Finally, one last oddity. If you look at the numbers around the edge, the bottom ones appear to be upside down, which is a rather weird. This is probably because modern clocks evolved from sundials which you looked across to read the time rather than look at face on. This then seems to have been carried over on to mechanical clocks, even though it didn't necessarily make any sense to do so.

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While on the subject of old clocks, have you ever noticed that the Roman numerals used for the number four are IIII and not IV as you might expect. There seems to be no good explanation for this, other than the fact it looks better as it means all the first four numbers contain only Is, the second four are the only ones which contain Vs and the third four are the only ones which contain Xs.

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Have you ever wondered why old public clocks, like this one in the 16th century Tron Steeple in Glasgow, have blue faces with gold numerals and hands? It was a tradition started by Henry the Eight in England based on a verse from the Old Testament (Exodus 39), which quickly became fashionable and spread throughout the UK.

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#glasgow #tronsteeple #oldclocks #weirdfacts #clockfacts #henryviii