A complete list of self-timer clocks with details

Self-timing clock a clock that strikes itself on time to report the hour. Sometimes it is also referred to as a clock. Ming Xie Zhaozhuang 《Wu miscellaneous chopping block-Tianbu II》："Western monk Matteo Ricci has a self-timing clock, in which an organ is set up, and it is always sounding at every moment." Qing Zhao Yi, "Eaves Exposure Miscellany - Clocks and Watches": "Self-timing clocks and watches come from the West. The clock can chime on its own, and the watch has a needle pointing to twelve o'clock with the sundial, which are all excellent skills." A Dream of Red Mansions, Round 51: "When I said that, I heard the self-tuning clock on the finial of the outer room 'dangdang' two times." Lu Xun, "Two Hearted Collections - Correspondence Concerning Translations": "At that time, foreign students were not as generous as they are now, and society thought that Westerners could only make machines-especially autoharp clocks-and that foreign students could only speak Ghost language, so they could not be regarded as 'scholars'. So they can't be counted as 'scholars'."

Basic introduction Chinese name ：自鸣钟 Function ： timer From ：? Meaning : Ancient architecture of Prague Old Town Square The Autoharp Clock in Prague Old Town Square The Autoharp Clock is one of the most characteristic ancient buildings in Prague Old Town Square, built in the sixteenth century. The clock consists of three parts: the statue of the saint, the clock disk and the annual calendar. At the hour of the day, the little boy, who symbolizes the passing of time, rings the bell and nods his head, while the Turk shakes his head, symbolizing his unwillingness to surrender. On the right side of the bell, there are two statues of people who symbolize wasted time, shaking their heads continuously, symbolizing that they have not yet enjoyed all the riches on earth and do not want to leave this world. At the same time the twelve saints on the upper part of the bell appear one after another behind an open skylight. When the last saint passes by and closes the skylight, the golden rooster above the skylight flaps its wings and crows, announcing the end of the chime. The middle part of the clock is a disc, based on the medieval theory of the Earth as the center of the universe, indicating the movement of the Sun and the Moon. In the bottom part of the clock there are twelve framed panels depicting rural farming during the twelve months of the year. The sides of the calendar are also decorated with angels wearing swords, scepters and shields, and three citizens symbolizing the just rule of the city. This unique artistic style of the clock attracts visitors from all over the world. Mechanical Clock Autoharp Autoharp, mechanical clock. It is so called because it chimes the time automatically. In 1580 A.D. (Ming Dynasty), the Western missionary Luo Mingjian introduced the self-timing clock to China. In 1600 AD (late Ming Dynasty), Ji Tanran made the "Tongtian Tower" (self-timing clock) In the 10th year of the Wanli reign (1522 AD), two Jesuits, Michaele Ruggieri (1543 - 1607) and Francisco Pasio (1554 - 1612), were invited to a meeting with the Governor of Guangdong. During a precious meeting with the Governor of Guangdong, they gave a gift of a Western autoharp, unheard of in China, in exchange for a special permission to stay in Zhaoqing for four or five months, which created the conditions for the activities of the Catholic missionaries that followed at the end of the Ming Dynasty, such as Matteo Ricci (1552 - 1610). Rii arrived in Macao in 1522, and then in 1601 came to Beijing after many twists and turns. Among the gifts he presented to the Wanli Emperor were two autoharps. From then on, the solemn and majestic Chinese palace began to ring with a clear rhythm of tick-tock-tick-tock. Kangxi was a learned and enlightened emperor, he had great enthusiasm for Western science and technology, in Europe since the bell also seems to be very favorite. He had written a "Chime" poem: "law since the beginning of the West, skillfully taught to know. The wheel turns with the moment, and the watch finger moves according to the minute. The conical cap of the reddish-red cap does not hasten the dawn, and the golden bell forecasts the time. Early in the morning to work hard on political affairs, and ask a few late." This shows that the self-tolling bell has been the diligent monarch to arrange the life and work order of the necessary things. Emperor Kangxi also in the Hall of Yangxintian manufacturing office set up repair and manufacture of self-timing clock workshop, from the Chinese court to the people, the popularity of mechanical clocks and watches and manufacturing gradually unfolded. In the Qianlong dynasty, the self-timing bell and copper pots drip are published in the "dynasty rituals pattern", was *** placed in the Hall of Jiao Tai, but the "Qing Barnyard Class Notes" records: "Jiao Tai Hall bell, the palace salty to prevail. Hall of three, the east set up carving funnel, a few full, day transport water dendrobium Xu, stored therein. After the Qianlong, long abolished without." Description of the time used to measure the self-timer, both ornamental value. Qianlong period of life is rich. The emperor was keen on the side of