History concepts and overview

David Landes' Clocks: Revolution in Time -- a historical book review

From the moment we get up in the morning, to the moment we go to bed, we are affected by the concept of time. Very likely, a clock is the first thing we touch in the morning (to turn off our alarm or to push 'snooze') and the last thing we see when we go to bed. But how did this revolution in technology and the ways that human beings regulate their lives come about?

David Landes' history of time entitled Clocks: Revolution in Time begins with the first astronomical clocks in China and ends with the digital clocks of today. He argues that the clock is not merely a means of "keeping track" of the hours of the day but a way of "synchronizing" our actions (1). This is why the clock, more than any other machine, is the key to modern age, for without a clock, who would know how to get to a steam engine on time in the 19th century, or to arrange a business video conference via a videophone in the 21st century? We know the day passes because we look up at the sun, but to set a date or a time, we require a clock and an agreed-upon system of measuring time. The innovation of clocks, frees human beings from relying upon the sun, and now we can even determine time itself, rather than allow nature to create the day, as is evident with our modern conceptions of time zones and daylight savings time.

Although the obsession with time is seen as largely a Western, European fixation, the earliest Chinese water-wheel clocks were more accurate than the corresponding European mechanical clocks of their day (19). But these Chinese clocks were not built to foster a structured approach to the workday. In fact, the Chinese clocks were not for the commoners at all. Rather, the clock "was designed to reproduce the movements of the 'three luminaries'" so critical to the court religion, the "sun, moon, and (selected) stars...crucial to Chinese calendrical calculation and astrological divination" (21). In principle, because the legitimacy of the emperor depended upon the harmony of the heavens, it was important that such early clocks be accurate, but they were not important in the way that a Westerner today would think of the importance of time, in terms of making or synchronizing a critical appointment with other people.

The Western clock succeeded because it could be miniaturized and personalized, and because there was a greater practical and cultural need for clocks in the West. When missionaries later came to China one of the few things the Chinese approved of from the foreigner's culture was their mechanized clocks. One of the reasons that the Jesuits had such sophisticated clocks was their faith's great need for determining accurate daily time, as long ago in monasteries, there were fixed times for prayers. Europe's embrace of the clock allowed for the development of mechanized capitalism with a fixed schedule and capitalism allowed factories to churn out clocks. This made industrialized Great Britain the earliest producer of the mechanized clock for every home. Britain was eventually superseded by the Swiss, who abandoned much of their traditional agriculture crafts for the more profitable specialization of watch making. Then, in the 19th century, cheaper American mass manufacturing came to dominate the clock industry, and America was later taken over by the digital fluency of the Japanese in the 20th century.