Su Song’s Escapement Regulator

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1、Chapter6SuSong’sEscapementRegulatorSuSong(蘇頌)oftheNorthernSongDynastyinventedawater-poweredarmillarysphereandcelestialglobearoundyearAD1088.Thisdevicewasworkingbasedonawater-poweredmechanicalclockwithanescapementregulator.Literaryrecordsareavailableforthisinvention,butunfortu-natelysurvivinghardwar

2、eislacking.However,severalreconstructiondesignshaveexistedinthepastcentury.ThischaptersystematicallygeneratesallfeasibledesignsofSuSong’sescapementregulatorthatmeetthescientificandtechnologicalstandardsofthesubject’stimeperiod[1–4].HistoricalrecordsofSuSong’sclocktowerandtheescapementregulatoraread

3、dressedfirst.Then,thetopologi-calstructureofanavailabledesignisanalyzed,andthedesignconstraintsareconcluded.TheprocessofreconstructiondesignofSuSong’sescapementregulatorsisalsoillustrated.Finally,feasibleescapementregulatorsofSuSong’sclocktowerandmodernmechanicalclocksarecompared.6.1SuSong’sClockTo

4、werAheavenlybodyitselfcanbeseenasatime-tellingsystem.Mankindlearnedtoknowtime,e.g.,year,season,month,day,andhour,byobserv-ingtheregularchangesinpositionsofheavenlybodiessuchasthesun,themoonandsomeplanets.Formoreeffectiveobservations,theancientscholarscleverlytransformedtheorbitsofthesunandstarsinto

5、thedialsofthesundialandthegnomonsoastoachieveanaccuratetimetelling.Theclepsydrawasanotherefficientwayofmeasuringtimebywatchingtheflowofafixedwatervolumepassthroughaconstantcrosssectionofasiphon.Ascaleonthewatercontainerwouldlowerorriseaccordingtothewaterlevel,andcalibrationsonthescalewouldindicatet

6、hetime.InancientChina,theastronomicalclockwasintegratedfromtheclep-sydraandastronomicalinstrumentasanautomaticwaterpowertime-keepingmachine.Itswaterwheelsteelyard-clepsydramechanismwasusedtoobtainintermittentandequaltimekeeping.Italsohadatime-telling163164Chapter6SuSong’sEscapementRegulatorsystemwi

7、thacamstrikingmechanism.Theastronomicalclockwasdevelopedtothemostcompleteandfullyfunctionalunituntilthewater-poweredar-millarysphereandcelestialglobenamedShuiYunYiXiangTai(水運儀象台)wasbuiltbySuSongandHanGong-l