Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
How Science and Culture Shape the Past, Present, and Future
Sara J. Schechner
David P. Wheatland Curator
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments
Harvard University
2014 PRESIDENT & FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE
Picture Credits
Cover: Time and Time Again exhibition poster
designed by Samantha van Gerbig, 2013, Collection of
Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University.
Title page: Invention of Clockwork, unknown engraver,
after Stradanus (Jan van der Straet), from Nova reperta,
c. 1599-1603. www.wikigallery.org.
Epigraph and postscript endpapers: Valentino Pini,
Fabrica de glhorologi solari (Venice, 1598).
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library,
f IC5 P6555 598f fols. 20, 26.
Contents: Trilobite, Paradoxides (Acadoparadoxides)
harlani, Middle Cambrian period, Hayward Creek,
Braintree, Massachusetts. President and Fellows of
Harvard College, Museum of Comparative Zoology,
Harvard University, Invertebrate Paleontology
Collection, MCZ 190330.
Acknowledgments: Foundation peg, Mesopotamian,
UR III Period (c. 21st 20th century BCE).
Harvard Semitic Museum, 1899.2.625.
Contents
Acknowledgments .................................................................... 7
Introduction ................................................................................. 10
Chapter 1
14
19
22
24
25
Chapter 2
28
31
39
42
44
47
Chapter 3
50
52
60
62
63
65
68
69
71
72
75
78
Chapter 4
What is an Hour?........................................................................ 89
Chapter 6
Timekeeping.................................................................................. 97
Calendars ............................................................................... 98
Book of Hours ................................................................ 102
Almanacs ........................................................................ 103
Planners and Diaries ................................................... 107
Give us back our eleven days! .............................. 112
Ephemerides .................................................................. 114
Calendars and Culture ............................................... 115
Sand Glasses ........................................................................ 118
Interval Timers ..................................................................... 124
Clocks and Watches ........................................................... 128
Evolution of the Watch ............................................... 130
Why do the hours run clockwise on clocks? ..... 139
Sundials Regulate Clocks .......................................... 140
Equation of Time .......................................................... 145
Biological Clocks ................................................................. 148
Chapter 7
Time Flow........................................................................................ 48
Chapter 5
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Contents
Chapter 1 0
Chapter 1 4
Chapter 11
Chapter 1 2
Chapter 1 3
Chapter 1 5
Chapter 1 6
Chapter 1 7
Acknowledgments
Curator
Sara J. Schechner
David P. Wheatland Curator
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments
Design
Samantha van Gerbig
Designer & Photographer
Noam Andrews
Wheatland Curatorial Fellow
Time Trails
eCatalog
Cira Louise Brown
In collaboration with
Harvard Museums of Science and Culture
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to the staff of the following institutions who
kindly lent items and offered guidance
Arthur and ElizabethSchlesingerLibrary
on the History of Women in America,
Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University
Acknowledgments
Recognition of the Unstinting Support of the Collection of
Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University
Peter Galison
Jean-Franois Gauvin
Administrative Director
Sara J. Schechner
David P. Wheatland Curator
Martha Richardson
Michael Kelley
Juan Andres Leon
Database Project Manager
Richard Wright
Curatorial Technician
Sara Frankel
Collections Assistant
Maria Stenzel
for her escapement video
Yao Li
for permission to use his time-lapse film of Boston
David Ellis
former interim Executive Director of HMSC,
for agreeing to make Time an HMSC initiative
Introduction
Time and Time Again
How Science and Culture Shape the Past, Present, and Future
Introduction
11
Introduction
12
Chapter 1
Creation of Time
Did time have a beginning or did it always exist?
The answer depends on ones culture and cosmology.
Western Time
The ancient Greeks in the Orphic
tradition believed that Chronos
(Time), was self-formed in the
creation. With his consort Ananke
(Inevitability), he encircled and
hatched the world-egg, thereby
forming the earth, sea, and sky.
Later personified as Aion (Eternity),
he turned the wheel of heaven.
Western Time
14
Western Time
15
Western Time
In 1617 Robert Fludd startled readers by depicting the moment before creation as
a black square surrounded on four sides by the phrase, et sic in infinitum.
Blackness ad infinitum
Robert Fludd, Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet et
minoris metaphysica, physica atque technica historia
(Oppenheim, 1617).
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
EC F6707 B638p v.1
Western Time
17
Western Time
18
Big Bang
In the late 1920s, physicist George Lematre developed a physical model of an
expanding universe. His mathematical equations did not require a beginning to time
or space. In 1931, he changed his mind. From the point of view of quantum theory,
the beginning of the world could not resemble the present order of nature. Time and
space would break down.
Lematres new model of a primeval atom that fragmented and evolved is the first big
bang model of the creation of the universe. In 1948, George Gamow would propose
his own version in the famous Alpher-Bethe-Gamow paper. The initial universe was
a compressed gas of neutrons. As it rapidly expanded, the neutrons decayed into
protons and electrons, which then combined with ambient neutrons to form heavier
atoms.
Todays cosmological models are more nuanced and take into account the actions
of the four forces of nature and subatomic particles like quarks. They still begin,
however, with the entire universe compressed into an infinitely dense and hot point
before creation when space and time did not exist.
For physicists, time began with the big bang about 13.7 billion years ago.
George Lematre
A Homogeneous Universe of Constant Mass and
Increasing Radius accounting for the Radial Velocity
of Extra-galactic Nebulae, Monthly Notices of the
Royal Astronomical Society, 91 (1931): 483-490.
Big Bang
19
1931MNRAS..91
Mythic Time
Native people in North America
share a belief in mythic time. They
believe that time has no beginning
or end, and their universe is
unlimited and exists perpetually.
According to the cosmology of the
Algonkian- and Iroquian-speaking
people from the eastern Great
Lakes north through the eastern
Woodlands, the universe has three
parts. The earth floats like an
island between an upper, sky world
and an underworld, each ruled by
powerful manitous or spirits. Chief
among these are the thunderbirds
and underwater panthers. They are
engaged in perpetual conflict.
