The invention of the sand clock
R. T. Balmer
The simple draining liquid clepsydra (water clock) was in use in Egypt by 1500 B.C. The replacement of the liquid
with a fine granulated material, thus converting the clepsydra into a clepsammia (sand clock), appears not to have
occurred before the mediaeval period. What human need was then met by the sand clock that could not be met by
a water clock or early mechanical clock?
The study of the pattern of the night-time sky and the
measurement of the passage of time are among the important
technologies of prehistory. Recent studies have shown that many
prehistoric structures such as Stonehenge in Britain were
basically astronomical observatories containing a remarkable
degree of technological sophistication. If one presumes that
ancient technologies were motivated by concurrent human needs,
then astronomical observations could have had a survival value
both as a seasonal ‘clock’ and, at some later point, as a tool of
land and sea navigation. On the other hand, the subdivision of the
day and night periods into discrete measurable time intervals was;
no doubt, the consequence of cultural rather than survival needs.
The initial prehistoric perception of time and the rate of its
passage quite probably came from observing the position of the
Sun in the sky or the length of its cast shadow. This perception is
pure intellect and does not require any technological
development. However, the shadow clocks provided by the
stationary objects of nature could be improved upon by simple
technological innovation. By about 3000 B.C. the Egyptians had
developed a calendar, and the accurate subdivision of day and
night into equal parts became important. Perhaps the reason was
the timing of guard duty watches, or labourers’ work, or travel
time, or some lost cultural artifact, but whatever the motivation
an entirely new technology had to be devised for timing at night
(the motion ofthe stars being too subtle).
The accurate. continuous measurement of time in either small
or large increments without reliance on the positions of heavenly
bodies required the careful development of a fairly slow
controllable time-dependent process, which was based on readily
available materials, and which could be easily understood by the
viewer. Even in primitive societies there were many such
processes available; for example, the consumption of a substance
by fire. Thus evolved a series of ‘burning’ clocks such as candles
(wherein the decreasing height was a measure of the passage of
time); oil lamps (wherein the decrease in oil level in a reservoir
was the measure): and the slow burning of a rope or trail of
powder. Burning clocks have the additional advantage of
providing light. But they also have disadvantages in that they
present a continual fire hazard: they must be kept away from
wind and rain: and they continuously consume a culturally
valuable fuel and must be constantly maintained.
By observing damaged or leaking water vessels early people
could have easily discovered that the slow flow of a material from
a reservoir could be used as a relative time measure. Thus, one of
the earliest universal timing devices to be developed was the
simple draining clepsydra. It was basically a water-filled vessel
with a small hole in the bottom. As the water slowly drained out
the level inside the vessel dropped, and time-increment lines
scribed on the inner wall of the vessel became visible and served to
quantify the passage of time. If the vessel had the proper cross
sectional shape, the liquid level would drop equal distances in
equal times, and the scribed internal timing marks would be
equally spaced 111. This type of clepsydra was used in Egypt
before I500 B.C. 121, and it would have been a simple
technological step to replace the liquid with sand (or other
granular material) thus producing the essentials of an hour-glass
type of clepsammia. Yet there is at present no historical evidence
R.T. Balmer, B.S.E., M.S.E., Sc.D.
Was born in 1938 and graduated at the University of Michigan.
taking up his present post as Associate Professor in the Mechanical
Engineering Department of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
worked in the Mechanical Engineering Dept. of the University ofvirginia
was visiting PrOfeSSOr for the lnstltuto di Principi di lngegnerla Chimica
Naples.
118
substantiating the existence of this type of sand clock much
before the 13th century A.D., though flowing sand was used as an
energy source in many of the automated toy-like entertainment
devices of the Roman era [ 31.
Why did the almost trivial extension of the clepsydra into a
clepsammia take more than 2500 years? Was there no advantage
in flowing solids over flowing liquids, or were the problems
encountered in making a sand clock as accurate as a water clock
more subtle and difficult than we at first imagine?
Both propositions are true. With the possible exception of
desert climates where water is in short supply, flowing solids have
no advantage over liquids. A small amount of alcohol (wine)
added to the water prevents its freezing in cold climates, and its
evaporation can be controlled by loosely covering the vessel. The
water clock was technologically simple, inexpensive, efficient,
and reasonably accurate. Also, though granular material can be
made to flow freely through a hole in the bottom of a vessel, the
upper surface of the flowing material does not stay flat like a liquid
unlessthe vesselhas a very special shape (a fact that seems not to
have been discovered before the 14th century A.D. see figure 4).
