a.  What is the invention?

The Hourglass, an instrument that is used to accurately measure the passage

of time in the middle ages. Known as the sandglass or log glass, the piece of
cylindrical glass that is pinched in the middle where the sand pours slowly in
the center to the bottom until the sand runs out on the top portion of the
cylindrical glass, the hourglass in the middle ages was used to measure the
patients pulse also to keep accurate time at the sea. It can also be found on
churches or cathedrals as one of the scared instruments.
b.  What are the precursors of your chosen invention?  What tools existed
prior to it or how did people carry out activities before its invention?
In the 8th century CE in Europe crafted by a Frankish monk Liutprand, who
served in cathedral churches, before the invention of hourglass in the middle
ages they rely on waters or the constellations on the stars, or the timepieces
used from the sun’s motion to track time known as sundial that tells the time
of day where there is a sunlight apparent of the Sun in the sky.
c.  What was the social, political, cultural or economic context in which
the invention was made?
The hourglass was used by the British in the middle ages and traded the items
with the Mediterranean and other places on the east coast during the voyage
of the British monarchy. After the 16th century it was widespread round the
world. The oldest known surviving hourglass resides in the British museum
in London.
d.  What were the social, political, cultural or economic impacts of your
chosen inventions?
Its impacts influenced the economic, cultural or political was its ability to
measure time that has allowed modern scientist to improve the invention
from the technological advancement of the world that today known to be a
digital clocks, from what I can say if weren’t the invention of the hourglass
we would still be having a hard time measuring time especially in crucial
scenarios.