MANY CLOCKS OF MANY WAYS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10598, 29 October 1910, Page 3 (Supplement)

MANY CLOCKS OF MANY WAYS.

The first mechanical device for telling tho time was the sundial. Of use only on fine days, a substitute was neccessary, and tile sand glass followed. Later came the water clock, a curious in use among the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Babylonians, and other ancient peonies of the Esat. This was the first approach to a clock as we now understand the term. It consisted of a basin of water set in

some public place Al one end ot the bas'ii was a spout fiom which the water diopped uniioimh into a iccenei having giaduations lot maikmg the hours somewhat attei the tashiou of a thermometer. The clocks of to-day, wntes William T. Walsh in the Scientific Amencan, do not surpass or even equal those of 'the -fourteenth and fifteenth' centuiies jin the wonder or beauty of their'couistruction. Clocks are common things Every householder has at least one. We do not have to depend upon the great {timepiece of church belfry oi of tower. SRelativehvlifec everything 1 else in this jmodcin day,•> because ' ,'of\ its common johaiactei,' the clock has lost something 'in importance. - Still the chaim enduies ,of creating unusual types. <" For instance, m the very modem city of Chicago jtho spirit of the old clockmakers lives in the person of one Franz Bohacck, a native of Patzau, Bohemia. Twenty vcars of careful, pa-Gioiit labor have seen his efforts ciowned by the completion of what is one of tho most remarkable timepieces ever seen in Amoiica. In it tho maker has combined the aitistic spnit of tho craftsman of the middle ages with the accuracy of the twentieth centuiy man < t science.

Bohacck's clock, made up of moie than one thousand parts, is two stones high. Its weights are so heavy that "hvo windlasses must be employed to wind them up It'is a veiy elaboiato affair altogether ancTyet every part has a specific reason for being. It has five dials. The first of these is thai of the ordinary clock, meiely for telling the time of day. The second also is for that purpose, only in place of twelve' numbers there are twenty four, somewhat in the style of tlie old one'hand Italian clocks. On tlie next dial tlie day of the week, the day of the month;' and the month of tlie year are indicated by three series cf i numbers and"three .hands. The fourth d'al, six feet in' diameter, represents the solar system, w : ith the sun in tlie j con i re various planets'revolving about. These celestial bodies tiavel in exact accord with the real solar system itself. i'ho filth and last dial marks time, in, exact, or practically exact, harmony with the laws of astronomy. As every ono knows, the ,\ear consists of 3G5 d_ft\s 5 bonis 48 minutes 46 seconds. Each month, thirteen in number, has therefore, 28 days, and each day consists of 24 hours 4 minutes 54 seconds. On Bohacek's clock, a second, as measured b,\ ordinary clocks, is 0.00341275 of a second longer. This is not precisely i mht, being in a day 85-100 of a second slow—a slight discrepancy, all things considered.

This clock has many other remarkable

features, /besides, those already mentioned. There are' figures that represent '-. various events iii American history. ."-There are figures for. all .the Presidents of the .United. States and one held- ill : reserve.. .'.These figures appear ,at appropriate moments. This remarkable /timepiece ha's many other "extraordinary features, which lack- ofspace will not permit to be chronicled here. ;, '

Another Bohemian;, Joseph Bayer, a glass cutter .by.trade, resident in the country of his birth, has employed glass as a lnodiumfor building a clock. With the exception of the spring every portion is of, crystal glass. The three hands, hour,' minute, ' and second, as well as the -apparatus .-for- striking >re, all of glass. The clock is sixteen., inches high. ...... .. .

■An Italian, Siro Tiburzi of Fabriano, Italy, has tried his hand at a clock made solely of wicker work and poplar twigs;- The dial, cord, and weights are of wicker work, the remaining parts are of both'wicker work and poplar twigs. The mechanism is similar to that of a'tower .clock, with the ex-: ceptiori of - tne 'striking parts,"-witli which it is not equipped. It stands: eight feet high arid will run twenty-, seven hours with Bne winding. , Another: nationality and another sort c:f. timepiece are represented by a r.traw clock of ;a .German shoemaker. It is built wholly of this one" material, of which .several thousand pieces were vMisA in the• construction. 'There are eight jjendulums. The mechanism is wound up by the pressing of a button, when it will run .for five-hours., The hands are set .by means of another 'button. ''...No spring is" used. The weight of this' ingenious "bit' of craftsmanshirj is 7oz. '.'.'"'■ 7 :

The flow ei clock, while not so no', el ab some others,,'is still a %on uiteiestuig t\pe of the unusual clock. Tho single Iloial clock of which England cm licasl began to ivn in tho sumi.iei ox 1907 niid was started bj tho llavorpss of Bridlington, whcie it is located Ten thousand plants make up the dill, which is h\cl\c f<et in dumpui, set in a cucnlai b"d nineteen forr vide The dial numbcis, tile :>nd the fifths of minutes aio 'naikod oli each b\ a difieicnt kind el p'ant A doc k m a bottle is tho iiniivu.il di\i<o of j Geinian waichinakpi, H. Hci c in, ni Goniniei, ne.n Amdgohui g rii" i"ikei took ,i mmonidit w tli i 'Umdci escipep'Oiit l'loasiiiing I<)it\-f'»u nulhmetois (1 77 inches) m dirimetei and began hj) sa-wnu, the plate into liihos The opening ol the neck uieaMiKs dlteen niilluneici? (0 59m), air' in oidei to get these bahes into the bottle anothei segment i\<is cut ofi eich ol tli'c hah of ot the plate. TV' i irstmg place ol the movement a smt of tiipocl was constituted, which "i« pat ' ogothci iltci its parts had been ml 1 educed into tlie bottle separately l'his tnpo 1 was made m such a i,'Ji ver that it cannot turn duiiif" the •\»'diii£ of tlu no+ement lie f v.ith scipas to the plattoim attached,to the tnpod the foui pieces nl the piato side b> side, using loi this opoiahoi a long, sciewdir.ei and othc i topis cpccially constinctcd lor the purpose. The plate having thus lieu lestoied ip its onginal form, all nails, of tlu movement weicpiiL in then original placps with the motion v heels foi the Lands Fmllicimoie he placed aiound the ueek of the bottle a ling of nhito nictil upon which was soldered a lound plate, completely closing the opening Upon this cover weie fastened the aims in an inclined position, these being intended to seivc for tho support of the dii l The dial is made ol a giound glass plate, having a diameter of 20 r.'ivtimeteis (7.87 inches). The figuios are cut skeleton fashion and cemented to the glass. Tho minutes lines aio pavnted 'n black. This airangomcnt peimits the use of the timepiece for a lught clock by pbcm}T a light behind the dial. The ftguies, which measure 2 centimetcis "(0 79 inch) in length, aic sufficiently plain ' ' An axboi or a staff which passes through the' covei on the neck of the bottle carries at its lovoi extieme end a conical wheel, geared m the motion wheels, by -neans of which the liands may be turned Another aibor enters tlie' intehoi of th- bottle { until it ieach.es the movement, where'it is canncctexl with it by means of a hollow s#u"re, teaching tho maimpiing bailel and serving for "the winding ' The bottle is made of transpaicnt fijass, exposing to lew all the paits in the intonoi Its height measures-25 centimetcis (9 84 inches) and it<s nitencr diameter 7 centimeters (2.76 mehes) The wholo is placed upon a dies,-to which it is iastened'by thiee brackets. ~ j'