By Cengiz Selçukon September 13, 2020
Have you ever thought about how important time is in your life? How many times a day do we look at the watch or phone on our wrist? We hear the azan, a kind of time-reminder recited 5 times a day?
We go to work, eat, meet, pray or arrange our meetings according to the hour.. Well, have you ever thought about why we need time so much?
We will talk about some clock towers that show time from past to present, events that make it important and time.. We will mention the clock towers in many travel notes and on the places to visit lists.. Let’s take some time and read
One of the main reasons for me to write this article is the informative work of Mr. Serdal Kuzuloğlu on the discovery of time.. I’ll leave the link below for you to review.. The second is Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s book, The Time Adjustment Institute, which is a timeless work.. Finally, I discovered the historical clock towers in the main squares of many cities..
History of Time
Measuring time was first determined by sundials in ancient Egypt according to the sun’s movements. The Sundial is a system that indicates that a stick casting a shadow according to the angle of the Sun gives an idea of what time it is.. While the sun leaves no shadow at noon, it leaves a long shadow that shows the time according to its angle in the morning and evening hours, Isn’t it logical?
Hourglasses
Of course, it was not always possible to measure time only with Sundials in history.. A different need has arisen to measure time in closed, rainy weather and nights when there is no sun.. hourglass was invented out of necessity here. Hourglasses adjusted according to gravity would give you time to do a certain job in a certain amount of time.. (3 minutes, 5 minutes or 1 hour) Hourglasses, which only stood out as decorative on our desks, were the greatest need of the period.
Water Clocks
Sumerian and Babylonian societies were 60 ( minutes, seconds) were the source of time calculations in the following periods.. After the hourglasses, water clocks emerged.. In Egypt, a time measurement was made by emptying the water filled into a conical vessel.. B.C. 2nd. In the 19th century, the Greek Ctebisius again showed his inventions for measuring time with water.. 12 for the most mechanical inventions. We come across Cezeri, an engineer working in the Artuklu Palace in the 19th century.. Techniques such as the vessel filling with water and the sinking vessel technique were used..
Cezeri’s Peacock Water Clock uses the technique from Ctebisius, it fills the water accumulated in the flow stabilizer vessel into a pan. The water rising in the pan turns the minute dial with the float. The dial is the peacock spinning around itself. Cezeri developed this technique with the system we call the pan.. Due to its special geometry, when the pan is filled with the desired amount of water, for example, it topples at the beginning of the hour, triggering certain animations and emptying its water for the next hour. makes. With the articulated ratchet, a gear wheel turns one tooth and the clock face is shifted forward one hour.. The articulated ratchet system you see in the picture is Cezeri’s invention, we call it escapement today and we still use it in mechanical watches Source : Medium.com- M.Çalışkan
How would a watch made with this system look? The Cezeri clock adaptation, which is also a different type as an elephant clock, can be seen in Mardin.. Talha Uğurluel made a brief introduction here..
Mechanical Clocks
In the periods after Hourglasses and Water Clocks, the eras of mechanical clocks have started.. Here we see Europe coming to the fore.. The bells, which stepped into life with the bells of the churches and were the determining factor, would ring at certain hours, reminding the time, trade would begin, business would end and be adjusted..
The Pendulum Clocks that emerged in this period have been used for a very long time. The inventor of these clocks is Dutch Scientist Christiaan Huygens. Huygens 17, who developed Galileo’s theory from Italian Pisa (see Pisa Travel Notes). He is the inventor of the pendulum clocks, which were invented in the 19th century and are still used today.. With the invention of this clock, clock/time errors have been reduced to 15 seconds..
The famous astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei said in 1581 that a chandelier pushed into harmonic motion by air currents is always the same regardless of the swing distance. noticed that it was swaying at a speed and took two pendulums of equal length and watched them both swing for the same amount of time, even at different swing distances.. Only 100 years after the physicist who lost his life without completing his studies, Christiaan Huygens made an accurate clock with his explanation of the tautochrone movement of a pendulum.. Wikipedia Christiaan Huygens
Quartz Watches
17. After the clocks invented in the 19th century, quartz clocks entered our lives in the 1920s.. The first quartz watch was invented in 1927 by Warren Marrison and J.W.. Invented by Horton. It has been possible to measure time perfectly with the vibration of electricity supplied to the quartz crystal by a battery.. The transition to quartz crystal discovered in Bell Labs is 2 centuries after pendulum clocks.. The Japanese Sekio first used this system in 1969.
