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Title: Time and Time-Tellers
Author: Benson, James W.
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.
*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Time and Time-Tellers" ***
TIME AND TIME-TELLERS.
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| [Illustration: Frontispiece] |
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TIME AND TIME-TELLERS.
* * * * *
BY
JAMES W. BENSON.
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| [Illustration: Sundial] |
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LONDON:
ROBERT HARDWICKE, 192, PICCADILLY.
1875.
JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS.
INDEX TO THE ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
1 FRONTISPIECE
2 VIGNETTE
3 THE POCKET RING DIAL 14
4 SILVER POCKET DIAL AND COMPASS 16
5 THE CLEPSYDRA OR WATER CLOCK 19
6 THE BOOK-SHAPED WATCH 35
7 ANCIENT TABLE WATCH 36
8 ANCIENT WATCH WITH DIAL 39
9 OLD ENGLISH ROUND WATCH 40
10 OLD OVAL WATCH 41
11 ANCIENT ROUND ORNAMENTAL WATCH 42
12 OLD ENGLISH CALENDAR WATCH 43
13 MARY QUEEN O' SCOTS WATCH (DEATH'S HEAD) 44
14 ANCIENT WATCH CASE (SCRIPTURAL DESIGN) 45
15 DITTO TABLE WATCH (DITTO) 46
16 GRETTON'S WATCH 48
17 ANCIENT BOX WATCH 49
18 OLIVER CROMWELL'S WATCH 50
19 EARLY ORNAMENTAL ROUND WATCH CASE 51
20 JOHN MILTON'S WATCH 52
21 SMALL EARLY WATCH 54
22 ANCIENT WATCH WITH PENDULUM 55
23 ANCIENT BRASS WATCH WITH LID 56
24 IGNATIUS HUGGEFORD'S WATCH 59
MODERN WATCHES.
25 HORIZONTAL 74
26 SKELETON LEVER 74
27 FULL PLATE LEVER 75
28 THREE-QUARTER PLATE LEVER 75
29 THE CHRONOGRAPH 92
30 PERPETUAL CALENDAR, KEYLESS 96
31 COMPLICATED DITTO AND INDEPENDENT SECONDS 97
32 THE MERIDIAN WATCH 99
ESCAPEMENTS TO WATCHES.
33 THE VERGE ESCAPEMENT 78
34 THE HORIZONTAL DO. 79
35 THE DUPLEX DO. 80
36 THE LEVER DO. 81
37 THE CHRONOMETER DO. 83
BALANCES, ETC.
38 COMPENSATION BALANCE 85
39 OLD BALANCE CLOCK 108
40 CLOCK SPRING 109
41 RACK STRIKING WORK 113
42 BACK OF FRENCH CLOCK 116
43 CARRIAGE CLOCK 118
45 ENGLISH ORMOLU CLOCKS 120-22
46 TELL-TALE CLOCK 123
CLOCK ESCAPEMENTS.
47 CROWN WHEEL ESCAPEMENT 147
48 ANCHOR DO. 148
49 DEAD BEAT DO. 149
50 FRENCH SINGLE-PIN ESCAPEMENT 150
51 THREE LEGG'D GRAVITY DO. 151
52 DOUBLE DITTO DITTO 154
TURRET CLOCKS.
53 WELLS CATHEDRAL CLOCK 135
54 OLD ST DUNSTAN'S DO. 137
55 ST JAMES'S PALACE DO. 138
56 ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL DO. 140
57 ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL DO. 141
58 MEMORIAL TURRET CLOCK DIAL 157
59 MODERN TURRET CLOCK MOVEMENT 164
60 " " HOUR WHEEL AND SNAIL 166
61 " " THE RACK 168
62 " " THE PENDULUM ROD 169
63 QUARTER OR CHIME CLOCK 171
64 GAS WHEEL FOR ILLUMINATED DIAL 172
65 NEST OF BEVELLED WHEELS CARRYING HANDS 173
66 HAMMER AND BELL 174
67 BENSON'S GREAT CLOCK. THE EXTERIOR 175
68 " " " THE MOVEMENT 176
69 SUN-DIAL 180
TIME AND TIME-TELLERS.
