[time-nuts] Atom of time?

[Gary Chatters]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_(unit)

Max Robinson wrote:
> A recent answer on Jeopardy involved an atom of time.  The clue was "In 
> the 16th century this term described 1/374 of a minute.  It wasn't 
> applied to matter for another 150 years."  The correct response was " 
> What is an atom?" My research on Google for "atom of time" turned up 
> nothing relevant to this. Does anyone know what might have been the 
> origin of this number?  My first guess was that it was based on gear 
> ratios for the escapement but at 6.2333... atoms per second it seems a 
> little fast for the clocks of that century.
> 
> Regards.
> 
> Max.  K 4 O D S.
>