Note: Wristwatches were originally produced for women. Men refused to wear wrist watches at first because they looked like bracelets..
Turkish Clocks
Clocks were divided into 2 in the Ottoman period. Alaturka European watches. This concept, which most of us thought of as a type of toilet, had a different usage area..
Turkish Clocks was a system based on evening prayer time and sunset.. In other words, whenever the sun sets, the day ends, and if the sun sets at 21:00, the next day begins at 00:00.. While producing watches here, dual dial watches that show both times are used.. The sultan who was most curious about the clock in the Ottoman Empire II. Abdulhamid. He built 144 clock towers within the Ottoman borders of the day.. 72 of them remained within the borders of Turkey and 53 of them are still standing.. In this period, the clock towers, besides informing the time, also served as a symbol of the diminishing authority of the state.
Clock Towers
I tried to briefly talk about time and the story of clocks.. Learning the time has been a very important issue in history.. This issue has been tried to be solved with sundials (the Sundial that Fatih Sultan Mehmet had Ali Kuşçu commissioned by Ali Kuşçu, is important for Ottoman history) and then clock towers, which were erected in important squares from the earliest times.. Nowadays, it has become an aesthetic work that adorns cities and our photographs..
# The oldest clock tower standing today, BC. It is the Wind Tower with a water clock built in Athens in 50 BC.. The tower built by Su Sung in 1088 in Kaifeng, China, is the oldest of the astronomical clock towers.. The oldest known mechanical clock in Europe, known as Big Ben, was placed on the Tower of Westminster in London in 1288.
# Astronomical clock Orloj, made in Prague in 1490, today It attracts attention as a clock that rings every hour and gathers crowds around it with its puppet show.. The clock rings every hour and the 12 apostles of Jesus take turns in parade in the show.. On the left of the clock, the skeleton symbolizes death and pulls the rope, while in the left hand is an hourglass.. In addition, a nodding Ottoman figure staring at himself in the mirror also depicts the greed of a Jewish moneylender.
# The clock tower in Munich’s main square, Marienplatz, is similar to that in Prague every day. It starts playing at 11:00 and gives a nice show to the audience.. (Glockenspiel)
# The purpose of the Bell Tower in Pisa, which is pushed by thousands of tourists today to prevent it from being demolished, was to remind time. The building, which was built in 1173 and known as the leaning tower, has remained inclined since its construction due to the ground on which it is located.. When they said it was destroyed, they managed to fix it at one point as a result of long efforts.. The 56-meter-long structure tries to stand in an inclined position at an angle of approximately 5 degrees.
We come across clock and bell towers, which we have given a few examples, in many notes of the world.. I’m sure you have countless examples to list and embellish your photo..
Ottoman’s Clock Towers
As I mentioned time and clock towers, I am aware that this title alone will be an article on its own.. In the time of the Ottomans, muvakkits were working in the big mosques.. So time management experts. Their office was also called muvakkithane. Unfortunately, very importantthis job has taken its place in history as a lost profession..
The important reason for the clock towers, which are frequently seen in the Ottoman lands, is II.. 25th anniversary of Abdulhamid’s accession to the throne. It is the edict he sent to the governors on the anniversary of the clock tower construction.. But II. Before the reign of Abdülhamit, there was a clock tower in the Ottoman lands.. Let’s briefly talk about these towers now..
Safranbolu Clock Tower
17. The clock tower, which was built in the last years of the century, still works as a first in the Ottoman lands.. It was built by the Grand Vizier İzzet Mehmed Pasha.
Izmir Clock Tower
The clock tower, which is the symbol of Izmir, is in front of the Kemeraltı Bazaar in Izmir Konak in 1901, the Governor of Izmir Kamil Pasha, his son, the Navy Mirliva Said It was built by a commission consisting of Pasha and Mayor Eşref Pasha.. The tower, which is 25 meters high, has 4 floors and has an octagonal plan..
The clocks of the Clock Tower were gifted by the German Emperor Wilhelm II.. The tower was admired so much that there is even a replica of it in Batumi..
Çanakkale Clock Tower
The construction of Çanakkale Clock Tower was built in 1897 by a merchant named Vitalis, who was also the Italian Consulate.. The square-shaped tower is located in the center near the city’s port.. There is a clock on all 4 sides..