Hence a draining clepsammia cannot be easily graduated with
time intervals scribed on the vessel wall, and thus it is most easily
used for timing just one interval-the complete emptying time of
the vessel. Thus the technological development of a clepsammia
with a performance equivalent to that of an existing clepsydra
was not exactly trivial. Therefore, in order for it to come into
existence at all it must have satisfied a significant cultural need
that could not somehow be met by the popular water clocks. One
of the unique characteristics of the tiediaeval period was the bold
use of the seas for exploration and conquest. Was the
development of the sand clock precipitated by the expanding
mediaeval naval technology?
The earliest indisputable evidence of the existence of hour-glass
type sand clocks is in an Italian fresco by Ambrogio Lorenzetti
painted in about 1338 (figure 1). The painting is typical of those of
that period, associating technology and moral virtue 141, and
shows the virtue Temperance (represented as always by a
woman) holding a well-developed sand clock. Also, in 130613
Francesco da Barberino wrote of the essentials of naval
technology as a lodestone (compass), skilled helmsman, good
lookout, chart, and sand clock (‘orologio’).
Mediaeval naval technological advancements were massive.
The development of the movable sail, the steering rudder, the
compass (magnetic needle) and the spy-glass (telescope) all came
together between the 10th and 13th centuries to provide men with
control over the seas. With the use of controllable wind power for
propulsion there was no longer any need for carrying hundreds of
men on board ship as oarsmen, and the space they and their
provisions previously occupied could now be used for trading
cargo or war materials. The only serious technological problem
yet to be overcome was that of navigation. The ships latitude
(north-south position) could be determined by observing the
height of the polestar, but their was no simple way of determining
the longitude (east-west position). Earlier navigators use a
technique called ‘dead reckoning’ in which the longitudinal
motion was calculated by multiplying the speed of the vessel by
the time spent at that speed. This was a crude method at best since
there was no accurate way of determining either the ship’s speed
or its time at sea. The continued rocking-pitching motion of a
Prior to ship would render any clepsydra or early mechanical clock
inoperable. Was this, the, the motivation for the development of
he the sand clock?
and
in
The use of a ‘log’ for estimating a ship’s speed is ancient. Spit or
gunwale logs merely required throwing a piece of wood
overboard or spitting into the water and watching how fast the
marker moved back in the water. This technique was not
technologically improved upon by the use of a small sand clock to
time the rate at which the log moved astern until the later 16th
century. Since the invention of the sand clock predates its use
with the ships’ log by several centuries, it could not have been
developed primarily as an aid in dertermining the ships’ speed.
have been important for the seamen. Similar examples are
available from this period in which sand clocks were used to time
the studies of scholars and the sermons of clergy. However, it
probably would have been its mass use by seamen that would
have popularized this device and made it a piece of the domestic
hardware of the populus.
Between the 13th and 18th centuries the use of sand clocks by
common people became quite popular. A number of Albrecht
Diirer’s 16th.century engravings include sand clocks of the hour-
glass variety. During this period the clock curiously became part
of the hour glass type sand paraphernalia of the popular skeletal
death figure. Today, we find an hour-glass used in the logo of the
Gerontological Society and U.S. Society of Rheology. However,
the problem of measuring time intervals less than the full running
time of the vessel never seemed to be satisfactorily solved. Sand
clocks with spherically shaped vessels could not be graduated like
water clocks. The only practical way of providing some time
interval information was to have several sand clocks, each with a
different running time, mounted in the same frame (figure 2).

Figure 1 Detail from a 14th century Italian fresco by Ambrogio

Lorenzetti showing a sand clock.
Figure 2 An 18th century multiplevessel sand clock for timing
fractions f+, t. 3, 1) of an hour (from the Adler Planetarium sand
There remains the possibility that the sand clock was invented
clock collection, Chicago, Ill.).
to provide an absolute measurement of shipboard time at sea. In
addition to dead reckoning, longitude can also be determined by
knowing the exact time at some prime meridian and knowing the
local time (from shipboard astronomical observations). The sand
clock could be set at port, where the longitude is known; then any
difference between the sand clock time and the local time at sea
could be translated into a change in longitude. However, an error
in this time difference measurement of only four minutes in
twenty-four hours would produce an error in longtitude of lo, or
about 70 miles. Considering the uneven motion of the ship, the
moist sea atmosphere, and the constant turning required for most
sand clocks it would be impossible to maintain an absolute time
accuracy of less than four minutes in twenty-four hours. There is
extreme danger in approaching a coast at night if the ship’s
navigator is not absolutely certain of his longitude and the
longitude of the coast. To prevent running aground on unknown
coasts, ships in coastal waters often had to slow or stop at night.
