clepsydra

/klep"si dreuh/, n., pl. clepsydras, clepsydrae /-dree'/.

an ancient device for measuring time by the regulated flow of water or mercury through a small aperture.

[1640-50; < L < Gk klepsýdra, equiv. to kleps- (klep-, s. of kléptein to steal, conceal + -s- formative in derivation) + hydra, deriv. of hýdor water]

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▪ timekeeping device

also called  water clock 

      ancient device for measuring time by the gradual flow of water. One form, used by the North American Indians and some African peoples, consisted of a small boat or floating vessel that shipped water through a hole until it sank. In another form, the vessel was filled with water that was allowed to escape through a hole, and the time was read from graduated lines on the interior measuring the level of the remaining water. It may have been an invention of the Chaldeans of ancient Babylonia; specimens from Egypt date from the 14th century BC. The Romans invented a clepsydra consisting of a cylinder into which water dripped from a reservoir; a float provided readings against a scale on the cylinder wall. Clepsydras were used for many purposes, including timing the speeches of orators; as late as the 16th century, Galileo used a mercury clepsydra to time his experimental falling bodies.

Jonathan D. Betts

 

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