this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2024
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The sun dial worked during daylight, but how did people agree on what time it was at night before clocks were invented?

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[โ€“] AFKBRBChocolate 156 points 5 months ago (20 children)

There were some timekeeping approaches, including candles marked with the hours based on burn rate (also used as alarm clocks by sticking metal things in them that would fall on a bell or metal dish below), but there also wasn't a lot of reason to know the time accurately at night. Hell, in the time before clocks, there wasn't much need to know the time accurately in the day. People used sunrise, noon, and sunset as the major markers.

[โ€“] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago

There were things like tracking guard shifts after sundown but the candle or an hourglass would be sufficient for that. It's usually a case where you don't actually care about what time it is now but you do care about time elapsed.

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