Underwater panthers
Mans pouch with underwater panthers
and images of whirlpools
Possibly Southeastern Ojibwa, Great Lakes region,
1810-1850
President and Fellows of Harvard College,
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology,
Harvard University, PM# 987-16-10/71168
(digital file# 99110017). Gift of Mrs. James Dudley Hawks, II,
in memory of her husband, James Dudley Hawks II,
Harvard Class of 1943, 1987.
Mythic Time
22
Thunderbirds rule the upper world, causing good rain and victory, but also bad
storms. Their power is matched in the underworld by the panthers, cat-like beings
with horned heads and long tails. The underwater panthers use their tails to whip
up the waters and cause drowning, but also are the source of waters healing and lifeprolonging powers.
Adorned with images of the thunderbird and underwater panther, the two bags shown
here attach these sacred symbols to earth-bound materials.
Thunderbirds
Twined fiber, panel bag, perhaps used
to store sacred bundles
Possibly Southeastern Ojibwa, Great Lakes region,
1800-1820
President and Fellows of Harvard College,
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology,
Harvard University, PM# 03-20-10/62493
(digital file# 99110018). Museum Purchase, 1903.
Mythic Time
23
Deep Time
This slab of trilobite fossils was excavated in Braintree, Massachusetts. Others like
them are currently found in Morocco, western Europe, and Scandinavia. The fossils
are evidence that these lands were once joined together as a small continent (called
Avalonia by geologists) in the geologic period that the trilobites livedsome 510
million years ago (Middle Cambrian). Over the next 200 million years, the tectonic
plate carrying Avalonia got sandwiched between Europe, America, and Africa forming
the supercontinent Pangaea. When Europe and Africa broke away from North
America, parts of Avalonia were left in each.
Trilobite, Paradoxides
(Acadoparadoxides) harlani
Middle Cambrian period
Hayward Creek, Braintree, Massachusetts
President and Fellows of Harvard College,
Museum of Comparative Zoology,
Harvard University, Invertebrate
Paleontology Collection, MCZ 190330
Deep Time
24
Time Markers of
Nature and Man
Rudists were invertebrate animals living in shallow waters from the Late Jurassic to the
Late Cretaceous period (145 to 65 million years ago). They dominated reefs until the
Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction event wiped them out along with the dinosaurs.
Today their remains serve as index fossilsguides to the age of the rocks in which they
are preserved.
25
This other time marker is manmade. It is a clay peg that was inserted 4000 years
ago into the foundation of a building as an act of piety and expression of a rulers
achievements.
26
Chapter 2
Time Finding from the
Sun, Moon, and Stars
The earliest methods for tracking the time
were observations of the sun, moon, and stars.
Natural Time
The alternation of light and dark
defined the day. The 29 day cycle
of lunar phases days gave us the
month. The suns return to the same
constellation in the sky gave us the
year.
Natural Time
28
Portable orrery
Peter & John Dollond, London, c. 1787
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Gift of David P. Wheatland
DW0701
Natural Time
29
Sundials
Every day the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. All sundials use the suns
apparent motionup and down, east to west, or a combination of both called the hour
angle, which measures the suns motion along the celestial equator. Sundials find the
time by sighting on the sun or using a shadow cast by an object, called a gnomon.
The familiar garden sundial finds time by the suns hour angle. So do mathematically
similar dials where the shadow-casting edge of the gnomon is parallel to the earths axis.
Chapter 2: Time Finding from the Sun, Moon, and Stars Sundials
31
The earliest sundials, however, were altitude dials. The Egyptians invented one type by
1500 BCE and later types were scaphes, pillar dials, ring dials, and horary quadrants.
Chapter 2: Time Finding from the Sun, Moon, and Stars Sundials
32
Pillar dial
European, 18 century
th
Chapter 2: Time Finding from the Sun, Moon, and Stars Sundials
33
Globe dial
Japanese, 19th century
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University,
Gift of David P. Wheatland, c. 1985
7395
Chapter 2: Time Finding from the Sun, Moon, and Stars Sundials
34
Polyhedral dial
French, c. 1880
Chapter 2: Time Finding from the Sun, Moon, and Stars Sundials
35
Chapter 2: Time Finding from the Sun, Moon, and Stars Sundials
36
Scaphe
H. Schmeisser and A. Meissner,
Berlin, 1861
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Drecker Collection,
Gift of David P. Wheatland, 1985
7396
Chapter 2: Time Finding from the Sun, Moon, and Stars Sundials
37
Chapter 2: Time Finding from the Sun, Moon, and Stars Sundials
38
Astrolabe
The astrolabe, invented in the fourth century, not only used the altitude of the sun or
stars to find time to a few minutes, but could do this at any latitude.
Chapter 2: Time Finding from the Sun, Moon, and Stars Astrolabe
39
Nocturnals
Nocturnals find time from the stars. They use the rotation of key stars around the
celestial North Pole like the hands of a clock. When Ursa Major and Ursa Minor are
used, the nocturnal may be marked for Both Bears. These constellations are better
known to us as the Big and Little Dippers.
(above)
(at left)
Nocturnal on an ivory
astronomical compendium
Flemish, Antwerp, 1599
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University,
Gift of David P. Wheatland, c. 1985
7527
Chapter 2: Time Finding from the Sun, Moon, and Stars Nocturnals
42
Chapter 2: Time Finding from the Sun, Moon, and Stars Nocturnals
43
Moon Dials
Sundials can be used to find the time by bright moonlight. For this purpose, the
sundial will have a rotating disk that can be set for the moons age and phase.
This volvelle tells the user how many hours the moon is behind the sun in the sky
information needed to correct the reading of the shadow.
Moon Dials
44
Difference between
Clocks and Sundials
47
Chapter 3
Time Flow
How does time flow?
Forward, back , in circles, uniformly?
Time Flow
Repetitive phenomena in nature
the waxing and waning of the moon,
the progression of day and night, the
cycle of the seasons, and rising and
setting of the starspromote the
view that time is cyclical and never
ending. Other facts of lifethe
aging process, for instancesupport
the view that time is linear and has a
direction. The past gives way to the
present, which yields to the future.
Our modern society embraces both
the cyclical and linear aspects of
timethe cyclical in our celebration
of recurring holidays, and the linear
in our schooling and professional
advancement.
