TIME-KEEPERS: CURIOUS AND OTHERWISE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XII, Issue XII, 24 March 1894, Page 274

TIME-KEEPERS: CURIOUS AND OTHERWISE.

BY

WILLIAM FRANCIS.

We take no note of time. But from its loss. To give it then a tongue la wise in man. Dr. Young. IME has been defined as * a measured portion of infinite duration ’ —as * a fragment of eternity broken off at both ends.’ The methods which have been chosen for noting the onward progress of the ‘ fell destroyer ’ have widely differed in different ages, and a glance at some of them may prove a subject of interest to our readers. The first time indicator was the sun-dial, and the earliest sun-dial of which there is any anthentic record is that mentioned in 11. Kings as set up in Jerusalem by King Ahaz, and on which the shadow went backward ten steps as the sign of his son’s recovery. Berosus, the Chaldean philosofher who flourished about 520 B c., constructed a sun-dial, n one of the comedies of Plautus he causes a Parasite to declaim against sun-dials as follows:— The gods confound the man who first found out How to distinguish hours; confound him too Who first in this place set up a sun-dial to cut And hack my days so wretchedly Into small portions. When I was a boy My belly was my sun-dial—one more sure. Truer, and more exact than any of them. This dial told me when ’twas proper time To go to dinner (when I had aught to eat); But nowadays (why, even when I have) I can t fall to unless the sun give leave. The town’s so full of these accursed dials That the greater part of its inhabitants Shrunk up with hunger creep along the streets. The water-clock was the next time indicator; but the name of the inventor has not been reliably recorded. The nature and fashion of the clepsydroe, or water-clocks, originally employed by the Greeks, and subsequently by the Romans, may be understood from passages in the works of Aristotle and other writers ; but representatives of these instruments are of very rare occurrence. One in a bas-relief on the Mattei Palace at Rome resembles in form the hourglass of the present day. Water clocks of the common kind were very simple in their make. In a wooden frame two vessels were placed one above the other. In the bottom of the npper vessel was a small aperture—the lower vessel contained a wooden float with a cord attached to it — which cord passed over a pulley with indications upon it. The upper vessel was filled with water, and the water passing through the small aperture into the lower vessel caused the float to rise, and thereby moved the pulley with the string indications upon it. Others were of a more elaborate design. Vitruvius tells us of one of these instruments which, besides the hours, showed also the moon’s age, the Zodiacal sign of the month and other matters. The pipes of the more costly kinds were made of gold or of perforated gems. The ancient Egyptians, who need them in various unseemly shapes, are said to have applied them to astronomical purposes. Ceosar is reported to have found a

