For centuries, we have found beautiful, simple, & ingenious solutions to questions like "What time is it?" and "How much time do I have?".

This Roman bronze bowl has a small hole in the bottom. Not much use for storage, but very handy if you need a timer. 1/4

Here's how it worked: fill a larger vessel with water and float the bowl inside. The water seeps in and the bowl gradually sinks.

In Roman times, the bowl clock had an attendant who announced the interval of time had passed and reset the bowl to sink again. 2/4

If you don't have a willing attendant & want to turn any bowl into a functioning water clock, you'd have to work out:

the weight of the bowl
the diameter of the hole
how much water you need

but we reckon it's more fun than just pushing a button on your mobile device. 3/4

So — do try this at home (but please first ask permission of the person whose bowl you want to put a hole in ).

http://ow.ly/qHDC50D7m8W 

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