Chinese candle clock
Reloj de vela chino
- Date
- c. 518 · confidence medium
- Place
- Jiankang (Nanjing), Jiangsu, China
- Credited to
- Liang dynasty (poem by You Jianwu)
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A wax candle marked at regular intervals that measures the passing of the hours by how much of it burns. A poem by You Jianwu (c. 518) mentions marked candles as a measure of night time; it is the earliest written evidence of a candle clock.
It is known only from a poem; no candle has survived. In Europe another candle clock is ascribed to Alfred the Great (9th century) on a late source, and in Islam they are described in the 13th century.
What it led to
- candle clocks in Europe and the Islamic world
- measuring the night when neither sun nor water is available