Asni’s Art Blog: Time Artefacts

time artefacts
Collector of Time, by Nicole Jordan – Keyperscove on DeviantArt

Time meters have been around for a long, long time: sundials have been used since Antiquity, in many parts of the world. Hourglasses and water clocks can measure the length of an interval of time, even if they can’t indicate the precise time of day or night.

In Europe, the Renaissance brought an increased interest in the natural sciences, and a revolution of our image of the world due to the findings of Astronomers like Copernicus, Kepler, and Galilei. At the same time, navigators set out to travel the oceans of the world in what has become known as the “Age of Discovery.”

Both activities relied very much on our ability to measure time accurately. No wonder, then, that this period also saw the invention of the spring driven clock. The first pocket watches appeared shortly after 1510—the German watchmaker Peter Henlein is usually credited with their invention.

The 17th century brought the pendulum clock, an increase in accuracy which was further refined by watchmakers over the next couple of centuries—most notably John Harrison, a British carpenter turned watchmaker, who devoted much of his life to perfecting a pendulum clock that would run accurately on a swaying ship.

His success made it possible, for the first time in the history of navigation, to correctly determine a ship’s position in the open ocean: not only its latitude—which could be read from the position of the stars—but its longitude as well. It may have prevented many a shipwreck!

Then came the 19th century with its railroads, and the importance of precise timekeeping reached a whole new level. The need to coordinate railroad timetables led to the introduction of standard time, time zones, and the Greenwich meridian.

These days, we have mass-produced quartz clocks and watches barely larger than a penny, digital displays, and coordinated world time measured out to the tiniest fraction of a second by the quantum vibrations of a Caesium atom.

Steampunk has brought with it a renewed fascination with the elaborate mechanisms and ostentatious casings of old clocks. Here is a selection of jewelers and crafters, and their various time measuring and time traveling devices. We are assured that they work, too!

time artefacts
Time is on my Mind, by Beth Church – bchurch on DeviantArt
time artefacts
Wire Wrap – Pocket Watch Eye Time Piece in Snow, by LadyPirotessa on DeviantArt
time artefacts
Time Machine, by streincorp on DeviantArt
time artefacts
Steampunk Time Travel Key, by Nicole Jordan – Keyperscove on DeviantArt
time artefacts
Master of Time, by JM Gershenson-Gates – AMechanicalMind on DeviantArt
time artefacts
Decay of Time : steampunk art, by Heather Wobbe – Amazon-Butterfly on DeviantArt

All images are copyright the respective artists, and may not be reproduced without permission.

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2 Comments

  1. Astrid, this is a great selection of crafted “time-and-steampunk” related objects! And I bet you could have come up with dozens, more 😉 because this is a fashion trend/style that has really caught on with younger fans, but “not so much” with established collectors of science fiction, even though they venerate the Grand-daddy of the field, Jules Verne. The concept is grand, and the elaborate jewelry that has been created here, is lots of fun. I think I’ve been too conservative! I need to add to my collection!

    1. Great, glad you like them. It’s an aesthetic that appeals to me, probably more than some of the “established” science fiction art (I’m not really into chain mail chicks etc). I’ve always had a thing for the old-fashioned 19th century pen-and-ink-style (or engraved) type of illustration – the old Jules Verne illustrations are a good example! — And nope, these were all the time travel devices I found in the time available to do this blog post. 😉

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