Clipper Ship Sandglass Timer

This is a reproduction 14 second sandglass timer of small proportions. This type of sandglass would have been used in conjunction with a chip log to measure the speed of ships like the China clippers in the early to mid 19th Century. Up until the advent of the high speed clipper ships, the sandglass timer used with the standard log-line was 28 seconds, which requires 400 feet of log-line to be paid out when doing 8.5 knots. But with clipper ships reaching speeds of over 16 knots the length of log-line to be paid out became excessive. So it was decided to cut the time measured by the sandglass in half so that the same length of log-line would measure double the speed.