Dayglass

With the arrival of the railway companies in De Weslanan, it became necessary to measure time in a different way than usually (with stonds). The railway people had to know when to leave the waiting halls and when to arrive. And the trains had a constant speed, so "departure at sunrise, arrival at sunset" did not work out.

The solution to the problem was the development of the dayglass. This is a large bottle that drips water and within a given time the bottle will be empty. Then, it is filled again, so the next time unit can be measured. Most of these bottles are large enough to count the time for a full day. At mid-day, a time that is given by Fon, the bottle is gauged and filled up again.
With a scale on the bottle the time can be measured.
The dayglass was improved when a bell was added to it. The water then drips into a glass, and with a certain weight of the glass, a construction (based on the scales-technics) rings a bell. The timewatcher then has to change the glass for an empty one. This way, the timewatcher does not have to look at the dayglass all the time, but can do other work in the meantime.
The size of the glass can be changed to indicate shorter or longer periods of time. Like the stonds, the glass-size is based on the 8 stonds of the day. There are 1 day glasses (16 glasses), 1/2 day glasses (8 glasses), 1/4 day glasses (4 glasses), 1/8 day glasses (2 glasses) and 1/16 day glasses (called "a glass", not to be confused with the glass in the inn as content unit, although some will fight in a tavrn-brawl to make a content-glass and a time-glass the same size), and those are divided in even smaller amounts as 1/2 glass, 1/4 glass etc.
The time is measured until or from noon. This means that at 1 till noon, one has to wait 1 glass until it is noon, and at 1 afternoon, it is one glass past noon.

Timewatcher

The timewatcher is a person who is important in the railroad traffic. He or she has to watch the time go by and prepare the waiting halls for the arrival or departure of the train. On the glass of departure, he gives the sign the train can leave. On arrival, he has to clear the railroad so the train will have free access.
Long distance trains do also have a dayglass aboard.

Glass versus stonds

The unit "glass" is only used in traffic, and mostly railroad traffic although some coach companies have taken over the idea. In normal life, people still work with the traditional stonds. Some scientists try to make the glass the standard time unit, but normal people frown upon that. Time measured by glasses does not hold the divine time as set by Fon, and you can't work with it, because it would mean you have to get up before sunrise or work after sunset - a problem you don't have if working with stonds.
The fongateihains is a portable instrument for the common traveller, and the dayglass is not and thus it will not be very popular on the road.
To help indicate the table, the Springstond is used, this is the length of the day on spring equinix, divided by 4.

Table (approximately):
Glass Stond
(equinox)
Hour
16 8 24
2 1 3
1 1/2 1 1/2
(1/6) (1/3) (1)

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