the painting and calligraphy play and all kinds of playthings, the ocean across the ocean to come to the Western clock has been advanced scientific practice and the heavenly orthodox symbol of the connotation of the change into a leisurely pastime of high-level toys and luxury ornamental furnishings. This period in addition to the importation of a large number of European luxury and exquisite, dexterous clocks and watches, at the behest of the emperor, the court within the European and Chinese clock technicians more ingenuity, produced a large number of dynamic novelty clocks for enjoyment of all kinds of dynamic, and with the use of gold, jade, lacquer, ivory, gemstones, rosewood and other precious materials, and to make sure that each piece of the self-tuning clock to achieve the brilliant, extraordinary high degree of decorative effect of the instrument. Forbidden City in the self-timing bell In 1601, *** has not yet shown decadence, the industrial revolution in the West has not yet occurred. "Most European goods either failed to interest the people of Asia or could not compete with similar Asian goods." (Carlo M. Cipolla, quoted in The Spread and Production of Autoharp Clocks in Jiangnan during the Ming and Qing Dynasties) Mechanical clocks were the exception. In February of that year, Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci entered the Forbidden City with two autoharps, or rather autoharps entered the Forbidden City, and Ricci was recognized by the Wanli Emperor as a clock-tuning technician, and was permitted to build a church outside the Xuanwumen Gate to preach. One of the first two self-tuning bells contributed by Ricci was of the building type, which exceeded the height of all the inner sanctuaries of the palace. It was therefore placed in the Imperial Garden, a place where treasures, not clocks, were needed, and was given a specially made bell pavilion inlaid with cockerel and gold worth 1,300 taels of silver. The other, which probably belonged to the table-top type, was small, with a wooden frame, inlaid with gilded carved dragons, and with eagle-billed hands, which chimed every quarter of an hour. "The emperor kept this little clock before himself all the time; he liked to look at it and listen to it chime the hours." (Quoted from the Forbidden City Clock and Watch by Guo Fuxiang.) This latter form of favoritism is very reminiscent of the Pekingese's love of the songbird, "not only to hear the call, but also to enjoy its shape." Indeed, in the early days of the self-timing clock, the attention of the people of China did focus on the exquisite appearance, the beautiful sound of the chime, and the complexity of the accompanying moving parts - such as the moving figures, the flowers that could be opened and closed, and so on. Feng Shikai said of the self-timing bell: "Westerner Matteo Ricci has a self-timing bell, only as a small incense box, fine gold for the. Twelve hours a day, where twelve times." (Tent Window Continued). Gu Qiyuan seems to have a preliminary grasp of the working principle of the self-tolling bell: "iron, silk rope interlocking, hanging in the , wheeling up and down, screeching non-stop, should be struck when the bell has a sound." ("The Guest's Remarks") Before arriving in Beijing, Li stopped in Nanjing and held a clock and watch exhibition, which brought Feng Shike and Gu Qiyuan, who were working in Jiangnan, into contact with the self-timing clock. By chewing on the words, we can find more similar clues - during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Chinese referred to Western clocks and watches as "self-timing clocks", and in the Ming dictionary, "clock" belonged to the category of musical instruments. In the Ming dictionary, "Zhong" belonged to the category of musical instruments, and the Chinese character for timepiece was "漏". A daily error of 15 minutes seems to be necessary here to introduce the indigenous timekeeping devices of the Ming dynasty. At the time of the arrival of the autoharp in China, the indigenous timekeeping devices that were popular in Beijing and throughout China included the sun clock, represented by the corona, the water clock, represented by the funnel carving, and the fire clock, represented by the incense burner. The following table provides a brief description of the characteristics of these devices. The self-timing clocks were not, as we might think, accurate to begin with. According to The Early Development of Modern Mechanical Timepieces in China (Dai Nianzu), the self-timing clocks brought to China by the Jesuits during the Ming dynasty phase were a modified version of the medieval heavy hammer-driven clocks, with a daily error of more than 15 minutes. The clocks brought to China from 1658 (15th year of the Shunzhi reign) were probably of the Huygens type with a smaller error, and it was only around 1681 (20th year of the Kangxi reign) that punctual clocks with escapements and windings (or hairsprings) made their appearance in ***. In other words, it was only in the Kangxi era that the self-timing clocks gained an advantage in accuracy over the omission of a daily error of between 1 minute and 20 seconds. Fifty taels and three cents The biggest disadvantage of the autoharp relative to the local traditional timepieces was