Hydrochronometer

A hydrochronometer is a kind of water clock.

In 1867 Fr. Giovan Battista Embriaco, O.P., inventor and professor of the College of St. Thomas 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 into a fountain realized by the architect Gioacchino Ersoch. It is still there and works constantly.