During the day, a flat coastline could not be seen from more than
20 miles at sea. Thus a longitudinal error of only one-third of a
degree over the entire voyage could prevent the sighting of land
on the anticipated day. The problem of determining the longitude Figure 3 End view of a broken early sand clock, showing sealing
of a ship at sea was not satisfactorily solved until the 18th knot and orifice plate.
century, when the technology of the mechanical clock had
progressed sufficiently to allow it to maintain the required Most clocks of this type were set up to meaure f, +, f, and 1 hour
shipboard accuracy [ 51. with all four glasses mounted in the same rack. Various granular
It seems, then, that the only probable human value satisfied materials were used in an attempt to improve the clocks’
during the mediaeval period by sand clocks on board ships was performance. River sand was generally too heterogeneous and its
simply for the regulation of the seamen’s watches. These clocks rate of flow was too easily affected by moisture leaking into the
would have sufficient accuracy for this purpose and this would clock. Other granular materials used were 161:powdered marble,
119
 silver powder, tin powder, iron filings, copper filings, powdered material flows towards the outlet through a channel or cone
charred lead, a mixture of powdered charred tin and lead (called formed inside the material itself, and secondly ‘mass’ flow, where
‘Venetian sand), ground cinnamon, powdered eggs shells (said to the material flows uniformly, like a liquid, toward the outlet.
be the best for clocks at sea) and fine emery. They have determined that in order to get the mass flow condition
Venetian sand was very dense and it was claimed that a the vessel walls must besmooth and steep, otherwise plug flow
twenty-four hour clepsammia using it had approximately the will occur. The vast majority of sand clocks were made with an
same physical size as a one hour glass using river sand. Before aesthetically pleasing geometry, and so were rather short and
1760 the upper and lower glass vessels were blown separately and squat. This geometry would always produce the plug type of flow
then sealed at the neck. A thin metal disc with a small hole in the regardless of the sand used. In plug flow a crater is formed
centre to regulate the rate of flow was inserted between the vessels directly over the outlet hole (figure 4) and a moving core (plug)
before they were assembled. Once the proper amount of sand was connects the outlet with the crater (figure 5). Stationary material
put into one of the vessels and the orifice disc put into place, the
vessels were tied together at the neck, sealed with wax or putty,
then wrapped with leather or fine cord. This sealing technique is
illustrated in figure 3, which shows the original knot of a broken
early sand clock. Continual use weakened the joint (allowing
moisture to enter, which slowed the flow by increasing the CRATER ANGL
cohesion between the granules) and the abrasive nature of the EQUALS
ANGLE OF
flowing material would enlarge the flow-regulating hole, thus REPOSE
increasing the flow rate and decreasing the running time of the
clock. After about 1760 the upper and lower bulbs were blown at
the same time, with a glass neck having the proper diameter for
flow regulation, thus alleviating these problems.
The more difficult problem of understanding the theory of the
flow of granular materials did not begin until the second half of
the 19th century. G. Hagen [71 and 0. Reynolds 181concerned
themselves with some of the basic properties of flowing granular
Substance, but the real difficulties did not surface until people like
H. A. Janssen 191 and W. Airy 1101 began to deal with more
pragmatic problems of grain flow out of silos. It was well known
that the flow out of such storage containers was often unreliable,
with material segregating, flowing erratically, or sticking to the
silo walls. Early experimental research revealed that the
mechanics of granular flows were fundamentally different from
the mechanics of liquid flows. Solids have particle-particle sliding
friction and adhesion or cohesion forces whereas liquids have
only internal friction at the molecular level (viscosity). An
important difference between the flow of liquids and granulated
solids through a hole at the bottom of a vessel is that the rate of
liquid flow depends directly upon the height of liquid above the
hole, whereas the rate of granular flow is independent of this
height. This explains why a clepsydra could never be accurate on
board a moving ship. On the other hand, a ships motion and the Figure 5 Diagram of sand-clock flow illustrating crater, core, angle
resulting sloshing of the sand in a clepsammia would not of repose, etc. The crater angle and the angle of repose are generally
appreciably change its stationary running-time accuracy. equal.

Figure 4 Top surface of a clock showing formation of central
crater.
In this century, A. W. Jenike 1111 and others have
experimentally studied the flow of granular materials in
laboratory size hoppers and bins. Their work has revealed that
there are two types of flows possible: firstly,‘plug’ flow, where the
120
outside the core continually sloughs off into the core, thus keeping
it flowing. The slope of the crater wall can become very large and
often the top outside rim of the crater will not begin to drop until
over half of the running time of the clock has passed. This makes
graduation of the clock by scribing time lines on the outer wall
impractical (unless the clock is made so thin that the crater apex is
visible). The slope of the crater is approximately equal to the slope
of the pile formed in the receiving vessel, and if the slope of the
wall is less than the slope of the crater the upper vessel will not
empty completely. For dry sand, this slope is approximately 30”
(measured up from the horizontal (figure 5)).
