AND WALL CLOCK OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE.

The “window to Europe cut through” by Peter the Great made it possible for Russia to get acquainted with watchmaking in the West. Catherine I, Elizabeth Petrovna and Catherine II were presented with pendulum and pocket watches by the best European watchmakers of that time.

In Russia, Catherine II the Great even made attempts to create a watch industry.

In 1774, watchmakers Basilier and Sando, thanks to financial assistance and material support from Catherine, organized the first watch manufactory in Russia in Moscow. In 1796, two watch factories were formed. One in St. Petersburg and the other in Moscow. However, the factory in Moscow closed after less than 10 years of operation. The factory in St. Petersburg lasted a little longer, but it also closed.

His Serene Highness Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin-Tavrichesky (09/13/1739 - 10/05/1791) in his estate Dubrovna (Belarus) in 1781 organized a factory-school.

The Swede Peter Nordsteen (1742-1807, Ruotsi, Sweden) was invited to transfer knowledge in watchmaking. In this factory-school, 33 serf apprentices studied watchmaking. After his death, Catherine II bought the factory-school from the heirs of G.A. Potemkin. The Empress issued a Decree, according to which the factory was transferred to Moscow. A special building was built for the factory in Kupavna, Moscow province. Clocks of "all sorts" produced at the factory: wall clocks, chiming clocks, pocket clocks, were not inferior in quality to the watches of European masters. But only a small part of them was sold, and the bulk was provided to the royal court.

In Russia, room wall and table and pocket clocks began to spread widely in the 18th century. On Myasnitskaya in Moscow, a "Clock Yard" was formed, where many watchmakers worked. Watch workshops began to open on this street in the future. Among them was the watch workshop of the brothers Nikolai and Ivan Bunetop. AT mid-nineteenth century, their "mastery" gained fame, and the brothers were called to restore the Kremlin chimes on the Spasskaya Tower. The well-known watch workshops of D.I. Tolstoy and I.P. Nosov were located on Tverskaya. At the beginning of Nikolsky lane in the house number 1/12 there was a watch shop of the merchant Kalashnikov. Mikhail Alekseevich Moskvin served as a clerk in it. From childhood, he became interested in mechanics and the device of watches. His father's house had a family heirloom - a clock late XVIII. Mikhail Moskvin learned his craft from the best Austrian watchmakers. So already in 1882, watches with the brand “MM” appeared in Russia. And the first clocks branded "MM" were floor and wall clocks.

Pavel (Pavel-Eduard) Karlovich Bure (P.Bure1810 - 1882) watchmaker, St. Petersburg merchant, founder of the well-known watch brand "Pavel Bure". PC. Bure founded his business in Russia in 1815. The quality of the manufactured watches was recognized, and he became the supplier of the "Court of His Imperial Majesty". However, they were mainly pocket, table and mantel clocks. They were mainly used wealthy people.
The mechanisms of pocket and wall clocks were made by the watch company "V.Gabu".

WALL CLOCK OF TSAR RUSSIA. (The end of the 19th century - the beginning of the 20th century).

We (Russia) have cheap and rough wall clocks (the so-called “walkers” or “yokal-shchiks”) are made by handicraftsmen in the village of Sharapova, Zvenigorod district, Moscow province.
Walkers are small mechanical wall clocks of a simplified device with weights.
Khoduntsy is a very cheap (from 50 kopecks) wall clock, with one weight, without a fight.

Here is what you can read in the Proceedings of the Saratov Scientific Archival Commission: (Published by the printing house of the Shchetinin brothers of the Serdobsky district, Saratov province. Serdobsk - 1913):
“... the production of clocks and wall clocks in the village of Sharapovo, started in the 60s years XIX century, continued to develop at the beginning of the 20th century ... ... the production of wall clocks in Moscow was no higher than in the village of Sharapovo ... ... In Moscow, the production of wall clocks is still at a low level ... "

WALL CLOCK IN SOVIET RUSSIA.

