When they first invented the clock, how did they know what time it was to set it to?

Question

When they first invented the clock, how did they know what time it was to set it to?

Answer 1

i have no clue

Answer 2

Noon can be identified as the time that the Sun is highest in the sky.  Therefore a clock can be set to noon by observing the sun.  

Answer 3

they called the naval observatory.

Answer 4

actually, recent discoveries in Egypt find a "clock" before any previous thought of time. I just watched a program on it. They used it to predict the flooding of the nile. since it could change their lives. If it floods too much, then villages could be wiped out, too little and they could experience famine.

Answer 5

Noon

All you need to know when noon is a stick, sunlight and patience.  So odds are they set whatever you're calling the first clock at noon.

Answer 6

There's a little thing called the sun which appears everyday.

It is always at its highest point in the sky at noon everyday. That is when it casts the shortest shadow.

Answer 7

Possibly they used a sun dial to see the approximate time to set the clock.

Exact time wasn't as important to the people back then as it is to us today. The early clocks were not particularly accurate either.

Answer 8

the egyptians usually get the credit on first clocks with the sundial which was established about 3100 B.C. or B.C.E.  

Answer 9

They faked it.

No, really. Before clocks, people were telling time in a general sort of way. There are time references in Shakespeare. There were time devices before clocks, such as sundials and water clocks.

A guess at the current time was good enough. Long after clocks were in use, different communities still set their clocks differently. When railroads were built across America, each town had its own correct time.

There was no need for everyone to have an identical time until the late 1800s. It was the railroads and the development of rapid transportation that created the need for all clocks to run the same. When clocks were invented and first used there was no such need.

Answer 10

Good question i have often asked myself that, as far as a wall clock or watch goes. I have no clue on that, but as far as a ruff time ( of what time it was).

Back in the day large parks, had Sundials and you could tell time. Base on the shadow that the sun was casting.