When was the astronomical clock built in the city where Václav Smetáček lived when he died?
1410
Title: Václav Smetáček
Passage: Václav Smetáček (30 September 1906 in Brno – 18 February 1986 in Prague) was a Czech conductor, composer, and oboist.
Title: May Events
Passage: May Events () is a Czech comedy film directed by Václav Berdych and Martin Frič. It was released in 1951.
Title: John Knibb
Passage: John Knibb (1650–1722) was an English clockmaker born in Claydon, Oxfordshire. He produced various clocks and watches including bracket clocks, lantern clocks, longcase clocks, and some wall-clocks, as well as building and maintaining several turret clocks. Even though his main market was catering to customers of modest means, he also dominated the higher-quality sector. Only six of Knibb's watches are known to survive.
Title: Charles Dillon Perrine
Passage: Charles Dillon Perrine (July 28, 1867 – June 21, 1951) was an American astronomer living in Argentina. He won the Lalande Prize in 1897.
Title: Clock Tower, Brighton
Passage: The Clock Tower (sometimes called the Jubilee Clock Tower) is a free-standing clock tower in the centre of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Built in 1888 in commemoration of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, the distinctive structure included innovative structural features and became a landmark in the popular and fashionable seaside resort. The city's residents "retain a nostalgic affection" for it, even though opinion is sharply divided as to the tower's architectural merit. English Heritage has listed the clock tower at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
Title: Prague astronomical clock
Passage: The oldest part of the Orloj, the mechanical clock and astronomical dial, dates back to 1410 when it was made by clockmaker Mikuláš of Kadaň and Jan Šindel, then later a professor of mathematics and astronomy at Charles University. The first recorded mention of the clock was on 9 October 1410. Later, presumably around 1490, the calendar dial was added and the clock facade was decorated with gothic sculptures.
Title: Time
Passage: The most precise timekeeping device of the ancient world was the water clock, or clepsydra, one of which was found in the tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep I (1525–1504 BC). They could be used to measure the hours even at night, but required manual upkeep to replenish the flow of water. The Ancient Greeks and the people from Chaldea (southeastern Mesopotamia) regularly maintained timekeeping records as an essential part of their astronomical observations. Arab inventors and engineers in particular made improvements on the use of water clocks up to the Middle Ages. In the 11th century, Chinese inventors and engineers invented the first mechanical clocks driven by an escapement mechanism.
Title: William Brydone Jack Observatory
Passage: The William Brydone Jack Observatory is a small astronomical observatory on the campus of the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Constructed in 1851, it was the first astronomical observatory built in British North America. The observatory was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1954.
Title: Johannes Stöffler
Passage: Johannes Stöffler was born on 10 December 1452, in Justingen near Blaubeuren on the Swabian Alb. Having received his basic education at the Blaubeuren monastery school, he registered at the newly founded University of Ingolstadt on 21 April 1472, where he was consequently promoted Baccalaureus in September 1473 and Magister in January 1476. After finishing his studies he obtained the parish of Justingen where he, besides his clerical obligations, concerned himself with astronomy, astrology and the making of astronomical instruments, clocks and celestial globes. He conducted a lively correspondence with leading humanists - for example, Johannes Reuchlin, for whom he made an Equatorium and wrote horoscopes.
Prague astronomical clock Václav Smetáček