Mono Monday (Monday 11th October 2021)

The theme for Mono Monday this week is 19th Century Inventions which as it happens coincides with a blip I had in mind for analogue clock-faces, which I far prefer to digital watches. I was sad to discover that in 2018 schools began using digital displays because pupils were now unable to tell the time from conventional clocks.

The analogue face was such an elegant and practical design that the average child could learn to read by the time they started school, and it provided an ever-changing diagram of the current time with its two or three hands rotating at different speeds; far more illustrative than a plain digital read-out.

The analogue face has been around for hundreds of years - the oldest surviving now being at Wells Cathedral, dating from 1390, but the modern clock face was established c. 1690. Its clockwise motion evolved from imitation of the sundial in the Northern hemisphere.

The earliest clock faces used Roman numerals and appeared from the 14th Century. The numerals usually radiated outwards, following the curve, so that the VI at the bottom was upside down, unlike our own numerals that almost always stand upright.

So how does this relate to the 19th Century? Because the electric clock was invented then. According to Wikipedia, "In 1815, Francis Ronalds published the first electric clock powered by dry pile batteries. Alexander Bain, Scottish clockmaker, patented the electric clock in 1840. The electric clock's mainspring is wound either with an electric motor or with an electromagnet and armature. In 1841, he first patented the electromagnetic pendulum. By the end of the nineteenth century, the advent of the dry cell battery made it feasible to use electric power in clocks."

Thanks to laurie54 for hosting. The watches and straps are black and white on a black tile. I converted the original image to mono and then added the reddish-brown tint to the monochrome image,

L.
Tuesday 12.10.2021 (2033 hr)

Blip #3531 (#3281 + 250 archived blips taken 27.8.1960-18.3.2010)
Consecutive Blip #000
Blips/Extras In 2021 #186/265 (= -79/81 left) + #086/100 Extras
Day #4217 (941 gaps from 26.3.2010)
LOTD #2674 (#2514 + 160 in archived blips)

Taken with Panasonic/Leica DMC-LX100 M4/3 compact

Black & White and Monochrome series
Abstracts And Experiments series
Still Life series
Macro series

One year ago:
River Avon, Melksham

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
The Chieftains and Van Morrison - Have I Told You Lately (1995)
The Chieftains:  Paddy Moloney (uilleann pipes, tin whistle), Martin Fay (fiddle), Seán Keane (fiddle), Kevin Conneff (bodhrán, vocals), Matt Molloy (flute), Derek Bell (harp, tiompán, keyboards) and Van Morrison (lead vocal)
R.I.P. Paddy Moloney (1 August 1938, Donnycarney, Dublin - 11 October 2021)
From the album The Long Black Veil.