The Rosharan Clock

[+tabitreader he/him]

Does anyone have an idea what a Rosharan clock might look like?

Example: Shallan looked at the clock to realize it was half past the first moon's bell.

Sorry if this topic has already been answered. If so, could you link it below.

[Nashan’Elin he/him]

I think it's been called a fabrial clock, no idea what it would look like though. 

[Patrick Star]

It's a giant wheel that Sadeas is in charge of. He always has a crew of bridgemen turning it at a constant pace.

[sheep]

 

The town’s only fabrial clock sat here on the counter. The small device bore a single dial at the center and a glowing Smokestone at its heart; it had to be infused to keep the time. Nobody else in the town cared about minutes and hours as Lirin did.

Chapter 10, "Stories of Surgeons", WoK

 

 

I imagined them as simple looking vertical sundial-like clocks.  A round dial set on a box designed to hold a bit of infused Smokestone either in a cage in the front (like Navani's ruby heating fabrials) or a little latch at the back where you can take out the stone to recharge it during a highstorm.  The box is weighted to prevent the clock from accidentally being tipped over when set on your desk, because these aren't modern Earth wall clocks.

[The Honor Spren she/her]

How would the sundial part work if the smokestone doesn't move?

[sheep]

How would the sundial part work if the smokestone doesn't move?

 

Long answer: Maybe the Smokestone is kept in a small cage inside the big cage that is held by small wound strings like bobbins in a sewing machine.  And it is kept synced to a MegaClock in Kholinar that uses a gemheart and mechanical gears, like how spanreeds are linked.  Because how else would you set your time when you take the stone out to recharge during a storm and there are no other clocks in town to check with. 

 

Short answer:  It's magic.

[kaellok he/him]

Imagine a battery-operated clock.  Now imagine that the battery is a Smokestone instead.  

 

If you're interested in the internal mechanics of the clock that make it work, I don't think anyone can help you.  But if you just want to know what it looks like?  There's really three basic requirements for a clock to have that have remained fairly constant for at least a couple thousand years, even as the way they have been used and created have changed dramatically.  You need something to point to the current time, you need something that causes the pointer to move, and you need a way to power that consistently and reliably.  Sundials have the dial itself remain static, and use the sun and rotation of the Earth for the other two.  Other clocks use gears to slowly change the time, powered by mechanical energy (winding up the clock/watch, use of the pendulum in grandfather clocks, dripping water, etc.), or electricity (yay batteries!)  Rosharans have simply added magic to a method of powering the clock, so I would still imagine the gears to remain a necessity.

 

I personally use a a near-Renaissance era clock for my imaginings.

[ecohansen]

Anyone have any ideas about why smokestone is the gem of choice?  The best I can think is that Smokestance is a stance that requires "constant motion", so maybe smokestone somehow 'moves' something at a constant rate.

[+tabitreader he/him]

Whoa, these are all great postulations on a fictional Rosharan timepiece. Perhaps also there are other dials showing moon positions throughout the solar day and night.

Another thing that I am curious of is about Desolations. We have had 99 of them and are currently in the final one. When each desolation is concluded, aren't all Engineering and Stormlight feats of learning decimated and lost throughout the destruction of the literature of the land and most of the entire population? I'm given to understand that at least one human woman and one human man are made to survive each of the desolations. Please correct my errors if any, thanks Heroes of the 17th.

Edited March 3, 2016 by tabitreader

[Rasarr she/her]

Anyone have any ideas about why smokestone is the gem of choice?  The best I can think is that Smokestance is a stance that requires "constant motion", so maybe smokestone somehow 'moves' something at a constant rate.

 

Nice catch, I didn't notice the "smoke" being an important part until you pointed it out. I guess perhaps smokestone, when infused with stormlight, would somehow move back and forth so that it could be hung on a line to make a pendulum? This would make Rosharan clocks be some sort of small pendulum clocks, I guess? (disclaimer: Rasarr doesn't actually know whether a pendulum clock small enough to look like a mantel clock would work)

Edited March 3, 2016 by Rasarr

[Pathfinder]

Nice catch, I didn't notice the "smoke" being an important part until you pointed it out. I guess perhaps smokestone, when infused with stormlight, would somehow move back and forth so that it could be hung on a line to make a pendulum? This would make Rosharan clocks be some sort of small pendulum clocks, I guess? (disclaimer: Rasarr doesn't actually know whether a pendulum clock small enough to look like a mantel clock would work)

There are pendulum clocks that are that size, see below:

 

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#safe=off&q=torsion+pendulum+clock

[ecohansen]

Alright, new thought on the mechanism.

 

The WoR Ars Arcanum states that five types of fabrials have been discovered so far.  Conjoiners, Reversers, and Warning fabrials all require specific gems, and none of those are smokestone.  So the fabrial clock must be either an augmenter or a diminisher.  The AA states that augmenters can create "heat, pain, or even a calm wind".  Since smokestone's essence creates opaque gasses, it seems likely that a smokestone augmenter would create a "calm wind".  So, the moving air is forced down a channel, where it drives a paddle or a piston.  The fabrial clock is essentially a steam clock.  Of course, the force of the moving air will probably diminish as the stone loses stormlight, so you'd need something like the balance wheel of a spring-driven watch to maintain constant motion in the dial.

 

***

Sheep, you asked how the clock would be reset after the gem was re-infused. Probably the same way that clock-towers were reset before timezones came into existence:  you set the clock to noon at solar noon (which you can easily and accurately determine with the shadow of a leaning stick oriented north/south).  And since it's the only clock in town, it doesn't matter if it says it's 12:15 when it's really 12:20--what matters is that it divides time up evenly, and when it says that a patient has been under anaesthesia for an hour, he's been under for exactly an hour.

 

Patrickstar: But how would the bridgemen know how to walk at a constant rate if they didn't have a stopwatch to allow them to keep that pace?

 

Tabitreader: Yep, you have it pretty much right.  Note that the upcoming Desolation is the True Desolation, and so will be different from prior Desolations in several ways (none of the previous Desolations had an Everstorm, for instance).  You might want to check out the desolation page on Coppermind, enter "desolation" in the searchbar, or browse older threads in this forum.

Edited March 3, 2016 by ecohansen