Workshop Hints
Roman Numeral Clock Faces

Why do some clocks use IIII and others use IV?

 

The British Horological Institute has archived and edited the following from e-mails sent to the Clock/Clockers mailing lists on the Internet. The information here does not necessarily indicate a method approved by the BHI, we are only publishing this digest so that others can decide for themselves whether the methods listed below will suit them.

The real reason for the numbering is a mystery, the use of the IIII instead of the IV goes back at least to the roman times, as there are Clepsedora (water clocks) known to have this form of numbering even then.

Why Use IIII?

The most likely reason for it's use on round faced clocks is that if you look at a clock face, the 8 is VIII. To try and give some symmetry, the 4 was written as IIII. This way both numbers have four digits. However, not all clocks use the IIII. Some clocks, such as some Japanese tower (turret) clocks and also the Westminster Tower Clock, otherwise known as Big Ben use the IV.

Other possible reasons are:-

1. That in fact the Romans themselves up to the first couple centuries AD used IIII; and that IV is a "Late Latin" change, and numerous now-surviving classical Roman monuments with legends carved on them do use the IIII form. If we accept as fact the reality that the ancient Roman's did indeed prefer the use of IIII to IV for numbering (look in most museums at the statuary and other artefacts to be convinced), we need a viable explanation. The reason was probably religious in nature. Bear in mind the fact that in ancient Latin (i.e.: 2000 years ago), the language (and the carvers making statues etc.) used what we would recognise as a "V" for a "U", and they used "I" for what we now call "J". The Roman god Jupiter's name, when written in Latin, begins with IV, and it seems it would have been considered blasphemous to use it as a mere number.
2. The book 'Famous Watch Houses" by Elena Introna & Gabriele Ribolini has this to say: Quoted from Page 42 "...Curiously, on all the dials with Roman numerals the number 4 is written IIII and not IV, Common enough practice today, but the reason for this goes back to 1364 when Charles V scolded a watchmaker for writing IV on a tower clock. The watchmaker, Henry De Vick, argued his case, but the King brusquely replied: "I am never wrong" and so IV had to become IIII". unquote.

Why Use IV?

The IV form entered clockmaking practice in the last quarter of the 17th century when some makers (Knibb, most notably to me) made some clocks with "Roman Striking" a form of striking in which there was one large bell and one small bell. The large bell "meant" five. So four o'clock would be one stroke on the small bell followed by one stroke of the large bell (etc.). This ends up requiring many fewer strokes to tell the hour in the course of a day; hence the clock could run for longer, or better, etc. All clocks with genuine Roman striking have the IV on the dial.

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