Science, literature, and the arts
give us examples of time stretched,
compressed, and reversed.
Vertical disk sundial
French, 17th century
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Gift of David P. Wheatland, c. 1987
7318
49
Cyclical Time
Traditional rural societies tend to view time as cyclical. Daily life is governed by the
rhythms of agriculture, circadian periods, and recurring natural events such as days,
seasons, cycles of birth and death, and regular bodily urges. Church time, like agrarian
time, is also cyclical. It is built on the recurrence of holy days and the rhythms of
prayer.
Images of cyclical time often show a winged youth holding a sundial or the Greek
god Aion supporting the circular zodiac. They portray the march of the seasons as a
circuit tread by infant, young, middle-aged, and elder males. Another ancient symbol
is the ouroboros, a snake biting its tail, and the motto Finis ab origine pendet (the end
depends on the beginning).
Cyclical Time
50
Cyclical Time
51
Perpetual Calendars
Perpetual calendars take
advantage of the cyclical nature
of our annual calendar. Some
are mathematical tables, and
others are mechanical devices
with rotating disks called volvelles.
Both kinds enable the days of the
week to be matched up with the
days of each month. Many also
offer information on the average
length of daylight or darkness in
a given month, the dates the sun
enters each zodiacal sign, and
times of festivals.
Perpetual Calendars
52
Perpetual Calendars
53
Perpetual calendar on a
pocket compass dial
Jacobus de Steur, Leiden, c. 1675
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Drecker Collection,
Gift of David P. Wheatland, c. 1985
7256
Perpetual Calendars
55
Perpetual Calendars
56
Perpetual Calendars
57
Perpetual Calendars
58
Perpetual Calendars
59
Cyclical Time
in Hopi Culture
For many Native peoples in North Americaparticularly those in agricultural
societiestime flows in a never-ending circle. Rituals related to mythological beings
are performed cyclically in order to maintain balance in the universe. Experiences in
time are grounded in repetition and renewal, in opposition to the linear western sense
of unfolding changes.
The Hopi people believe that benevolent spirit beings, katsinam, visit them for half of
every year. The katsinam begin to arrive from the spirit world at the winter solstice
in late December, and depart in July after the summer solstice. Hopi men costume
themselves as the katsinam and perform dances and ceremonies during their stay to
offer prayers for health, fertility, and rain. The katsinam accept the prayers and gifts
from the Hopi and carry them back to the gods.
Hopi katsina dolls are wooden effigies of the spirit beings. They are given to babies of
both sexes, girls near marriageable age, and women during the ceremonies and dances.
The dolls are treasured and hung inside the home to promote their wellbeing and that
of the family.
60
He performs in January.
Hopi, Arizona, pre-1892
61
Bachs Circles
The fugues of Johann Sebastian Bach are said to go in circles. Musical elements
overlap and return on each other.
Bachs Circles
62
Linear Time
City dwellers and merchants are
more prone to scheduling than
their rural counterparts. Beginning
in the 14th century as feudal
society gave way to more urban,
commercial centers, time became
seen as a precious commodity
to be budgeted and spent wisely.
Petrarch and educational reformers
urged people to multitask and
organize activities carefully.
Otherwise they would die without
achieving any good.
The new time pressures reinforced
the linear sense of time.
Mementi mori, images that
reminded people of their hastening
death, served as moral goads.
Sands of time
Sand glass
Italian? c. 1760
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Gillingham Collection,
Gift of David P. Wheatland, 1987
7301
Linaer Time
63
65
Father Time
Bryant Baker, The Old and the New, Puck, 28
December 1910
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
AP101.P7 1910 (Case X) [P&P]
67
Mozarts Arrows
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts works are very goal-directed. They tell a story and build
to a climax.
Mozarts Arrows
68
69
71
Coming of Age
Many societies mark the time
of puberty with rituals that
introduce the boy or girl to
shamanistic, professional, or
future adult roles. Ceremonies
and new adornments also
declare the boy or girls
new status to the rest of the
community.
Coming of Age
72
Coming of Age
73
Coming of Age
74
Time Reversal
According to Isaac Newton,
time was absolute and constant
everywhere in the universe.
In classical physics, equations are
also reversible in time. A movie of
billiard balls colliding will
make sense whether played
forward or back.
Time Reversal
75
Our lives, however, do not run in reverse, but legends of a fountain of youth are
common in many cultures.
Time Reversal
76
Time Reversal
77
Relative Time
Since Einstein presented his
theories of relativity in 1905
and 1916, time and space are
no longer seen as physical
absolutes. They are subject to
forces such as gravity and the
motion of observers relative
to each other. If a bicyclist
carrying a clock raced past
us moving close to the speed
of light, our view from the
sidewalk would show the bicycle
shortened in length and the
clock ticking slowed down.
The cyclist would see his vehicle
and clock running normally.
Relative Time
78
Relative Time
Time compression and dilation are also features of artistic productions. A play may
cover a persons entire life in a couple of hours; a slow-motion video may stretch a
second into an hour.
Relative Time
80
Chapter 4
What Does Time Look Like?
When we visualize time, do we think of its cyclical
or linear aspects? Its unfolding but turning back
on itself or its inescapable progression forward?
(above)
Egg, Aves
undated
President and Fellows of Harvard College,
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University,
Ornithology Collection, MCZ 363126
(at left)
Domestic chicken, Gallus domesticus
Mounted skin, undated
President and Fellows of Harvard College,
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University,
Ornithology Collection, MCZ 363047
82
83
85
Time as a Series
Another way to visualize time is as
a progressive series of changes. The
morphological development of a frog
from egg to full-grown adult exhibits
the forward motion of time. So does the
evolution of the oil lamp from the Early
Bronze Age until the modern era.
Archaeologists use found objects
like lamps to date strata in their digs
in the same way that geologists and
paleontologists use index fossils to
date sediments.
Time as a Series
86
Herodian, 30 BCE 70 CE
1907.64.2
1907.64.268
Modern
1907.64.194
Time as a Series
88
Chapter 5
What is an Hour?
Today it is 1 /24 of a day, but it was not always so.
The length of the hour is arbitrary, and ways of
counting them have varied in time and place.