water-clock in use among the natives of our own island, and by its help to have observed that the summer nights of Britain were shorter ithan those of Italy. These waterclocks, of course, were subject to radical defects—the water ran out with greater or less facility as the atmosphere was more or less dense, and also flowed quicker when it had nearly run out than when first permitted to escape. The sand-glass was the next time indicator. It was in reality a modification of the water clock, in which sand was substituted for water. '■ This instrument, on account of its cheapness, portability, ttnd simplicity, continued in use in this country to a very recent day. Indeed, sand glasses are still used in Parliament to mark certain prescribed periods ; and the Rev. Henry White, of the Savoy, who died 1890, always kept a twenty minute glass in his pulpit to mark the length of his sermon. Then followed the candle clock. Alfred the Great, a man of keen perception, knew that division of labour was half the labour done. He divided his day into three parts of eight hours each—the first he devoted to sleep, to meals, and to exercise, eight hours were absorbed by the affairs of the Government, and eight more were given to study and devotion. The king indicated his time by the> constant burning of candles which were all made of regular size and weight. They were notched upon the stems at regular distances. These candles were 12 inches long. Six of them, or 72 inches of wax, were consumed in 24 hours, or 1,440 minutes, and thus, supposing the notches at intervals of one inch, one inch would mark the lapse of 20 minutes. It was soon discovered, however, that the wind rushing through the windows and doors, and numerous chinks in the wall of bis Salace, the wax was consumed in an irregular manner, lothing daunted, Alfred soon overcame the difficulty. He discovered that thin sheets .of horn were transparent. Accordingly, with this material and wood he constructed a case for his candles, and hence the invention of horn lanterns is said to be Alfred’s.. Wheel clocks, in which the time is measured by the gradual descent of a weight, '-are said to have been made first by Boethuis, a.d. 510. and clocks are reported to have been manufactured at Genoa in ,the ninth century, the manufacture having been introduced from Germany. Be this as it may, it would seem that clocks were far from uncommon in European monasteries two centuries later. The precise date of the introduction of wheel clocks in England is doubtful. In 1368 letters patent were granted by Edward 111. to certain Dutch clock-makers from Delft, who had no doubt been invited over, as Mr Wood, author of ‘Curiosities of Clocksand Watches,’ suggests,in consequence of clocks coming into general use, and of the scarcity of good native workmen. But we have mention of clocks in England long previous to this date. A clock is said to have been put up in Canterbury in 1292, and frequent allusions to these instruments in Chaucer’s works (1328 1400) seems to prove that they were not uncommon. There is a clock still in existence in Glastonbury which is said to have been constructed in 1344, or according to some writers in 1335. The Germans, who from the earliest times were famous for their skill in horology, were, it would seem, chiefly employed in the English clock trade in the 16th century. Probably their work was much better than in the time of Shakepere, whose works abound in allusions to clocks and watches, and who makes Biron in * Love’s Labour Lost ’ compare woman to *A German clock Still a repairing, ever out of frame And never going wright.’ The earliest clocks had but one hand indicating the hours which were marked in various ways. In some old clock faces, like that of St. Peter’s at Rome, the dial was divided into six parts only, the hands revolving four times in twenty-four hours. An old traveller, writing in 1703, relates that the clocks at Brazil were always kept an hour slow in accordance with a tradition which asserted that a conspiracy had once been defeated by such an error in the time indicated by the town clock. A clock at the Dublin Foundling Hospital strikes every twenty minutes. Such a clock was provided by a charitable lady * to mark that as children reared by the spoon must have a small quantity of food at a time this clock strikes every twenty minutes, at which notice all the infante not asleep must be discreetly fed.’ Watches Were the next time indicators. At first the watch was as large as a tea-saucer. It had weights, and was called * The Pocket Clock.’ The word watch is from a Saxon word signifying ‘ to watch,’ and the earliest known use of the name occurs in a record of 1542, which mentions that Edward VI. had ‘ onne larum ’ or watch of iron, the case being likewise of iron gilt, with the plum-mettes of lead. The first great improvement, the substitution of springs for weights, was made about 1550 The earliest springs were not coiled, bnt only straight pieces of steel. Early watches had only one hand, and required winding twice a day. The dials were of silver or brass, the cases had no crystals, but were opened at the back and front, and were four or five inches in diameter.: A plain watch cost frum £3OO to £6OO, and after one was ordered it took a year to make it. J ust as there have been and are some remarkable clocks, so there have been and are some wonderful watches. Mary Queen of Scots had a remarkable skull-shaped watch which she bequeathed to her maid of honour, Mary Setonn. In the Annual Register for 1764. we read • that Mr Arnold, of Devevens Court, in the Strand, watchmaker, had the honour to present His Majesty George 111. with a watch of his own making set in a ring. The size of the watch was something less than a silver twopence. It contained 120 different parts, and weighed altogether sdwts., 7 grains, and threefourths.’ But the smallest watch in the world is stated to be in New York. One day a gentleman observed a small gold penholder resting in a rich velvet case in a jeweller’s show case in New York. The end of the holder was shaped like an elongated tube and was an inch long. A faint musical ticking issued from it and it was this that attracted the customer’s attention. * What have you there!’ he inquired. The jeweller lifted the holder from the case with a smile and exhibited a tiny watch dial one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter, set in the side between two other dials almost as small. One indicated the day, the other the month of the year. The centre dial ticked off seconds, minutes, and hours. This is said to be the smallest watch ever made, and the only one of its kind in the world. It took a German watchmaker the better part of two years to fit the parts together, ao that they would work accurately.