A hydrochronometer is a kind of

water clock A water clock, or clepsydra (; ; ), is a timepiece by which time is measured by the regulated flow of liquid into (inflow type) or out from (outflow type) a vessel, and where the amount of liquid can then be measured. Water clocks are some of ...

. In 1867 Fr. Giovan Battista Embriaco, O.P., inventor and professor of the

College of St. Thomas The University of St. Thomas (also known as UST or simply St. Thomas) is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic research university with campuses in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Fo ...

in Rome, created a hydrochronometer and sent it to the Paris Universal Exposition of 1867, where it received many prizes. It had the shape of a wooden pinnacle made of cast iron fused as a tree trunk, while its four dials were visible from all directions. In 1873, the water clock was returned to Rome and placed in

Villa Borghese gardens Villa Borghese is a landscape garden in Rome, containing a number of buildings, museums (see Galleria Borghese) and attractions. It is the third-largest public park in Rome (80 hectares or 197.7 acres), after the ones of the Villa Doria Pamphi ...

into a fountain realized by the architect Gioacchino Ersoch. It is still there and works constantly. In June 2007, after two years of restoration a
ELIS School
it was restarted by the Town Mayor of Rome. Another hydrochromometer can be found at Palazzo Berardi, rione Pigna, Rome.

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External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20100419133812/http://www.orologiodelpincio.it/en/homepage Water clocks 1867 introductions {{tool-stub