What is an Hour?
The splitting of the day into twentyfour hours dates back to the
Egyptians and was influenced by
their administrative division of the
year into ten-day weeks. The dawn
rising of a bright star announced
the start of each week. The spacing
of these decan stars across the visible
night sky divided the night into
twelve hours. By analogy, Egyptian
priests divided the day into twelve
parts. Subdivisions of the hour into
sixty minutes, and the minute into
sixty seconds came from Babylonia,
where astronomical calculations
were done in base sixty.
Common hours
Mechanical equatorial sundial with enamel face
European, c. 1800
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University
2010-1-0004
Since day and night were always divided into twelve hours each, the lengths of light
and dark hours were unequal. The hours were like sponges, expanding and contracting
with the seasons. Greeks, Romans, Jews, and Christians all used this system. In Asia,
the Chinese and Japanese used similar systems, but their hours were twice as long.
90
91
92
The invention of the mechanical clock in the 13th century introduced Europe to a
new system of equal hours alongside the old. In the 15th century sundials began to be
calibrated for equal hours too, so that clocks and dials were using the same system.
Even with equal hours, there were many regional styles of counting them. Italians
counted them 124 from sunset; Germans, 124 from sunrise. The French and
English counted 112 twice beginning at midday and midnight. These common hours
were also the preference of astronomers. Many portable sundials show multiple hour
systems so that users could convert between them.
93
During the French Revolution, reformers introduced a more rational, decimal system
of timekeeping. The day was divided into ten hours, each of 100 minutes. The public
hated it, and it was eventually discontinued.
(at left)
French decimal hours
Pocket watch with both the 10-hour system of the
French Revolution and the common 24-hour system
http://www.antique-horology.org/_Editorial/
RepublicanCalendar/
(below)
Hours from sunrise and hours to sunset,
with common hours
Inclining horizontal and analemmatic sundial
Johann Engelbrecht, Beraun, 1786
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Drecker Collection,
Gift of David P. Wheatland
7379
94
95
Turkish numerals
Quadruple-case watch,
Edward Prior, London, c. 1790
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University
1998-1-1353
96
Chapter 6
Timekeeping
Timekeeping instruments measure time intervals from
fractions of a second to years. They do not find time
directly from nature as sundials do, but track it from
a point chosen by a person.
Calendars
The calendar is a method of
timekeeping over an extended
period. It counts the days in
the year, assigning them to
weeks and months. It is an
administrative system, and
therefore strongly influenced by
the culture in which it is made
and the audience it serves.
Most calendars are based on
the cycles of the Sun and Moon,
which have been used to reckon
time for religious and civil
purposes since as early as
10,000 BCE.
98
Many early calendars were lunar. The Islamic calendar, for instance, is based on
a thirty-year-cycle of twelve lunar months beginning with the date the prophet
Muhammad emigrated from Mecca to Medina (July 16, 622). The Jewish calendar
is luni-solar, adding a leap month in seven lunar years out of nineteen in order to
reconcile the count with solar years. Traditional Chinese and Hindu calendars are
also luni-solar.
Our solar calendar of 365 days had its origins in Egypt around 3000 BCE. By Roman
times, it was ninety days out of step with the suns true position. In 45 BCE, Julius
Caesar reformed it, adding a leap day every four years and moving the start to
January 1 from March 1. A slight error, however, caused large problems: By the
1500s, the Julian calendar was ten days off, causing Easter and religious festivals to fall
too early. A commission appointed by Pope Gregory XIII solved the problem in 1582
by modifying the schedule of leap years and removing ten days.
101
Book of Hours
Books of hours are late medieval
devotional texts. They contain
prayers for specific hours of
the day and night according to
the divine office of the Catholic
Church. They also contain an
ecclesiastical calendar listing
feast days and saints days.
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
Book of Hours
102
Almanacs
Almanacs are annual compilations
that list each month along with
information about monthappropriate chores, usually
agricultural. They list the rising
and setting of major constellations,
visible planets, predicted eclipses,
and weather. All mark religious
festivals and civic events; some
advise on good and evil days.
Many also offer handy advice on
cooking, medical treatments,
transportation systems, and
animal behavior.
Almanacs have been produced
since the 5th century BCE up to the
present day.
The Diamond Dye Almanac, 1888
Burlington, Vermont, 1887
Schechner Collection
103
(above)
The Boston Almanac, 1847
Boston, 1846
Launie Collection
(at left)
The Boston Almanac, 1847 and 1850
Boston, 1846, 1849
104
Chicago, c. 1920
Boston, 1905
Schechner Collection
Schechner Collection
105
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
107
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
109
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
110
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
111
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
112
Ephemerides
A calendar focused on the positions of the planets, sun, and moon is called an
ephemerides. The technical information was highly valued by astronomers.
This volume was owned by Edmond Halley (1656-1742), the famed astronomer
best known for his research on comet orbits.
114
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
115
Calendar markings appear on the Aztec Sun Stone, a twenty-four-ton carving dating
from 1427 CE. It also depicts cycles of creation and destruction in time. The Sun god,
Tonatiuh, in the center, begs to be fed the blood of human hearts in order for him to
keep the world in motion. Around him are the sun gods of prior ages. According to
Aztec cosmology, the present day world contains remnants of worlds that came before.
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
116
Persian zodiac
perhaps 17th century
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University,
Gift of David P. Wheatland, c. 1985
7350
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
117
Sand Glasses
Invented in the Middle Ages,
sand glasses measure time by the
flow of a crushed materialrock
or eggshellsfrom one ampoule
to another. The intervals may be
hours, or fractions of hours and
minutes.
Sand glasses were used to time
sermons and lessons. Aboard
ships, large ones timed two-hour
work periods called watches.
For determining the ships speed,
sailors used 28-second sand
glasses to time the distance run
as knots played out in a log line
tossed overboard. Delightfully
ornamental sand glasses were for
domestic use.
Sand glass
European, mid-19th century
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Gillingham Collection,
Gift of David P. Wheatland, 1985
7291
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
Sand Glasses
118
th
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
Sand Glasses
119
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
Sand Glasses
121
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
Sand Glasses
122
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
Sand Glasses
123
Interval Timers
The earliest timers were the
human pulse or the chanting
of words. Then came water
clocks that measured time drop
by drop, and fire clocks that
used the amount of candle wax
or incense consumed. Sand
glasses came on the scene in
the Middle Ages.