AT Soviet Russia the production of wall clocks was mastered at the Second Moscow Watch Factory, which also produced household alarm clocks and industrial and outdoor electric clock systems.
The decision to create its own watch industry was made by the Council of People's Commissars in 1927. In September 1930, the 1st State Watch Factory started operating in Moscow, and in 1931, the 2nd State Watch Factory.

Hodiki is an affectionate name for a simple home kitchen wall clock. They were so unpretentious, cheap and unpretentious that their release continued long years. And it all started with handicraftsmen from the village of Sharapovo - "Switzerland near Moscow" ...

WALL CLOCK OF MODERN RUSSIA.

Modern mechanical wall clocks also use a weight or spring power source. The accuracy of such a mechanism: + 40 -20 sec / day (first class accuracy).

Wall clocks with a quartz clockwork, the energy source is a battery, are also widely used. They use a quartz crystal as an oscillatory system. The first quartz watch was produced by HAMILTON in 1957. High-quality household quartz watches have an accuracy of +/- 15 seconds per month.

AT modern life wall clocks are used not only as instruments for measuring time, but also serve as interior details and room decorations. Wall clocks often reflect the tastes of homeowners.

Designers come up with such wall clocks that amaze and amaze with their originality.

* ***** **** ***** **** *** ** *

The most accurate clocks are atomic. The most accurate atomic clocks are in Germany.
In a million years they will "sin" only for ONE second.

Humanity has gone through many eras. Scary, amazing and even mysterious. But out of the entire series of centuries, only one has been called the Golden Age, the time of the titans in the power of thought, passion and spirit, in versatility and learning. The influence of the Renaissance on minds was truly revolutionary and pervasive. It affected, to one degree or another, all the countries of Western, Central and even partly Eastern Europe. His influence on minds was truly revolutionary. He brought such crushing changes that the Middle Ages, with its idea of ​​the weakness and insignificance of man, the baseness of his nature and feelings, completely lost its position in philosophy and culture. "It was the greatest progressive upheaval ever experienced up to that time," wrote Friedrich Engels. And until now, historians, assessing his influence, pay tribute to the country where the Renaissance was born, from where his ideas spread throughout the world, namely Italy. It was there that the torch was lit, which then lit new way to all mankind.

Renaissance - an era in the cultural and ideological development of a number of countries in Western and Central Europe. Main distinctive features Renaissance culture: secular character, humanistic worldview, appeal to the ancient cultural heritage, a kind of "revival" of its influence on culture (hence the name of the entire period). At the same time, the culture of the Renaissance is a transition from the Middle Ages to the new time. Therefore, the old and the new are so closely intertwined in it. The boundaries of this period are different in different countries. So, in Italy, the Renaissance is called the 14th - 16th centuries, and in others European countries- 15 - 16 centuries. It is usually customary to single out the Italian Pre-Renaissance (the turn of the 13th-14th centuries), Early Renaissance(15th century), High (late 15th - first quarter of the 16th century) and Late Renaissance (16th century).

The features of the Renaissance culture were most clearly manifested in architecture and fine arts Italy. The ascetic ideals and dogmatic conventions of the Middle Ages were replaced by a desire for a realistic knowledge of man and the world, a belief in creative possibilities and the power of the mind.

With all the infinity of hobbies, tastes and scientific priorities, the Renaissance (13-14 centuries) - in general for Europeans - is one of the most captivating periods in the history of world art, the "antiquity" of the New Age, an unattainable bar of artistic perfection, the ideal of harmony and beauty.

"The era is being revived by people" - this principle is most suitable specifically for the Renaissance, which created the concept of a god-equal "universal" person and put forward personalities in art who became the personification of entire eras of national culture.

This era showed the world outstanding masters: Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci and many others. Today we will get acquainted with the work of the most interesting and famous artists and try to answer the question "Can these creators be considered the titans of the Renaissance?"

When writing the abstract, I used educational literature, as well as scientific articles in journals on the issue under study.

Until January 14, 2018, the exhibition “Watchmaking. Watches of the 16th – 17th centuries in the Hermitage collection”, where unique first monuments of watchmaking art created by European masters are presented.

