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Dear Herbert,
Thank you for your interesting information.
If Ptolemy and Brahe did not use water clock,
then what did they use for the timing?

> Ptolemy, on the use of water clocks in antiquity
> (Almagest, V 14,
> Translation by Toomer, p. 252):
 "Of the various methods used to solve
> the latter [i.e. the timing] problem,
> we have rejected those claiming to
> measure the luminaries by measuring [the flow of] water [...],
> since
> such methods cannot provide an accurate result
> for the matter in hand."


> Tycho Brahe picked up the idea, replacing the water by mercury.
> (Progymnasmatum Prima Pars,
> Opera Omnia, Tomus II, ed. Dreyer, pp157ff).
> He makes no quantitative statements about accuracy.
> Nothing must have
> come of it, otherwise we would find a description of such
> a clock in his
> Astronomiae instauratae mechanica. If you want to blame me of an
> argumentum ex silentio, I shall take it in stride.

Alex.

   

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