Time cannot be thoroughly defined, nor even properly comprehended by
mankind, for our personal acquaintance with it is so brief that our
longest term is compared to a span, and to 'the grass which in the
morning is green and groweth up, and in the evening is cut down and
withered.' The ordinary thinker can scarcely carry his idea of Time
beyond that small portion of it which he has known, under the name of
life-time. The metaphysician classes Time with those other
mysteries,--Space, Matter, Motion, Force, Consciousness, which are the
Gordian knots of Mental Science. Time is naturally divided into three
most unequal parts,--whereof the Past includes all that has happened
until now from that far-distant period when 'Heaven and Earth rose out
of chaos;' the Present is but a moment, expended in a breath, to be
again like that breath momentarily renewed; the Future is, as the
Past,--'a wide unbounded prospect,' an 'undiscovered country,' into
which Prophecy itself penetrates but partially, and even then bears
back to us but small information; for its language catches the
character of a grander clime, and the denizens of this lower earth are
incapable of understanding its gorgeous metaphors; the brightness is
as blinding as the darkness. We may attempt to pierce the Future by
the light which History throws from the Past, but History's record is
imperfect; her chronicles are of the rudest and most unreliable
character; her most valued memorials serve but to make Past 'darkness
visible,' her most ancient registers reach back but a short distance
compared with those testimonies which geologists have discovered, and
given us veritable 'sermons in stones' about. The Past is, indeed,
scarcely less of a mystery than the Future; even the Present we only
know in part, but we do know that the brief term during which man
'flits across the stage' of time ere he goes hence and is no more
seen, is of inestimable value. Most of us soon make the discovery that
the world has much to teach which there is little time to learn and
still less time to apply to good purpose. _Ars longa, vita brevis
est_, is the general expression of human experience. For every man
there are duties and labours for which time is all too short; just as
he begins to understand and to perform his work wisely and
successfully, the 'spirit of the destinies,' as Mr Carlyle would say,
'calls him away;' but whither he goeth is as great a mystery as
whence he cometh. This, however, we do know, no wise man ever
disregarded Time, inasmuch as of this treasure there is no laying in a
fresh store when life's supply has been exhausted; the wasters, the
'killers' of Time, like the foolish virgins who neglected their lamps,
are met invariably with the 'Not so,'--as the door of opportunity is
shut in their faces. Like the dial with the inscription '_Nulla
vestigia retrorsum_' each man's steps are taken never to be retraced,
the act once done can no more be recalled than the shadow on the dial
can go backward. What wonder then that the most thoughtful of men are
particularly careful of their time, regulating their use of it with
the utmost precision and weighing it out as scrupulously as a miser
would his gold? What wonder that they should sigh and grieve over a
wasted day, and with bitter self-reproach should say to themselves as
Titus did, 'Perdidi diem,'--I have lost a day? What wonder is it that
such should teach themselves to wrestle with Time, even as Jacob
wrestled with the angel, for a blessing; and to regard those reckless
ones, in whose butterfly existence are counted only the 'shining
hours,'--as the bee might be supposed to regard the idle gnats which
frolic in the sunbeams heedless both of to-day and of to-morrow.
The poets are our best interpreters of Time, and they seem never tired
of referring to it and symbolising it by every possible figure,
emblem, and trope.[1] Celerity of motion and brevity of duration are
discovered to be its chief characteristics. Time is therefore depicted
as flying,--fast, noiselessly, and uninterruptedly. It is a river,
speeding on with imperceptible but resistless pace to the ocean of
eternity. It is a stern vigorous old man--Time is already old--rushing
by us with never-slackening strides, bearing blessings for each and
all, but we must be upon the alert to strive with him for his
gifts--'to seize Time by the forelock'--or he will forget to bestow
them.