A clepsammia designed such that plug flow occurs cannot be
easily graduated. On the other hand, if it is designed for mass
flow, then the upper surface of the granules stays flat and falls
uniformly as the material is withdrawn. In this case the clock can
be graduated and, since the material flow rate is independent of
the level above the outlet, the subtime marks would be equally
spaced. Jenike identified the range of wall slopes which yield a
mass flow condition in conical vessels. For dry sand this slope
depends upon the internal friction of the sand and the sand-wall
friction coefficient. For typical dry sand conditions, he has shown
that in order to get the mass flow condition in a conical vessel the
vessel must be roughly as deep as it is wide and the cone half-
angle should not exceed 18O. Studies have been made by others
with granular flows in which several horizontal layers of
powdered white clay were packed into the upper vessel. The
material was then allowed to flow for a period of time and then
stopped. The vessel and its contents were then cut open and the
position of the white clay carefully noted. These tests confirmed
that either vertical or extremely steep walls and symmetric cross
sections were required for uniform mass type flow.
Recently, a new technique has been developed for studying the
flow of granular materials. X-radiographs were taken of a flowing
granular system laced with layers of powdered lead and lead shot.
This technique reveals that the flow field is far more complex than
previously thought. In vessels having a straight section above a
conical section leading to an outlet hole the material moves
downward as a solid block, ideal for graduation. However,
rupture surfaces (thin bands of dilated material) appear at the
beginning of the converging section and curve downward.
Figures 6 and 7 from J. Lee, S. C. Cowin, and J. S. Templeton
I 121illustrate these effects.
The fine structure of these flows revealed by X-ray
photography provide the last link in our understanding of how
sand clocks operate. The steps required to turn a clepsydra into a
clepsammia are not as obvious as they seem at first. Further, if the
clepsammia is to be graduated with subtime invervals it must
have steep walls, say l5O or less from the vertical. There are
practically no historical references to graduated sand clocks. but
apparently a few did exist. Most had the steep wall shape
illustrated by the modern graduated egg-timer sand glass shown
in figure 8. They commonly had the appearance of a test tube with
a pinched centre, therefore mass type flow would occur
throughout the vertical straight-walled section.

Figure 6 An X-radiograph showing flow pattern of granular

material in mass flow [121.

[ Rupture Regions Figure 8 Close-up of graduated portion of modern mass flow egg-
(dilatent granular flow) timer.
Thus it seems that the technological explosion of the late
ORIFICE -11 Middle Ages produced the hour-glass type of sand clock mainly
Figure 7 Diagram of regions of different material behaviour as a regulator of duration of human effort. Though such
observed on X-radiographs (figure 6) 1121. regulation existed in earlier times (such as for Roman political
121
speeches), it did not become common until sometime within the
mediaeval period. By the late Middle Ages the sand clock was
commonly used in regulating the routine of ships, scholars,
clergy, and probably some domestic affairs. The use of flowing
granular material rather than a flowing liquid apparently stems
from the unique characteristic of granular flows to be minimally
affected by the motion of the clock vessel, which made it an
important addition to mediaeval naval technology. Modern
studies of granular flows have provided the insight necessary for
understanding the constraints on the historical development of
sand clock technology.
References
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121 Slo1ey.R. W.,J.Egypt.Arch.,17,166,1931.
Endeavour, New Series Volume 3, No. 3,1979
( C Psrgamon Press Ltd. Printed in Great Britain)
122
I31 Usher, A. P., ‘A History of Mechanical Inventions’, p. 141.
Harvard University Press, 1970.
[41 White, L., Jr., ‘The Iconography of Temperania and the
Virtuousness of Technology,’ in ‘Action and Conviction in
Early Modern Europe’, pp. 197-219. (T. K. Rebb and J. E.
SeigelEds.), Princeton, N.J., 1969.
151 Gould, R. T., ‘The Marine Chronometer, Its History and
Develooment’. North Holland Press. 1960.
I61 Vivielle, I.,‘Bull. 08 Yacht Club de France, numero de Noel, 473,
1934(Trans. in Bull. NA WCC, 19 2,1977).
171 Hagen, G.,Akud. Wissen., Berlin,Jan. 19,35, 1852.
I81 Reynolds, O.,Phil. Mug., 20,469, 1885.
191Janssen,H. A., Ver. deutsch.Ing. Zeif., 39, 1045, 1895.
1101 Airy, W. Minutes of the Proc. Inst. CivilEng., 81, Paper no. 3049,
1897.
I 11I Jenike, A. W., J. Appl. Mech., 3 1,5, 1964.
I121 Lee, J., Cowin, S. C., and Templeton, J. S., Trans. Sot. Rheo., 18,
247,1974.
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