Qianlong loved collecting clocks all his life, how did he deal with broken clocks?

During Qianlong's reign, the treasury was full, the world was peaceful, and Qianlong's life was relatively "blessed" compared to the monarchs of previous dynasties. He was a monarch in his prime, and the world was peaceful, so the affairs of the court did not occupy much of his time, and Qianlong was able to have more time to develop his interests.

According to records, Qianlong not only loved poetry and writing, but also liked to collect Western clocks and watches, he collected many clocks, and there would be some broken clocks among the clocks, so Qianlong instructed the relevant departments to deal with the broken clocks. Chongwenmen, who was ordered to deal with the broken clocks, repaired the watch and sold it to a wealthy private businessman, making a lot of money for Qianlong.

During the period of Emperor Qianlong, the treasury was full, and Qianlong could collect Western clocks and watches as he liked. According to statistics, during his lifetime, Qianlong collected nearly 3,000 beautifully made clocks and watches. Among them, the precious cultural relics we see in the world, "Glass-inlaid Foreign Sonatonic Music Clock" is one of the clocks collected by Qianlong.

Qianlong collected so many clocks and watches, there will always be broken ones, how did Qianlong deal with broken watches. According to records, on February 15, 50 years in our country, the Qing Palace made clocks and took out 23 large clocks and watches to destroy the furnace, which is the meaning of reuse, mainly for the copper in the broken clocks.

However, the Ministry of Internal Affairs found that the process of destroying the clock was not only cumbersome, but also costly and not cost-effective, so it handed over the clock to Chongwenmen. After Chongwenmen got the broken clock, he repaired the clock and sold it to wealthy private merchants. Although these clocks and watches are broken, they are Qianlong's royal things, which naturally attract the coaxing of wealthy businessmen among the people, which is much more cost-effective than melting.

Chongwenmen thus made a lot of money for Qianlong, which is really witty!

After the bell was handed over to Chongwenmen, the craftsmen of Chongwenmen began to repair the clocks. Even if the clock has been damaged, the treasures in the palace are all for the emperor's use, and the wealthy merchants will rush to buy them, and the price they offer is also very expensive.

If it is broken, it can be repaired, and if it cannot be framed, it will be taken to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to treasure, and now there are clocks and watches collected by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Forbidden City.

Once a watch has been irreversibly damaged, it can be smelted into copper that can be remade into other objects. After the clock was handed over to Chongwenmen, the craftsmen of Chongwenmen began to repair the clocks and put them into the private market for trading.

At first, it was melted and recast, "if there is gold in the clock, the gold is scraped and melted, otherwise it is thrown into the furnace and destroyed", but later it was found that it was not cost-effective, so it was sold in Chongwenmen.

Broken clocks are dismantled and remade into other instruments and sold for money, so that waste can be avoided.

Qianlong was very fond of clocks and watches, and at that time he had a lot of broken watches in his hands, and he did not throw them away at will, but asked others to help him sell them for money.

Qianlong is the largest collector of clocks and watches, and the bad clocks are sold for money in Chongwenmen, and they can make a lot of money by changing hands, and Qianlong can be said to have a very smart business acumen.

Qianlong loved to collect clocks and watches all his life, and he sold the broken clocks and watches in Chongwenmen for money, and then changed hands and made a dozen sums of money.

Generally, after the clock is handed over to Chongwenmen, the craftsmen of Chongwenmen begin to repair the clocks and put them into the private market for trading.

Qianlong is still quite business-minded, although he is the emperor, but he will choose to let his subordinates sell some broken clocks and watches.

Set the clock to a good time and put it there, six o'clock is recommended.

It's okay to throw it in the garbage.

Mechanical principle: the balance spring and the balance wheel form a fixed period of the pendulum, the swing period is determined by the quality of the balance wheel, the elasticity and length of the balance spring, when adjusting the speed is actually to adjust the effective length of the balance spring to participate in the swing part (in the mechanical clock can be seen more clearly).

The writing robot, which is not mechanically connected to the chronograph part, is a set of independent mechanical settings, which can be demonstrated by simply winding and activating.

However, due to the presence of friction, the pendulum composed of the balance spring and the balance wheel must also push the ratchet fork to swing, and if its energy cannot be replenished, it will soon stop.

