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| The more sand that has escaped
from the hourglass of our life,
the clearer we see through it.
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- The earliest hourglasses used marble dust for the sand. The hourglass required expertise in glass-blowing. The likeliest location for these two elements of the hourglass to be brought together is Italy, particularly Venice, where glass-blowing was a highly developed art and marble was readily available.
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| Ambrogio Lorenzetti, 1338 |
The first documented example of an hourglass in Europe is a 1338 fresco depiction. It has become a symbol of medieval technology, one of the first attempts to measure time. - During the age of navigational exploration, the hourglass helped sailors determine the length of a sea voyage. They were particularly valuable for sailors, as the movement of sand wasn't affected by the waves rocking the ships or by changes in temperature. Written records about the hourglass were found in the logbooks of European ships.
- When Magellan (c. 1480-1521) circumnavigated the globe, his fleet had 18 hourglasses per ship, with a page dedicated to turning each one to keep accurate time.
- In biblical terms, the hourglass represents the nature of our time on earth and the transition to eternity.
- In the world of art, the hourglass symbolizes the passage of time.
- Hourglasses were used by ministers and priests to time sermons, in factories to measure breaks from labor, and by scholars to track the duration of lectures.
- Evidence suggests the use of hourglasses in ancient Greece and Rome for timing political speeches in the Senate.
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The Timewheel
Budapest, Hungary |
The Time Wheel (right) is a large hourglass in Budapest, Hungary. It's made of granite, steel and glass, and weighs 60 tons. Glass granules flow from the upper to the lower glass chamber over the course of one year. The granules run out on New Year's Eve. The Time wheel is then turned 180 degrees so the flow of glass can resume for the next year. The turning requires four people pulling cables and takes about 45 minutes to complete. The Time wheel was unveiled on May 1, 2004, to commemorate the enlargement of the European Union that admitted Hungary, along with nine other countries.
"Every so often, we all gaze into the abyss. It's a depressing fact of life that eventually the clock expires. Eventually the sand in the hourglass runs out. It's the leaving behind of everything that matters to us that hurts the most." ~Ben Shapiro"Though our hourglass runs, one day it shall not, but then our eternity hourglass begins with never ending sands. What mantle do you want to set your hourglass of eternal life upon? This is your choice to make. No one but you can make that decision. So think wisely and live honorably, for your actions will choose the destination of your hourglass." ~Tabitha Robin
