Why clocks run clockwise - article

[mklotz]

I like the idea that it's based on the apparent movement of shadows. Originally we told time by sun position. Looking at the sun is painful so most folks look at a shadow. This evolved into many forms of sundials.

Mechanical clocks, the kind we know with a revolving hand(s) to indicate the time, were first developed in Europe. All of Europe lies north of the Tropic of Cancer so the sun is always in the southern portion of the sky and the shadow of a vertical gnomon always points north. As the day progresses, the shadow appears to move in a clockwise motion, west to east.

The earliest clock makers had a long term exposure to clockwise shadows and it's not hard to believe that they thought of the clock hand as a mechanical shadow. Of course, we can't prove any of this but our histories are full of things we accept without unshakable proof. (Anthropologists posit complex Neandertal behaviors from a few scratched bone sherds.)