The development of precision
timers had encouragement from
surprising places. To time horse
races, Nicolas Rieussec in 1821
invented the first chronograph
with a seconds indicator.
Polaroid allegedly repurposed
some bomb timers in their film
development timers.
Sand glass timer
Italian, c. 1750
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Gillingham Collection,
Gift of David P. Wheatland, 1987
7300
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
Interval Timers
124
Horse-race chronograph
with seconds indicator
The user can pay full attention to the race
while operating a pen trigger that drops an
ink spot on the rotating dial. The position
of the spots on the dial indicates the
beginning and end of the interval timed.
Nicolas Rieussec, 1822
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Gift of David P. Wheatland
DW0648
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
Interval Timers
125
Stopwatch
W. E. Huguenin
Switzerland, c. 1866
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Transfer from the Institute of
Geographical Exploration, c. 1967
5118
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
Interval Timers
126
Peel-apart, instant-film
development timer
Owned by Edwin H. Land,
the inventor of Polaroid
Polaroid, Cambridge, 1963-1978
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University,
Gift of the Edwin Land family, 2004
2004-1-0139
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
Interval Timers
127
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
128
The Clockmaker
Hartmann Schopper, Panoplia omnium illiberalium
mechanicarum aut sedentariarum artium genera
continens (Frankfurt, 1558).
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Typ 520 68.773
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
129
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
130
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
131
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
132
(above)
Watch winding keys
From the collection of William Bond & Son,
Boston, c. 1929
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Gift of David P. Wheatland
1998-1-1161
(at left)
Asa Grays first pocket watch
Bought by the botanist with $60.00 from the
proceeds of Grays first course of Lowell Lectures
at Harvard.
Abraham Vacheron Girod, Geneva, 1843
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Transfer from the Gray Herbarium,
Harvard University, 1990
1990-2-0009
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
133
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
134
Pocket watch
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
136
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
137
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
140
A beloved method for setting ones watch was the cannon dial, which combined a
horizontal sundial and a noon gun. At midday, a burning lens focused the suns beam
onto the touch hole of the cannon, igniting the gunpowder. One was set up in the
gardens of the Palais Royal in Paris in 1786. Every fine day towards twelve oclock,
wrote an observer in 1868, crowds of Parisians who have nothing to do may be seen
bending their steps towards the Palais Royal to set their watches by the gun.
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
141
(above)
Dipleidoscope
Fixed to a porch rail or window sill, the dipleidoscope
uses the light of the midday sun in order to determine
true noon for the express purpose of setting ones watch.
E. J. Dent, London, c. 1850
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Gift of David P. Wheatland, c. 1985
7890
(at left)
Young man using Dents dipleidoscope
to set his watch
E. J. Dent, A Description of the Dipleidoscope
(London, 1875).
Private Collection
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
142
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
143
Old Timer
The original logo of the National Association of
Watch and Clock Collectors showed a Victorian
gentleman checking his pocket watch against a
garden sundial. The image was taken from the
title page of James W. Benson, Time and TimeTellers (London, 1875).
NAWCC membership patch
United States, c. 1975
Schechner Collection
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
144
Equation of Time
Unfortunately, the sun is not a
very regular timekeeper because
of the earths motion. Sundial
time can be as much as 16
minutes off from mean clock
time. The difference between
solar time and mean time
follows a proscribed annual
cycle. The conversion between
the two is called the equation
of time. Tables and diagrams
for the equation of time were
published by astronomers in the
mid-17th century, and included
with watches and sundials
beginning in the 18th century.
Heliochronometer
An instrument to find mean time from the sun by putting
a spot of light on the equation of time, which is laid out on
the figure-eight shape, known as the analemma.
P. Flechet et Cie., Paris, c. 1880
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University
7398
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
Equation of Time
145
Biological Clocks
Plants and animals track linear time through growth rings. The rings on this
eastern hemlock cookie inform us that the tree lived over 220 years. Those on the
Massachusetts clam shells indicate that these animals can live up to 500 years.
The scutes on a turtles shell also have an age-dependent ring structure.
Other biological changes show times cyclical aspects. Circadian rhythms are
biological cyclessuch as wakefulness and sleepobserved to occur daily. The female
menstrual cycle is a monthly occurrence. Women worried about the decline of their
fertility with age often speak of their biological clocks ticking down.
Tree rings
Cross section of a 220-year-old Eastern
Hemlock, Tsuga canadensis
Arnold Arboretum, 2012
Collected by David Orwig of the Harvard Forest
Harvard University Herbaria
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
Biological Clocks
148
Leopard tortoises,
Stigmochelys pardalis babcocki
Adult from Arusha, Tanzania, 1916
and juvenile from Moroto, Uganda, 1967
President and Fellows of Harvard College,
Museum of Comparative Zoology,
Harvard University, Herpetology Collection,
MCZ R-18156 (paratype) and MCZ R-120270
(in ethanol)
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
Biological Clocks
149
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
Biological Clocks
150
The Forecaster
Menstrual cycle slide chart
New York, The Forecaster Co., 1948
Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University,
Boston Association for Childbirth Education Records:
MC 515 6.5
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
Biological Clocks
152
Alimentary timetable
Kellog Company, The Sunny Side of Life Book
(London, Ontario, 1934).
Schechner Collection
Chapter 6: Timekeeping
Biological Clocks
153
Chapter 7
Atomic Time
In late 1967, the second the basic unit of time
was officially redefined in terms of measurements
made with atomic clocks rather than by astronomical
observations of the Earths motion.
Atomic Time
The first atomic clock was built in 1948 at
the U.S. National Bureau of Standards. This
clock used radiation emitted and absorbed
by the ammonia molecule to measure time.
However, the ammonia clock was not very
stable and only ever ran for a few hours.
In 1955 the first clock based on cesium
atoms was built at the National Physics
Laboratory in the U.K. This clock was more
stable and precise than any previously built
clock. It established an atomic definition
of the second: 9,192,631,770 cycles of the
cesium frequency. In 1967, the international
timekeeping community adopted this
new second.
