Blaugust Day 10 - Clockwork: A History Of The Word

I have had people ask me, what is a Clockwork? What does it mean? Where is it from?

The Definition 

Clockwork's definition from Oxford Dictionaries says that it means "a mechanism with a spring and toothed gearwheels, used to drive a mechanical toy or other device." It can also mean the inner machine of a mechanical clock or similar devices that uses a complex series of gears. For example, machines that operates wind-up toys, music boxes, hand-powered electrical equipment like a clockwork radio and even mechanical calculators that were developed before World War II. There are so many more examples. But one I found interesting was Orreries. An Orrery is this cool mechanical model of the solar system that would show and predict the locations and motions of the planets and moons.

The History

The earliest known examples of an actual clockwork mechanism was in the first century BC. It was an astrolabe device for calculating star positions which was recovered from a Greek shipwreck. They call it the Antikythera mechanism. Apparently this kind of sophistication in clockwork technology was forgotten for hundreds of years in Europe. It returned to Europe when it was brought back from Islamic world after the Crusades. This knowledge, along with others, actually helped lead the way to the Renaissance. Remember Leonardo Da Vinci and his flying machines? I'm sure at the time people thought that Leonardo was nutty. But his ideas actually were successful hundreds of years later. Planes, helicopters, hang gliders and so many more. We now can fly.. with help. Poor Icarus, he should have asked Leonardo first if Wax was a good idea.

The Science

Interestingly enough, in the history of science, there's such a thing called the Clockwork Universe. It compares the universe to a mechanical clock. The mechanical clock is a perfect machine which ticks along perfectly, following the laws of physics. This idea was popular back during the Enlightenment when Issac Newton was still around to talk about his laws of motion. You know the apple hitting him in the head and gravity thing? That thing. Anyway, they used the Clockwork Universe idea to explain the behavior of terrestrial objects and the solar system..

The Name

There is actually a puppeteer who uses Clockwork as his stage name. Johnathan Edward Cross, whose stage name is Jonny Clockworks, is a well known puppeteer. He have had puppet shows, been part of television and even helped stage a puppet show for singer Norah Jones a few years ago. He is also the artistic director of the Cosmic Bicycle Theatre and the Clockworks Experimental Puppetry Studios in New York City. He created many works such as "The Mechanical," "The Marriage of Mother Earth and Father Sky," "NetherWorld," "A Morality Vaudeville," "The Alchemical Work," and "Dr. Kronopolis and the TimeKeeper Chronicles - A Space Opera." He also created miniature works. Clockwork puppets and a clockwork puppeteer. Hmmmm.. So interesting!

My Thoughts

I find all of this interesting because while researching about this, I keep finding tidbits that fits in the Pirate101 story. Think about it.

The Armada are actually clockwork machines. They believe in the idea of perfect. They see us, the pirates and the people of the spiral as imperfect. That's why they want to take over the spiral because they think they are better rulers. They're perfect machines with perfect logical ideas living in an imperfect spiral. Instead of an imperfect universe, they want a Clockwork Universe literally.

The clockwork machines, such as the Astrolabe and Orrery, made me think of the windstones and the machine we use to place the windstones in. Not to mention the torn map of the spiral that we are trying to piece together. All together, they help us track stormgates and worlds' locations all with the help of physics. And apparently this will help us find El Dorado.

Lastly, there's also a toymaker, could he be the puppeteer or someone else? If not, who is the real puppeteer? That's an interesting question to think about. Someone has to control the Armada Elite.... Right? Maybe a clockwork puppeteer?

From one single word, Clockwork, we get to learn so many different things that actually relates to the Pirate101 story. This is amazing to me. Just one word? Awesome.

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