Re: Islamic contribution to time keeping?


"ahmed" <inch-allah@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1140821636.487450.171030@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In addition, during the 9th century, Ibn Firnas of
Islamic Spain, according to Will Durant, invented a watch-like device
which kept accurate time.

These kind of stories tend to be second or third hand and not very credible.
Durant never saw such a device. No such device has been preserved. There are
also many ninth century accounts of sea monsters and such. If there indeed
existed a "watch like device that kept accurate time" it would have been
extremely useful and would have been copied and become widespread, but there
are no accurate watches or clocks for another 7 centuries. Even if it
worked it had zero impact on the future history of horology and so might as
well not have existed. Compare the work of Huygens, which spread around the
world in only a few years.


The Muslims also constructed a variety of
highly accurate astronomical clocks for use in their observatories."

The astrolabe was an Islamic invention, but like the Greek mechanism we
talked about last week, it was more in the nature of an astronomical slide
rule than what we would call a "clock". Not until the principal of the
pendulum and the balance spring became understood was there any accurate
oscillator and without a timebeat you cannot have something worth being
called a clock.

It is all well and good to give other cultures their due, but the culture
that revolutionized timekeeping along with almost every other aspect of our
lives was Western culture. Chinese and Arab culture continued to advance
while the West was mired in the Dark Ages, but starting with the
Rennaisance, Western science began advancing at an exponential pace while
these other cultures entered their own period of stagnation. China seems to
have awakened in recent decades (though it remains to be seen if their
current pace can be sustained without tearing apart the fabric of their
society) but Islam unfortunately has not yet had its Reformation or
Enlightenment and so has very little to offer the world today except
violence, and even there the weapons they use are purchased from abroad.




quoted from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock

I am very much interested in learning more about the contribution of my
ancestor to the great history of timekeeping / watchmaking.

Can anyone help with additional conribution?

Appreciating your friendly assistance in advance.



.

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