Since then, several types of atomic clocks
have been developed, offering increased
precision and stability. One example is the
hydrogen maser clock, developed by
Norman Ramsey and his colleagues at
Harvard in 1960.
Hydrogen maser clock
Model H-10, serial no. 5, used at MITs Lincoln Lab
Varian Associates, Quantum Electronic Devices,
c. 1964
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Gift of the MIT Haystack
Observatory and Lincoln Laboratory
1998-1-1628
155
156
157
Chapter 8
In Time Together
Keeping together in time synchrony
is a major part of community life.
159
Tambourine
Damascus, 19th century
Harvard Semitic Museum, 1902.39.10
Dance choreography
Kellom Tomlinson, The Art of Dancing Explained
by Reading and Figures (London, 1735).
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Typ 705.35.842
160
162
Musical Tempo
Since the 15th century, performers
have kept together in time by
tactus, or touch. Tempo was
conveyed by hand gestures, finger
tapping, foot stamping, and beating
the floor with a stick. Changes in
tempo were declared in written
instructions that went with the
music. As musical productions
grew larger in scale and included
opera, theater, and orchestral
performances, there came a
need for more visible and central
coordination by a conductor.
Batons were first used at the end
of the 18th century.
The Cantor
Christoph Weigel, Abbildung der gemein-ntzlichen
Haupt-Stnde (Ratisbon, 1698).
Hougton Library, Harvard College Library
Typ 620.98 876
Conducting baton
Mollard, Bath, Ohio, 2013
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University
Musical Tempo
163
Maelzel-type metronome
European, 19th century
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University
RS1262
Musical Tempo
164
Timetables
To take advantage of public
transportation, people need
transit schedules.
165
167
Sacred Time
In many religions there is an
underlying belief that the power
of prayer is strengthened when
members of the whole community
raise their voices together.
This promotes time discipline.
Sacred Time
168
Required to pray at certain hours of the day and night, Catholic monks and nuns
used sundials and clocks to keep on schedule. After the Gregorian reform of the
old Julian calendar in 1582, German sundials often had epact tables in both systems
for determining the date of Easter over a nineteen year period. Religious imagery
adorned sundials owned by the devout.
Sacred Time
169
Islam had its own special sundials to help Muslims know the direction to face during
ritual prayers. Known as qibla indicators, they found the times for the days prayers
and the direction of Mecca.
Qibla indicator
Persian, 19th century
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University,
Gift of David P. Wheatland, c. 1985
7351
Sacred Time
171
Sacred Time
172
Gentlemen, Synchronize
Your Watches
In the late 19th century, the U.S. government sent
daily time signals over telegraph lines to public
clocks as part of a time service. People would use it
to set their mechanical watches. After 1920, people
could get a form of electric time in their homes,
thanks to the Warren Clock Company of Ashland,
Massachusetts. Its new clock, the Telechron, had
a synchronous motor and depended on electricpower stations delivering alternating current at a
standard frequency of sixty cycles per second.
The name Telechron means time from a distance.
Advertisement, Elgin
National Watch Company
Illinois, 1902
Schechner Collection
173
Taking a precise mechanical clock along was another way to synchronize timepieces at
remote stations. Chronometers were used for this purpose in navigation and surveying.
174
175
Chapter 9
Business of Time
Two local firms W illiam Bond & Son and the American
Watch Company introduced the world to American
know-how with superior timekeepers in the 19 th century.
177
The firms main business was supplying and regulating chronometers and making
pocket watches of superior quality for railroad conductors. The Bonds also designed
and built outstanding and innovative regulator clocks for use in astronomical
observatories. These award-winning clocks were so precise and reliable that they
delivered standard time to the railroads of New England. Other clients were the
U.S. Navy and the Coast and Geodetic Survey.
Uprighting tool
From the workshop of Bond & Son
American, c. 1845
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University
2005-1-0128
178
179
180
182
American Watch
Company of Waltham
A revolution in watch making occurred in Waltham, Massachusetts in the 1850s
with the application of the mass production techniques used for firearms to the
pocket watch. The watch was redesigned so that the movement was assembled from
interchangeable parts. Specialized machinery made each component. The tightly
organized factory employed many skilled men and women.
183
Watchmaking by machinery
in America
Illustrated London News, June 1875
Schechner Collection
185
188
189
190
Box of mainsprings
Waltham Watch Company, 1899
Launie Collection
191
Watchmakers transit
J. Short, London, c. 1870
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Transfer from Agassiz Station,
Harvard College Observatory, 1969
1997-1-1933
192
Swiss Knock-Offs
Waltham watches were so good that Swiss watchmakers counterfeited the American
product and tried to pass them off as the real thing.
Launie Collection
Launie Collection
Swiss Knock-Offs
193
Watchmakers Tradecard
John Wilson, Carlisle, England, 1840-1850
Foxwell Trade Card Collection,
Baker Library, Harvard Business School
Chapter 1 0
Work Time
Work is ruled by the clock in business and the home.
199
200
203
204
Time is Money
Benjamin Franklin designed this
currency for the Continental
Congress in 1776. The bill and
coin feature a sundial with the
Latin word fugio (I fly) next to
the sun. Below the dial is the
motto, Mind Your Business.
Fugio Cent
The United Colonies, one cent, 1776.
American Currency Collection.
Baker Library, Harvard Business School
Time is Money
205
Mesopotamian
Monthly Expenses
This cuneiform tablet records in Sumerian that a brewer (Ur-Dumuzi) paid for
barley on four successive months in the years 2 and 3 of the reign of Amar-Suen
(2047-2048 BCE) to make his beer.
Economic text
Mesopotamian, UR III Period
(c. 21st 20th century BCE)
Harvard Semitic Museum, 1895.1.39
207
Daylight Saving
and War Time
Daylight Saving Time was created
by Congress in 1918 as a national
plan to save fuel during World War I.
Protests by farmers led Congress to
repeal the act at the wars end. At the
outbreak of World War II, the United
States again adopted daylight saving
time to save electricity and encourage
evening work on Victory gardens.
It was observed year-round until 1945.
