雙語科技百科(物理) 第39期:漏壺

The Clepsydra

漏壺

The clepsydra is an instrument for time calculation in anaent 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” the water level increased, the arrow also Moved upwards,and people could know the exact time through looking at the marks on the arrow.

漏壺是中國古代的一種計時工具。最初，人們發現陶器中的水會從裂縫中一滴一滴地漏出來，於是專門製造出一種留有小孔的漏壺，把水注入漏壺內，水便從壺孔中流出來，另外再用一個容器收集漏下來的水。在這個容器內有一根刻有標記的箭桿，相當於現代鐘錶上顯示時刻的鐘面，用一個竹片或木塊託着箭桿浮在水面上，容器蓋的中心開一個小孔，箭桿從蓋孔中穿出，這個容器叫做“箭壺”。隨着箭壺內收集的水逐漸增多，箭桿也慢慢地往上浮，古人從蓋孔處看箭桿上的標記，就能知道具體的時刻。

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 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.

漏壺歷代相傳，由單隻逐漸發展成爲後來四隻一套的漏壺。人們把四隻漏壺依次放在一個四級木架上，上面的一隻叫日壺，下面的三隻分別叫月壺、星壺、授水壺。日壺j月壺、星壺的下面各有一個滴水的銅嘴，授水壺內有一個標尺。水從日壺滴人月壺，再到星壺，最後滴入授水壺。授水壺內的水越來越多，標尺受到水的浮力作用逐漸上升，人們通過標尺浮出水面的刻度，就可以知道時間了。漏壺的級數越多，計時就越準確。現在，在北京的中國歷史博物館和故宮博物院裏還分別保存着元代和清代的四級漏壺，供人們參觀。

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.

漏壺是中國古人聰明才智的結晶，它不僅告訴了我們古人計時的方法，也留下了中國古代科學技術發晨的寶貴資料。