We too often charge upon Time the evil which is the result of our own
lack of energy, and thus it happens that although in kindly moments
our poets seem to delight in exalting and glorifying him for all
manner of enjoyments, at others they can find no word too coarse or
uncivil to apply to him. 'Time,' says Shakespeare, 'is a very
bankrupt,' adding,
'Nay, he's a thief too; have you not heard men say
That time comes stealing on by night and day?'
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| FOOTNOTE: |
| |
| [1] Poebus Apollo in Ovid's Metamorphoses claims that he is Time's |
| special exponent:-- |
| |
| ----'Per me, quod eritque, fuitque, |
| Estque, patet; per me concordant carmina nervis.' |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Time is, in proverbial philosophy, the most churlish and
unaccommodating of acquaintances,--'Time and tide tarry for no man.'
Time is always liable to be chided, as we have said, when one feels
like Hamlet, 'The times are out of joint;' although our next door
neighbour may, with as much or more reason, be blessing the self-same
hour we are condemning. Time is indeed all things to all men, and
'travels divers paces with divers persons.' Sweet Rosalind described
long ago 'who Time ambles withal, who Time trots withal, and who he
stands still withal.' 'I prithee,' asks Orlando, 'who doth he trot
withal?' and no matter how often we overhear her reply, we shall
listen with delight to the quaint language of the pretty
rejoinder,--'Marry, he trots hard with a young maid between the
contract of her marriage and the day it is solemnized; if the interim
be but a se'nnight, Time's pace is so hard that it seems the length of
seven years.' 'And who ambles Time withal?' 'With a priest that lacks
Latin and a rich man that hath not the gout; for the one sleeps easily
because he cannot study; and the other lives merrily because he feels
no pain; the one lacking the burthen of lean and wasteful learning,
the other knowing no burthen of heavy tedious penury. These ambles
Time withal.' 'Who doth he gallop withal?' 'With a thief to the
gallows; for though he go as softly as foot can fall, he thinks
himself too soon there.' 'Who stays Time still withal?' 'With lawyers
in the vacation; for they sleep between term and term, and then they
perceive not how Time wags.'
If Roger Bacon's Brazen-head could have repeated and continued his
oracular utterances at fixed intervals he would have been a very
sensational performer over some prominent public time-piece of the
present day. If only once in twelve months, say at midnight, when the
year ends, he could have pronounced his three important speeches,
'Time is;--Time was;--Time's past!' he might have rivalled some of our
best actors or orators in attracting the multitude; unfortunately,
however, our mechanical clockwork performers have never risen to the
dignity of speech, and the secret of Friar Bacon's magic died with the
inventor of gunpowder,--which last it is a pity, perhaps, did not also
slip out of use and memory along with it. 'Time is, time was, time's
past' seems to comprise a whole world of hopes, fears, and lost
opportunities, and sounds like a little condensed history of all that
ever has happened or ever can happen. Herein we may imagine we can
observe the wonder-working qualities of Time, solving all mysteries,
bringing everything whether of good or evil to fruition, testing
friendship and love, solacing troubled and wounded hearts, and healing
all manner of griefs; but then we also remark that he is the abaser of
the proud as well as the uplifter of the humble. If he builds, he as
surely destroys, being, indeed, the Great Spoiler, _edax rerum_,
before whose breath myriads of living things through all generations
have faded away, in regular sequence, and towns and cities and the
several civilizations of the world have one after another decayed and
perished with all their wondrous works, and glories, and aspirations.
'Who shall contend with Time--unvanquished Time,
The conqueror of conquerors, and lord
Of desolation?'