The key to this energy replenishment is on the escapement: the top of each tooth on the ratchet wheel is an inclined plane, when a pin of the ratchet releases the ratchet from the ratchet, and will leave from the ratchet, the force transmitted by the spring to the ratchet uses the bevel at the top of the ratchet to push the round pin, on the one hand, the other pin of the ratchet is pushed to the position where the locking ratchet continues to rotate, and at the same time the ratchet fork is pushed to push the balance wheel to continue to rotate in the same direction, so that the energy of the balance wheel is supplemented, so that the writer's clock continues to work.

Copper-gilded writer's clock", which was made by the famous clockmaker Williamson for the Qing court and presented to the Qianlong Emperor as a tribute. The copper-gilded writer's clock is 231 centimeters high and 77 centimeters long and wide. The bell is composed of four Western pavilion-style buildings with gilt copper plated from the bottom up.

In the circular pavilion on the top floor, there are two people holding a cylinder to dance, after starting, the two people turn around to open the distance, the cylinder is displayed as a banner, and the four words "longevity without borders" are written on it.

The writing robot is a robot in a suit who looks like a European gentleman. He knelt on his right leg, squatted on his left leg, held a brush in his right hand, and rested his left hand on the case in front of him. Before starting, you need to dip the brush in ink, and then turn on the switch, and the robot will start to write, with a focused and meticulous expression.

His eyes followed the movement of the pen, and his hands were on the paper in front of him in one go, and he wrote down the eight Chinese characters of "Eight Directions, Nine Soil to the King", and the handwriting was neat and divine. As he writes, the robot's head swings. It shows the wisdom and creative talent of the design maker.

The bottom layer is the writing robot, which is the most exciting, new, and complex part of the clock, which is not connected to the timing part of the machinery, and is an independent set of mechanical settings, which can be demonstrated only by winding and starting. The main mechanical parts that control the writing part are three discs, the edges of which have concave and convex grooves, of varying lengths and distances, and these discs are specially made according to each stroke and stroke. The upper and lower plates control the horizontal and vertical strokes of the characters respectively, and the middle plate controls the upward and downward movement of the pen.

The writing robot is a European gentleman, kneeling on one leg, holding the case with one hand, holding the brush with one hand, holding the brush in the ink before starting, and then turning on the switch, the writer will write on the paper in front of him "Eight directions, nine soil to the king" eight Chinese characters, the handwriting is neat and tidy. As he writes, the robot's head swings.

We modern people use clocks to keep time. The clock in the modern sense was invented in the West and introduced in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties in the 17th century. So what did our ancestors count on in the early days?

People originally used a timer called "gnomon", which is a tool to calculate the length of time shadows in a day. The so-called "gnomes" consist of two parts: the pillars or pillars that stand upright on the ground are called gnomes, and the north and south blocks where the gnomes are placed are called gnomes.

Time is also known as "time", which means the shadow left by the sun on the ground. On the basis of the sundial, people invented the "sundial", that is, to judge time by the projection of light. A sundial consists of a needle and a dial engraved with wires.

When the sun moves in different directions, so does the shadow of the pin on the dial. Based on long-term observations, the ancients determined the position of the sun's shadow corresponding to the twelve hours and judged the time accordingly. For example, the term "a quarter of an hour at noon" refers to the third mark on the dial for the position of the noon time.

Both gnomes and sundials are timed by the sun. But how do you tell the time of a rainy day? The ancients invented the method of "missing engraving", which is the principle of water flow balance, in a pot filled with water, the position of time is judged by looking at the pot engraved with a time scale (called an arrow).

"Missing carving" has long been widely used among Chinese because it is not affected by weather and climate. Ancient China also had the mechanical power of a timer.

In the Song Dynasty, Su Song Zhang Heng invented the water transport armillary sphere meter, which can accurately report the water transport time and display 12 hours on the basis of the transformed water transport instrument platform. In addition, there are timekeeping tools such as incense seals, oil lamp clocks, candle clocks, and sand clocks. After the 17th century, more sophisticated clocks were introduced in the West, and people gradually abandoned the original timekeeping tools.

In the timekeeping method, the ancients used the hundred-quarter method, that is, a day and night are divided into 100 quarters, and a quarter is equal to about 14. Four. The twelve-hour timekeeping method was invented in the Sui and Tang dynasties.

After the introduction of Western clocks to China, in order to adapt to the 24-hour system, the 100-hour system was changed to the 96-hour system; 1 hour 2 hours, 1 hour 4 ticks.

