Hydrochronometer
Water-powered clock
A hydrochronometer is a kind of water clock.
In 1867 Fr. Giovan Battista Embriaco, O.P., inventor and professor of the College of St. Thomas in Rome, created a hydrochronometer and sent it to the Paris Universal Exposition of 1867, where it received many prizes. It had the shape of a wooden pinnacle made of cast iron fused as a tree trunk, while its four dials were visible from all directions.
In 1873, the water clock was returned to Rome and placed in Villa Borghese gardens into a fountain realized by the architect Gioacchino Ersoch. It is still there and works constantly.
In June 2007, after two years of restoration at ELIS School, it was restarted by the Town Mayor of Rome.
Another hydrochromometer can be found at Palazzo Berardi, rione Pigna, Rome.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Hydrochronometer”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Hydrochronometer by Embriaco (total view with signs).jpg by User:Mattes, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Orologio ad acqua di padre Embriaco a palazzo Berardi.JPG by Lalupa, CC BY-SA 3.0
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