obviously the price, Xu Guangqi's New Method of Calculation noted the price of the autoharp in the first half of the 17th century, "The price of the medium-sized ones was fifty taels of silver per frame, and the big ones and the small but finely crafted ones were valued at a lot more." This price may have declined during the Qing dynasty due to the increase in foreign trade and the development of the local clock-making industry, but it was still on a different order of magnitude from the cheapest timepiece, the incense funnel, which "cost but three wen for a tray of incense that could be used for twenty-four hours" (History of Chinese Science and Technology). History of Chinese Science and Technology)." Of course, the price never affected the imperial family's passion for clock collecting - customs documents from 1791 (the 56th year of the Qianlong reign in the Qing Dynasty) record that 1,025 pieces of small and large self-timing clocks, hour meters, and inlaid-watch snuff bottles were imported that year by the Guangdong Customs Service ****. "The Qianlong Emperor showed even more enthusiasm for clocks and watches as he ordered annual orders of top quality clocks and watches worth up to 30,000 taels to 60,000 taels (￡12,000-25, 000). Thus, by the middle of the 18th century, the East India Company was purchasing 20,000 pounds or more worth of clocks a year from London to bring to Canton." ("A Seller of "Sing Songs": A Chapter in the Foreign Trade of China and Macao" J.M. Braga) According to the Qing Palace's "Staging File", during the Qianlong period, the East Warming Pavilion of the Ning Shou Palace alone in the Forbidden City was furnished with 16 clocks and watches. During the Qianlong period, only the East Warm Pavilion of the Ningshou Palace alone was furnished with 16 clocks and watches. In 1745 (Qianlong 10 years), the leakage carving on the Jiaotai Hall became a sham, "clocks and watches were prevalent, and those who went to work in the Chintian Supervisory Bureau were mostly regarded as having the text." (China's leakage carving history of Hua Tongxu) until the first half of the 19th century, the use of the self-timing bell is still confined to the palace and *** staff. The impact of the self-timing clock on the lives of Beijing citizens was actually conceptualized as the Western system of minute-second timekeeping. Minute-Second-Hour Citizen Life The Qin Ding Da Qing Huidian (钦定大清会典-卷八十一) explains the traditional timekeeping system in terms of the Western timekeeping system: "All marquis time is standardized to day and night. Weekday twelve hours. Eight minutes to the hour. Quarter fifteen minutes. Minute sixty seconds." The Qing Canon was first revised in 1684 (the twenty-third year of the Kangxi reign), and has been rewritten four times by Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing and Guangxu. In other words, since the Guangxu period at the latest, Beijing has been using two systems of timekeeping at the same time, the native hour and quarter and the Western minute and second. The evening drums and morning bells in Beijing were still to be rung according to the traditional shifts - two and a half moments before sunrise were designated as the first day of the week, two and a half moments after sunset were designated as the second day of the week, and the period from the second day of the week to the first day of the week was designated as the night hour....... The night hours were divided equally into five shifts, each of which was further divided into five chimes. But in 1884, the Beijing Telegraph Office operated according to the "daily seven o'clock in the morning, open to ten o'clock in the evening"; in 1899, the driving time of the train at Majiapu Station was accurate to the minute, never wait for anyone; in 1904, the Beijing Danfeng Match Company Limited counted the working hours of the workers in terms of hours; and in 1927, the Peking Broadcasting Station, every In 1927, the Beiping Broadcasting Station reminded the city's residents to calibrate their clocks to the standard time in Beiping at 8:15 p.m. In 1920, a building with a clock was built. In 1920, a building with clocks, the Jinghua Printing and Publishing Bureau Building, was completed at the northwest corner of today's Hufangqiao intersection, and in 1922, a four-faced clock appeared on the west side of Beiwei Lu, a three-story, European-style building with clocks on each side that served as a landmark and the highest point of the amusement park in the southern part of the city. (The four-faced clock was dismantled after liberation, and the tower was rebuilt on its original site in 2005). (the four bells were demolished after the liberation, and the clock tower on the west side of Beiwei Road was rebuilt in 2005). As for the purchase of autoharp clocks by the general public, it seems to have been a post-Republican affair; in 1927, a gold watch cost about 16 yuan or more, while a gold-plated brass watch "was no longer worth a dollar." (The Morning Post, August 8, 1927.) It is said that the number of watch repair stores along Qianmen Dajie Ban has reached as many as 400 - some of which hang a portrait of a black-robed man, and that Matteo Ricci, who brought the autoharp into Beijing, has become the grandfather of the watch stores.