Time's chronicle is of itself proof of his character, for the very
record of his deeds he does not permit to be of long endurance. Time
was, before the earliest historian began to take note of him, before
the 'twilight of fable,' and before the most primitive symbol. Time
himself were too brief to tell of his various experiences, the full
value and purport of which we shall never know, until we have bridged
the abyss which separates the present from the future. Time and the
world, we are told, commenced life simultaneously, and their twin
birth was greeted triumphantly 'with the music of the spheres,' the
morning stars sang together rejoicingly; and it is also said that
their courses shall be simultaneously determined when the edict shall
be promulgated that 'Time shall be no more.' When will that great
event take place? is a question which has occupied the attention of
many theologians and others, who temporarily forget that 'of that day
and hour knoweth no man.' As of the end so of the beginning of Time,
there is to us no landmark, though geologists are endeavouring to
prove that they have traced some of his earliest footprints in this
world of ours. Professor Tyndall tells us that 'not for six thousand,
nor for sixty thousand, nor for six thousand thousand, but for æons,
embracing untold millions of years, this earth has been the theatre of
life and death. The riddle of the rocks has been read by the geologist
and palæontologist, from subcambrian depths to the deposits thickening
over the sea-bottoms of to-day. And upon the leaves of that stone book
are stamped the characters, plainer and surer than those formed by the
ink of history, which carry the mind back into abysses of past time
compared with which six thousand years cease to have a visual angle.'
Although Time is so vast in his operations and so truly marvellous in
his many features, it has, nevertheless, been found possible to
measure his shorter intervals with the greatest accuracy,--even to but
a few seconds in a year. It took some centuries to accomplish this
feat, but it is now surely and systematically done. The stages of
horological science are some of them remote, but they are well worth
studying. The earliest divisions of time were doubtless those made by
the operations of Nature, producing day and night,--the sun and moon
were the earliest chronometers, and, marked by them, 'the evening and
the morning were the first day.' It is even now by noting the
recurrence of certain celestial phenomena that we are enabled to
certify to ourselves the accuracy of our time-pieces, but although
the motion of the heavenly bodies is the standard of computation for
lengthened periods, it is found more convenient to reckon short terms,
such as seconds, minutes, and hours, by machinery set in motion by a
spring or by weights mathematically adjusted, and this in a word has
given birth to the science called Horology.
We can readily comprehend the division of time into days and nights,
for these, as we have said, are the natural divisions. Let us trace
the origin of more arbitrary periods, such as hours, and weeks, and
months, and years. First, then, as to days, let it be remembered that
the beginning and ending of an ordinary English day differs in several
respects from those of other nations. The Jews reckon their day, as do
also the Greeks and Italians, from sunset to sunset; the Persians from
sunrise to sunrise. The astronomical and nautical day is computed from
noon to noon, and is reckoned by 24 hours, not by twice 12,--as, for
instance, instead of writing half-past four in the morning of, we will
say, Jan. 2, the astronomer would write Jan. 1. 16 h. 30 m. Our
ordinary English day is reckoned from 12 to 12 at midnight, after the
fashion set by Ptolemy, which has this advantage over the method of
reckoning from sunrise or sunset, that the latter periods are
continually varying with the seasons of the year. The grouping of
seven days into a week is shown in Genesis, but the seventh day is
there alone specially named. The Sabbath is still kept by the Jews on
the seventh day, but Christians keep the first day of the week in
honour of Christ's resurrection, and call it the Lord's Day. After the
older planetary method, Sunday was named in honour of the Sun, Monday
of the Moon, Tuesday of Tuesco, or Mars, Wednesday of Woden or
Mercury, Thursday of Thor, Friday of Friga, Venus, Saturday of Saturn.