Between the wars and since, it has
been state choice whether to observe
daylight saving time.
Workers were encouraged to hustle
to be more productive during
World War I and II.
208
209
Domestic Time
Management
Beginning in the 19th century, a
woman who stayed home while
her husband went to work was
encouraged to run an orderly
household. There were many
domestic guides and ready-made
items to help her do it.
Home efficiency was taken to new
heights in the 20th century work
of Lillian Gilbreth. An industrial
psychologist and mother of twelve,
Gilbreth applied the principles of
scientific management to housework.
Using time-and-motion studies, she
reorganized kitchens to eliminate
unnecessary steps and promoted
time-saving methods of food
preparation. The goal was to have
more happiness minutes.
Not enough hours in the day for working women
Sybil Stanton, The 25 Hour Woman
(Old Tappan, New Jersey, 1986).
Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University
210
211
213
Chapter 11
Time Out
Coffee breaks, tea time, happy hours these are all ways
we stop time and rest from work and responsibilities.
216
Bedouin Hospitality
Bedouins are well known for their hospitality to desert travelers. When a guest arrives,
he is treated to a coffee ritual. The master of the tent will personally roast coffee beans
over a fire and let them cool. He places the beans in an enormous, decorated mortar
and pounds them with a pestle in a rhythm all his own. The drumming sound will
draw men to the tent to exchange news and tell stories with the guest. The coffee is
boiled with cardamom and served in a long-beaked, brass pot called a dallah. Three
cups of coffee are proper. The host pours and tastes the first cup himself in order to
let the guest feel safe. The guest tastes the second cup of coffee. The third cup is also
drunk by the guest. When he has had enough, he wobbles his cup and hands it back
to the host.
Bedouin Hospitality
217
Dallah
Bedouin Hospitality
218
220
221
Take Five
The Time Out jazz album had Dave Brubecks hit single,
Take Five, and other compositions that experimented
with uncommon time signatures
Time Out
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
Columbia Records, New York, 1959
Schechner Collection
222
Lo Ferr
Charles Aznavour
Le temps 2:37
Beethoven
Pink Floyd
Time 6:54
Metallica
The Doors
Jacques Brel
2:49
Bruno Pelletier
2:25
Daniel Blanger
Maurice Ravel
Bolro 14:49
Peter Gabriel
Sting
The Police
Synchronicity 3:23
The Byrds
223
Chapter 1 2
Time Stopped and Preserved
We capture fleeting moments in time and preserve them
for posterity with sound recordings and snapshots.
The Photograph
and the Phonograph
225
Recording angel
Trademark of the Gramophone Company, 1898-1909
Private Collection
Chapter
12: Time Stopped and Preserved
226
(above)
Edison Gem phonograph
National Phonograph Company,
Thomas A. Edison, Inc., Orange, New Jersey, 1904
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University
8503
(at left)
Edison cylinder record in case
Schechner Collection
227
228
Chronophotography
Another invention was chronophotographya set of stop-action photographs of
rapidly moving things in order to study and measure the motion. Pioneers of this
technique included artist Eadward Muybridge (1830-1904) and scientist
tienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904).
229
Time in a Jar
Tschudis African bullfrog is a remarkable species of large frog that spends as much
as ten months a year aestivating to conserve water and wait out drought conditions.
Before the land becomes parched, the frog burrows into soft earth, sheds several layers
of skin to form a cocoon, and keeps only its nostrils exposed. Summer rains trigger it
to emerge from its low metabolic state.
This South African specimen was collected in 1910, over a hundred years ago.
Time in a Jar
230
231
Chapter 1 3
Mathematics and
the Art of Time
Sundial makers have designed instruments of
great beauty and mathematical complexity.
Polyhedral Sundials
Polyhedral dials and portable compendia often had a unique sundial on every surface,
much to the joy of their owners.
Astronomical compendium
Calendar detail showing festivals and activities
in April, May, and June
Christoph Schissler, Augsburg, c. 1550
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Drecker Collection,
Gift of David P. Wheatland, c. 1985
7470
Polyhedral Sundials
233
Astronomical compendium
Christoph Schissler, Augsburg, c. 1550
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Drecker Collection,
Gift of David P. Wheatland, c. 1985
7470
Polyhedral Sundials
234
Pillar sundial
Polyhedral Sundials
235
Polyhedral Sundials
236
Polyhedral sundial
Possibly Johann Spiegel, Lindau, c. 1700
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Drecker Collection,
Gift of David P. Wheatland, 1985
7384
Polyhedral Sundials
237
Scenes of Virtue
Between the hour lines, artists placed scenes of nature, civic virtues, religious motifs,
and images of people from foreign lands.
Scenes of Virtue
238
(above)
Compass dial with heart-shaped plumb
bob and engraved cover
Edmund Culpeper, London, c. 1700-1737
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University,
Gift of David P. Wheatland, c. 1985
7484
(at left)
Sweet flowers
Tiny bone diptych
Possibly Karner workshop,
Nuremberg, 17th century
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University,
Ernst Collection of Sundials, transferred from the
Harvard College Observatory, 1964
7894
Scenes of Virtue
239
Carved sun
Wooden diptych
South Germany, c. 1820
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Drecker Collection,
Gift of David P. Wheatland, c. 1985
7437
Scenes of Virtue
240
Scenes of Virtue
241
Scenes of Virtue
242
Foreign Time
Sundials from Japan and China offer us a glimpse of Far Eastern hours and aesthetics.
(above)
Compendium with scaphe sundial,
compass, and two magnifying lenses
Japanese, 19th century
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Ernst Collection of Sundials,
Transferred from the
Harvard College Observatory, 1964
7965
(at left)
Chinese wooden diptych with leopard
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Drecker Collection,
Gift of David P. Wheatland, c. 1985
7445
Foreign Time
243
Foreign Time
244
Foreign Time
245
Foreign Time
246
Chapter 1 4
Time on the Road
Pocket sundials were the all the rage between 1450 and 1825,
with styles to suit every purse and profession.
Portable Sundials
Sundials had gazetteers, enabling
traveling merchants and pilgrims
to set them up properly at different
latitudes. By displaying hours in
Italian, German, English and other
styles, the sundials helped travelers
to keep their appointments in
foreign cities.