Kastamonu Clock Tower
The Kastamonu Clock Tower, built on Sarayüstü Hill, the dominant hill of the city in 1885, is among the important monuments of the city.. The 13-meter-high structure was built by the Governor Abdurrahman Pasha..
Antalya Clock Tower
Antalya Clock Tower is another tower that was built in 1901 with the edict of Abdulhamid II.. The clock tower in Kaleiçi was built by the Grand Vizier Said Pasha..
Dolmabahçe Clock Tower
There is a clock tower in Istanbul Beşiktaş district, where Dolmabahçe Palace is located, at least as beautiful as the palace.. The clock tower, which turns into a completely different beauty with its lighting especially at night, was built by the palace architect Sarkis Balyan.. The tower is built as four floors on a platform with a fountain pool at each corner.. The 27-meter-long clock tower was built between 1890 and 1895, in Neobaroque and Empire style, with a form that narrows as it rises, and has a clock on each face..
Beşiktaş’s stadium, together with the Bosphorus and Dolmabahçe Palace, forms one of the most beautiful spots in the city.
Erzurum Clock Tower
If it wasn’t built as a clock tower It was built as the minaret of the İçkale mosque, and took its current name after the Crimean War.. It is known that it was built in 1174 by Inanc Biygu Alp Tugrul Bey, one of the Emirs of Saltukid.
Bursa Clock Tower
Bursa Tophane Clock Tower, which was built by Sultan Abdulaziz in the early 19th century and was known to be worn out due to earthquakes, was rebuilt during the reign of Abdulhamid. was built. It was opened in 1905 by the Governor Reşit Mümtaz Pasha.. The tower came to the fore with the last period of plastic window restoration.. Frankly, I am one of those who think why the clock on the tower is so small..
Sarajevo Clock Tower
Those who go to Sarajevo remember the mosque, covered bazaar, library and madrasah belonging to Gazi Hüsrev Bey Foundation and located in the city centre.. There is a clock tower right next to these works, among which there is a mosque built by Mimar Sinan during the reign of Ottoman Sanjak Bey Gazi Husrev..
This clock, which belongs to the 16th century and works according to the lunar calendar, is still standing and is one of the most beautiful symbols of the city..
Beirut Clock Tower
The Ottoman clock tower, built in 1897, stands out as one of the most important squares of Beirut. This area is protected by tight security since the Lebanese Parliament building is also located..
Belgrade Clock Tower
The structure known as Sahat Kula 18. It was built by the Venetian architect Cornaro in the 19th century.. It is located on the Istanbul Gate of the Belgrade Fortress, known as Kalemegdan..
Mexican Ottoman Clock Tower
Let’s come to the most interesting clock tower. Would you be surprised if we told you that there is an Ottoman clock in Mexico, which is located in the Americas?
The clock tower, known as the Ottoman Clock, is adorned with tiles in the center of Mexico City. There is a plaque on the clock tower with the inscription “La Colonia Otomana a Mexico – Septiembre de 1910” (Ottoman Community to Mexico – September 1910).. The tower was built in 1910 by the Ottoman citizen Antonio Letayf..
We cannot finish counting the clock towers of the Ottoman Empire.. North Macedonia/Skopje in 1577, Montenegro/Podgorica in 1667, Albania/Tirana in 1822, Iraq/Mosul in 1882, Lebanon/Tripoli in 1901, Israel/Tel Aviv and Jerusalem pointing to the same date, only Up to 30 towers in Bosnia and Herzegovina symbolize the timeless Ottoman Heritage.
# My first test that I remember with time was English lessons in secondary school, together with my teacher’s “go to Sultanahmet on the weekend, tourists Talk to all the tourists I see in Sultanahmet with the proposition , “Excuseme, What time is it ? It started with the question . It didn’t work, of course it didn’t work..
Before I end by sharing a list of Clock Towers in Turkey at the end of my article, I share a dialogue between Halit Ayarcı and Hayri İrdal from the Time Regulation Institute..
“Halit Ayarcı:We need crew, passengers and mice to recruit.
Hayri İrdal: I understood the crew and the passenger, but what is the mouse for?
Halit Ayarcı: To dismiss when necessary…I bet you know a lot too. you are smart enough. you have no faith. Here’s your lack. You seek the absolute. How strange that a watchmaker pursues absolute values. A man who is preoccupied with such a relative thing as Time… I really don’t understand.” Tanpınar,1954
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Clock Towers in Turkey Below You can find the list of.
Clock Towers of Turkey
