Even clocks at home were rare before the end of the eighteenth century.įor this article we’re going to include only purpose-built clock towers, rather than tall buildings that have had clocks added later, like the NTT Docomo Yoyogi Building in Japan and the Palace of Culture and Science in Poland. In fact it wasn’t until after World War I that wrist watches became commonplace, so the town’s clocktower was vital for people to know the time. The first purpose-built clock towers were striking clocks, not to tell the time but to ensure people knew it was time to work or pray.Īs clock towers became more common, architects and engineers created more sophisticated mechanisms so they could indeed view the time on a visible clock. Two thousand years ago in Athens, the Tower of the Winds had eight sundials, while during the Song dynasty in China in the late eleventh century, an intricate astronomical clock tower was built in Kaifeng. The earliest clock towers were less timepieces and more scientific instruments. A clock tower is a very specific type of structure that houses a turret clock – a clock specifically designed to be mounted high up in the wall or walls of a building.
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