Augsburg-type dial
Joseph Daniel Mayer, Augsburg, 1675
Gift of Philip Hofer to Houghton Library,
Harvard University, 1981. Long term loan from the
Department of Printing and Graphic Arts, Houghton Library
to the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, 1991
HO81Z-12
Portable Sundials
248
Augsburg-type dial
Joseph Daniel Mayer, Augsburg, 1675
Gift of Philip Hofer to Houghton Library, Harvard University, 1981.
Long term loan from the Department of Printing and Graphic Arts,
Houghton Library to the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, 1991
HO81Z-12
250
Inclining dial
A rotating disk on the cover tells the user the
lengths of day and night, and times of sunrise
and sunset during the year.
Marcus Purmann, Munich, 1601
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Gift of David P. Wheatland, 1985
7204
251
252
254
Butterfield-type sundial
Pierre Sevin and Michael Butterfield,
Paris, c. 1675-1685
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Gift of David P. Wheatland, c. 1987
7012
257
Mrs. Mallard leads her broodJack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack, and Quack
to the Boston Public Garden Lagoon.
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f )
(g)
(h)
(i)
Mama Bird:
Her brood:
260
The Dieppe sundials often used the compass needle to indicate the hour on an
adjustable scale inside the compass box when the shadow of the upright leaf fell
directly over the horizontal leaf. This was useful for a single region, but sundials on
other faces of the diptych were adjustable for different latitudes. Sometimes within the
compass box there was a Guide Michelin listing cities and their attractions.
261
(at left)
Paper-covered wooden diptych
David Beringer, Nuremberg, 1777-1821
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Drecker Collection,
Gift of David P. Wheatland, c. 1985
7431
(below)
Sunwatch horizontal dial with original box
Ansonia Clock Co., New York, c. 1930
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Ernst Collection of Sundials,
Transferred from the Harvard College Observatory, 1964
7913
263
Single-Latitude Sundials
for Stay-at-Home Folks
Not all pocket sundials were
designed to travel very far.
These were made for single
latitudes and of materials to
suit every pocketbook.
264
German, c. 1750
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Drecker Collection,
Gift of David P. Wheatland, c. 1985
7439
Floating dial
A tiny sundial mounted on a magnetic compass card
German, c. 1800
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments,
Harvard University, Drecker Collection,
Gift of David P. Wheatland, c. 1985
7347
266
268
269
Chapter 1 5
Timelines of History
There are many ways to graph historical time
as rivers flowing into each other, as spiraling events,
and even as animals and people.
Polyhedral Sundials
Scenes of Virtue
Discus chronologicus
Streams of Time
Samuel G. Goodrich, Universal History Illustrated:
or the Stream of Time, made Visible (New York, 1841).
Harvard Map Collection, Harvard College Library
G3201.E1 1841 .G6
Chapter 1 6
Time and Personal Memory
The past is never dead. Its not even past.
W illiam Faulkner
Journals
Personal recollections, particularly of
family events, and treasured objects
shape our sense of time.
People record personally significant
events in dated journals. Sukies
baby book links the newborn to
her ancestors on the family tree. It
records the time of birth, first smile,
first words, first steps, and other key
stages in her life along with a time
series of photographs from 1934. The
diaries of David Gordon Lyon, curator
of the Semitic Museum, take us with
him hour-by-hour, day-by-day on his
archaeological exploration of Sebastia,
Palestine in 1907-1908.
279
Babys Autobiography
Baby book of Susan (Sukie) Hilles Bush, 1934
Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute,
Harvard University, Susan Morse Hilles Papers,
series IV 221v, MC 463, box 19
280
Notches on a
Cheyenne Hide Flesher
This is a womans tool. Made of elk antler and fitted with a metal blade, a Cheyenne
woman used it to scrape the flesh from hides of bison, antelope, elk, or mule deer
once they were stretched and staked.
Women did the heavy labor of processing hides and making tipis, clothing, and
containers. They prided themselves on their work and were honored for doing a
good job. Some had special skills and rights to work with certain materials or make
ceremonial things. Higher status was given to women who made complex objects
like a lodge or fancy garment or ritual object.
To keep track of their accomplishments, women incised lines on their fleshers.
The lines might represent her children, the number of tipis she made, or a record of
other important work. The meaning of the tally lines was personal choice.
Often women handed down their tools to their daughters or nieces for several
generations.
281
282
Chapter 1 7
The End of Time
Often the end is just another beginning, but the end of time
would be the end of endings and beginnings. It would be a
moment when there is no after.
Deluge
Beatus of Libana (d. 798), Commentarius in Apocalypsin
French manuscript, 1072
Bibliothque Nationale, Paris, Latin 8878
Wikimedia Commons
284
Memento mori
George Wither, A Collection of Emblemes,
ancient and moderne: Quickened vvith
metracial illustrations, both morall and
divine: and disposed into lotteries, that
instruction, and good counsell, may bee
furthered by an honest and pleasant
Recreation (London, 1635).
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
f STC 25900
285
Morgan Apocalypse
English and French manuscript, 1255-1260
Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, M. 524
Wikimedia Commons
286
Grave Marker
Female Palmyrene bust
Palmyra, central Syria, 2nd century CE
Harvard Semitic Museum, 1902.45.29
Bone Collector
Limestone ossuary and lid
possibly from a Silwan tomb, Palestine
Second Temple period, 40 BCE - 135 CE
Harvard Semitic Museum, 1907.54.14
288
Funeral Blues
W. H. Auden, Another Time (New York, 1940).
Copyright The Estate of W. H. Auden, 1976.
Quoted with the permission of Curtis Brown Ltd.
289
290
Doomsday Clock:
Two Minutes to Midnight
The Doomsday Clock symbolizes how
close we are to destroying our civilization
with powerful technologies of our own
making. It first appeared on the cover
of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in
1947 to convey the dangers of the nuclear
arms race. Today it also reflects the
dangers of climate-changing technologies
and of emerging biological and cyber
technologies that could bring about our
own destruction through misapplication,
madness, or accident.
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
October 1953
Schechner Collection
Doomsday Clock
291
293
294
295