Object Name: Hourglass

Object ID: 41.20

Date: 1957

Description: This sandglass has a wooden frame and two glass bulbs connected in the middle by waxed rope with twine on either end to suspend the object. Sandglasses were used to measure the passage of time and were especially important during sails. Usually the cabin boy, or another crew member, would carefully keep track of the sand in order to flip the glass when all of the sand fell to the lower bulb, often in half-hour segments. This was how time was normally kept onboard vessels like Mayflower as the chronometer did not come into use until the 18th-century.