Ancient people used objects similar to hourglasses to keep time, and even more so to judge the hours according to the position of the sun.

The ancients used regular movement in nature to keep time. Timing tools include hourglasses, incense burning, water transport instruments, sundials, lantern leaks, etc.

The ancients used sundials to keep time, and the time was determined by the change of the sun's exposure to the sundial.

How did the ancients keep time without watches? After reading it, I have to admire the wisdom of the working people!

In modern life, time is accurate to the second, and every second counts. Time has become the most important concept in modern life. Mobile phones, watches, clocks, it is very simple to see the time, which is very convenient for people.

Even in ancient times, when there were no clocks, time was still very important. For example, the husband who reads "The weather is dry, be careful of the candle", the change is actually the time. At 7 o'clock in the evening, the "second watch" is 9 o'clock in the evening, the "third watch" is 11 o'clock in the evening, the "fourth watch" is 1 o'clock in the morning, and the "fifth watch" is 3 o'clock in the morning.

However, in ancient times, there were no clocks, so how did the husband look at the time?

In fact, although the ancients did not have clocks, but also had their own timekeeping instruments, in addition to the hourglass, incense and other timekeeping, the ancients also invented the sundial, leakage carving, water transport turbidity, water transport instrument elephant platform, etc. These timepieces complemented each other and kept pace with the times, providing the ancients with more accurate time, and were the prototype of later clocks.

The earliest timekeeping instrument: the sundial.

The sundial, also known as the "day gauge", was one of the earliest timekeeping tools. Sundials determine and divide the moment by the direction of movement of the sun's projection. When the sun shines, the shadow of the hand will be reflected on the face, and when the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, the shadow will keep turning, so that people can count the time according to the rotation of the shadow.

A sundial consists of a dial face and a dial needle, and a scale is engraved on the dial face. Sundials include horizontal sundials, equatorial sundials, meridian sundials, and unitary sundials.

The most widely used timer: weighing the leak (missing the tick).

Although the use of sundials is very simple and can be read by "immediate", the limitations are not small, and there is no way to see the time on a rainy day without the sun. In order to overcome the limitations of sundials, the ancients invented omissions to keep time.

Leak engraving, leak refers to a pot with holes, and engraving refers to a ruler with a scale attached. The leak is made up of a leaky pot and a ruler. A strainer is used to drain or hold water.

The ruler is used to mark moments. Its principle is to use water to drip out of the leaky pot, the water level drops, and the arrow in the pot also drops, so as to determine the time; Or drip water into the pot, the water level rises, and the arrow rises to indicate the time.

State-of-the-art timer: the elephant table of the water transport instrument.

Although the missing engraving was the most widely used timepiece in ancient times, it also had limitations. Water is susceptible to temperature and air humidity, and changes in these parameters can affect the accuracy of the recording. Later, the ancients invented a more advanced and compact water transport instrument elephant platform.

Manufactured by Su Song, a famous astronomer in the Northern Song Dynasty, and Han Gonglian, an astronomical instrument manufacturer, the Water Transport Instrument Observatory is a mechanical astronomical timing instrument that integrates the functions of observing the celestial phases, timing and telling the time. The shape is narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, divided into three layers, the top is equipped with an armillary sphere, the second layer is equipped with an armillary image, and the third layer is equipped with a power drive device and a time signaling system. The three levels are connected to each other and are powered by a two-stage drain can, which not only automatically timekeeps, tells the time, and demonstrates celestial phenomena, but also drives the armillary sphere to automatically track celestial objects for observation.

Seeing these ancient close timing instruments, I have to admire the wisdom and creativity of the ancients.

In ancient times, people looked at the sun to determine the time, and some old people said that in ancient times, when people looked at the time, they listened to the rooster crowing to determine the time.

I've heard them say before that you can see by the change of the weather, for example, you can tell what time it is by looking at the position of the sun, and that's true.

In ancient times, there was a tool for timekeeping, and there were many ** on it, just like a big grinding disc with a needle on it.

They all look at the shadow of the object, that is, when the sun hits the object, the shadow will flow out, and they use this to tell the time.

They mainly look at the sun, and if it's cloudy, it's probably guessing, because they can't see the sun.

The ancients were smart, the ancients could invent anything, **, and papermaking, look at the time is not very simple.

At the earliest time, they had no concept of time, and later from the Han Dynasty they had timekeeping tools.

It is the moment when the pointer stops at the place, divided into two parts: day and night.