The Clepsydra漏壶The clepsydra is an instrument for time calculation in anaent China.The ancient people, upon finding that water in a pottery often leaked out drop by drop, made a pottery kettle with a small hole. Water filling the kettle would leak out through the hole, and another kettle was used to collect the leaking water. A marked arrow, like the dial of todays watch, was placed inside the second kettle through the hole of the kettle lid, floating on top of the water with the support from a bamboo flake or a wooden plate. The keftle was known as an “arrow kettle”.As the water level increased, the arrow also moved upwards,and people could know the exact time through looking at the marks on the arrow.漏壶是中国古代的一种计时工具。最初，人们找到陶器中的水会从裂缝中一滴一滴地漏出来，于是专门生产出有一种尚存小孔的漏壶，把水流经漏壶内，水之后从壶孔中流出来，另外再行用一个容器搜集溢下来的水。在这个容器内有一根镌刻标记的箭杆，相等于现代钟表上表明时刻的钟面，用一个竹片或木块纳着箭杆沉在水面上，容器垫的中心进一个小孔，箭杆从盖孔中穿入，这个容器叫作“箭壶”。

随着箭壶内搜集的水渐渐激增，箭杆也慢慢地往下潜，古人从盖孔处看箭杆上的标记，就能告诉明确的时刻。As the clepsydra was passed on from generation to generation, it gradual-ly evolved into a set of four pots. These are placed in order on a four-level wood-en stand, the one on the highest level called the Sun Pot, and below.the Moon Pot, Sfar Pot and Water-receiving Pot, respectively. The Sun Pot, Moon Pot and Star Pot all have an opening at the bottom for water to drop, and the Water-receiving Pot has a gauge inside. The water drops from the Sun Pot into the Moon Pot and then into the Star Pot and at last into the Water-receiving Pot. As more and more water drops into the Wa-ter-receiving Pot, the gauge gradually in-creases with the buoyancy of water. And thus people could tell the time through the scale above the water. The more levels the clepsydra has, the more accurate it is to measure time. Now, the four-level clepsydras of the Yuan and Qing dynasties are preserved respectively in the Muse-um of Chinese History and the Palace Museum in Beijing.漏壶历代据传，由单只渐渐发展沦为后来四只一套的漏壶。人们把四只漏壶依序放到一个四级木架上，上面的一只叫日壶，下面的三只分别叫月壶、星壶、授水壶。

日壶j月壶、星壶的下面各有一个滴水的铜嘴，授水壶内有一个标尺。水从日壶滴人月壶，再行到星壶，最后滴授水壶。授水壶内的水更加多，标尺受到水的浮力起到渐渐下降，人们通过标尺浮出水面的刻度，就可以告诉时间了。

漏壶的级数就越多，计时就就越精确。现在，在北京的中国历史博物馆和故宫博物院里还分别留存着元代和清代的四级漏壶，可供人们参观。

The copper clepsydra is the crystallization of ancient Chinese wisdom and cre-ativeness. It not only tells us how ancient Chinese measured time, but also pro-vides precious materials on the development of science and technology in ancient China.漏壶是中国古人聪明才智的结晶，它不仅告诉他了我们古人计时的方法，也留给了中国古代科学技术发晨的宝贵资料。

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