The exposition includes about a hundred items - desktop, wall, pocket mechanical clocks, as well as their predecessors - solar, lunar and stellar devices for measuring time.

Watch creation is an area of ​​applied art that combines several types of activity: the manufacture of a mechanism - the “heart” of a watch and the corresponding case-case. In the early period, watches were especially highly valued; they were made from rare, expensive materials and were intended, first of all, for the first persons of the state, influential people and the nobility.

In Russia, watches began to be used from the 16th century, later obsolete specimens became a collector's item. At the exhibition you can see items of various form, technical and artistic solutions, purchased by Peter I, Elizaveta Petrovna, Catherine II, as well as representatives of the St. Petersburg nobility.

The appearance of the first mechanical clock was preceded by other time measuring instruments: water, sand, sun, star clocks. The exposition includes: the oldest sundial in Russia, made by the Augsburg craftsman Klieber (1556); the most complex astronomical instrument, created in 1584 by other Augsburg masters Georg Roll and Johann Reingold, is an astronomical clock with star and earth globes - a kind of system of the world in the representation of its era. A special place is occupied by the universal equatorial sundial, made by the masters of the Turnery of Peter the Great.

The first mechanical portable clocks were table clocks; in the Hermitage they are presented mainly by the works of German masters of the middle and second half of the 16th century. The earliest copies date from the first third of the 16th century. Only a few names of the first watchmaking masters have survived to our time. Their rare works are shown at the exhibition - watches by German watchmakers Hans Grüber with allegorical engraved scenes and watches with a crucifixion scene by Hans Lucas Thorn. The French school is represented by a unique example of the Renaissance - a cylindrical clock made by Mathieu Bachelet.

The architectural forms of the cases of early watches corresponded to the prevailing artistic style, and the decor elements changed and varied. To enhance the decorative effect, the case was decorated with columns in the corners and a base at the base. In the upper part of the clock there was a battle bell crowned with chased figures, flowerpots, balusters. In the center, there was usually a dial, sometimes two or three. The main surface of the products of this time was covered with various engraved and chased compositions dating back to the engravings of that period. Masters repeated plot composition almost completely, sometimes they used separate figures or fragments of ornaments. The most common were images of allegorical figures of Astrology, Time, Truth, Mercy.

The first pocket watches are presented at the exhibition in all their variety of forms: in the form of a book, an icon, a flower bud, a skull, a cross. The works of B. Magnin, Isidore Champion, Jacques Serman, made in the form of a cross, could belong to the clergy. More often, miniature clocks were made in the form of a circle, oval, octagon, square. Square clocks were especially widespread in the 17th century, examples of which are the works of the masters Louis Baronneau, Johann Sigmund Schloer.

Engraved inscriptions were included in the decor of the clock, for example, such as: Fugitirreharabiletempus (“Irrevocable time is running”), Tempusfugit (“Time is running”), Fugitaetasutumbra (“Life is running like a shadow”) and others. Reflections on changes in nature that do not depend on man, on the constant movement of the sun and planets, the progress of science in the study of the world around us are reflected in the form of a clock made in the form of a globe with signs of the zodiac constellations or a ball with a dial along the equator line.

The most popular form of pocket watch was the circle, which became dominant in the second half of the 17th century. The materials of round cases are varied: gold, silver, carved from stone, with covers made of rock crystal, decorated with precious stones and enamel paintings. The art of decoration is vividly represented in the watches of the German master Johann Oldenburg, the outstanding French watchmaker Nicolas Lemendre and a whole galaxy of masters from European watchmaking centers. Throughout the 17th century characteristics Baroque styles have shown themselves in the use of lush floral ornaments, bright color accents. Widespread in last quarter XVII century in France and Switzerland new type enamel decor: internal, external, side surfaces cases and even the dial are decorated with compositions of painted enamel. Among them are magnificent watch cases with murals made by the brothers Jean-Pierre and Ami Huo and followers based on the picturesque originals of their contemporaries.