对机械钟技术起源问题的考察

Research on the Technological Origin of the Mechanical Clock

早期机械擒纵器的信息出自天文钟。普赖斯等人认为早期机械钟从属于天文仪器,单纯的计时钟是天文钟的副产品。兰德斯等反对这种观点,强调机械钟始终都是计时装置。立轴式擒纵器更可能源自作为计时装置的铃。而关于天文钟的设想无法实现,且与擒纵器的技术形式之间缺乏联系。中国天文钟亦与机械擒纵器差别过大。所以,机械钟不大可能源于天文仪器,中国天文钟不是机械钟的祖先。

Knowledge about early mechanical escapements was derived from astronomical clocks. Some, represented by de Solla Price, had proposed a theory that early mechanical clocks belonged to astronomical machines, and ordinary time - telling clocks were the byproduct of astronomical clocks. But others, represented by David S. Landes, rejected such argument, and emphasized that the mechanical clock belonged to timekeeping devices all the time. It is much more likely that verge escapement derived from bell, a time - telling device. Meanwhile, imaginations on the mechanical astronomical clock were impossible and lacking relationship with the later verge escapement in technology. Chinese astronomical clocks were also distinct from mechanical escapements. So it is unreasonable to regard the mechanical clock as a result of the astronomical tradition, and Chinese astronomical clocks are not the ancestor of the mechanical clock.