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Title: Time's Pendulum: From Sundials to Atomic Clocks, the Fascinating History of Timekeeping and How Our Discoveries Changed the World by Jo Ellen Barnett ISBN: 0-15-600649-9 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: March, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (3 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: If I could keep time in a bottle....
Comment: How many times a day do we unconsciously look at our watches, or the clock on the stove or the VCR (provided it's not permanently blinking 12:00)? Yet for many years, the capture of time to a clock was at best around the right hour of the day. Bernett takes us through the refinement of clock technology and clock making, and how this more exact time changed our lives, some would argue with the idea of a change for the better. She takes us on a simple and entertaining sweep of time from sundials to measuring the beats of an atom in order to tell what time it really is. Along the way there are arguments about the prime meridian and time zones as we are forced to go from telling time by the sun above each of us, to entire time zones on a single time, irregardless of where the sun exactly is. At least the trains could run on time.
Then Barnett pulls back and looks at the greatest clock around - the planet Earth itself. The question of how old the Earth is was a question that kept pushing the answer back and back further in time. Of course the Earth was only 6,000 years old, according to biblical interpreters. That is until the strata and fossils began to be understood, and then half life of radioactive elements could fix time ever more exactly. Now that we are able to "read" a good part of the clock that is the Earth, our placement of ourselves in time has also settled. So now we have a concept of where we are in time, and how to find it. At least until the earth slows some more due to friction in the tides. An interesting book that doesn't delve too deep and pulls you along on an interesting, everyday subject.
Rating: 5
Summary: An interesting book
Comment: Time's Pendulum is a book not only about time and how time is measured, but also about our perception of time -- from the moment we as a species started worrying about it right up to today. Barnett does not only discuss clocks and how clocks work but the importance of time in daily life. Also excellent is her discussion of 'deep time' -- thinking about time on astronomical scales. I was also pleased by the more subtle connections. For example, the influence of the railroads on not only synchronizing watches over extending longitutes (i.e., time zones), but also their contribution to geologic time through uncovering the fossiliferous rocks during their construction.
Rating: 4
Summary: A compelling introduction to the history of clockmaking
Comment: This is really two books--the first is a chronological history of time measurement devices, and the second is a history of humankind's perception of the age of humanity, the earth, and the universe. The first book is fascinating and well written. Writing for a general readership, Barnett explores the development of clockmaking and how the existence of ever more accurate clocks has irrevocably changed everyday life for us all. Her detailed explanation of the verge-and-foliot escapement was especially fascinating, as was her discussion of "the equation of time" and how it gives rise to the Mean in Greenwich Mean Time. Overall, the first half of her book is a wonderful introduction to an underappreciated portion of humanity's history. The second half of Barnett's book, however, is a rehash of material that Isaac Asimov explored fully in his nonfiction writings in the 1960s and 1970s. It may hold the interest of readers unfamiliar with Asimov, but for me it was a real disappointment, especially after such a compelling introduction to the history of clocks and clockmaking.
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Title: Revolution in Time: Clocks and the Making of the Modern World by David S. Landes ISBN: 0674002822 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: 21 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: History of the Hour: Clocks and Modern Temporal Orders by Gerhard Dohrn-Van Rossum, Thomas Dunlap, Gerhard Dohrn-Van Rossum ISBN: 0226155110 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: May, 1998 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel ISBN: 0140258795 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1996 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Story of Time by Kristen Lippincott, Umberto Eco, National Maritime Museum (Great Britain), Ernst Hans Gombrich ISBN: 1858940729 Publisher: Merrell Publishers Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $49.95 |
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Title: Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything by James Gleick ISBN: 067977548X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 05 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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