The Month, named after the Moon in consequence of a month being nearly
equal to the time occupied by the Moon in going through all her
changes, is again classed under the names lunar or calendar; the lunar
month is rather more than 29-1/2 days, but as the solar month is
nearly a day longer it would require more than twelve lunar months to
make a year, arbitrary additions have been therefore made to each
month, some consisting of 30, some of 31 days; and months so arranged
to form the calendar are called calendar months, twelve of which make
a year of about 365-1/4 days. Until the time of Julius Cæsar the year
was reckoned as of 365 days only, a number which after many centuries
required the addition of ninety days to rectify, he therefore ordered
one of the years to consist of 444 days, and that subsequently every
fourth year should contain 366 days. Even this very summary imperial
method was attended with its drawbacks and difficulties, for the
earth's revolution round the Sun is made in eleven minutes eleven
seconds, less than 365-1/4 days, which minutes in the course of about
1600 years required to be taken into consideration, and in 1582 Pope
Gregory XIII. took off ten days by making the 5th of October the 15th;
but the Gregorian time was not introduced into England till 1752 when
the error amounted to about eleven, so eleven days were subtracted
from 1752 leaving it only 354 days,--much to the indignation of the
illiterate people of that time, who clamoured, assembled in great mobs
to testify to their sense of the great injury inflicted upon them,
'Give us back our Eleven days,'--one of Hogarth's prints of the
'Election' exhibits a paper containing this very inscription. The fury
of the populace at being robbed of its precious time availed not; the
day after the 2nd of September, 1752, was made the 14th of September,
and from that time dated the New Style, since which the year has been
almost exactly correct. Up to 1752 the legal year began in England on
the 25th of March, and it was usual up to that day to employ two
dates, as 1750-1; but since the change of style the year has commenced
with the first of January,--nearly midwinter. As there is one day more
than fifty-two weeks in a year every year begins one day later in the
week than the preceding year; and after leap-year two days later. The
only country in Europe which still retains the Old Style is Russia,
--the difference between the styles, now twelve days, is usually
indicated by O.S. and N.S., or as in one or two of our watch
illustrations by 'Russian' and 'Gregorian.' As regards the smaller
divisions of time, it should be noted that the minute and the hour are
thus reckoned,--the Earth divided into 360 degrees, turning upon its
axis once every twenty-four hours, brings fifteen degrees under the
sun each hour, and makes those fifteen degrees of longitude equivalent
to one hour of time,--fifteen geographical miles being equivalent to
one minute of time.
The earliest horologe or hour measurer of which history makes mention
is that called the _Polos_, and the _Gnomon_. Herodotus (lib. II.)
ascribes their invention to the Babylonians, but Phavorinus claims it
for Anaximander, and Pliny for Anaximenes. The _Gnomon_, which was the
more simple and probably the more ancient instrument, consisted simply
of a staff or pillar fixed perpendicularly in a sunny place, the
shadow of which was measured by feet upon the place where it
fell,--the flight of time being computed thereby. In later times the
word _Gnomon_ was the title of the sun-dial, and it is the name still
in use for the style or finger which throws the shadow on the dial and
thus indicates the hour. The _Polos_ or _Heliotropion_ was no doubt a
superior instrument to the earliest _Gnomon_, but, from its being so
seldom mentioned, we may suppose it not to have been so generally
used. The _Polos_ consisted of a basin, in the middle of which the
perpendicular staff or finger was erected, and marked by lines the
twelve portions of the day. The _Dial_ was but another form of
_Polos_; its name indicates a Roman origin,--namely, from _Dies_, a
day, but there was a Greek sun-dial called _Sciathericum_, from
_skia_, a shadow. The invention is said to have been derived by the
Jews from the Babylonians, to whom, as we have seen, Herodotus
ascribed it, and there is mention made in the xxxviii. of Isaiah of
the dial of Ahaz,--a king who began to reign 741 B.C. The form of the
Dial of Ahaz has not been ascertained; but there is reason to believe
that the ancient Jews and the Brahmins were acquainted with the uses
of the dial and applied it to astronomical purposes. Dials were, it is
said, not known in Rome before 293 B.C., when one was set up by
Papirius Cursor the Roman General, near the Temple of Quirinus. At
Athens there is an octagonal temple of the Winds still standing, which
shows on each side the lines of a vertical dial and the centres where
the _Gnomons_ were placed. At one time the art of Dialling was most
assiduously studied; its rudiments may be described as follows:
The plane of every dial represents the plane of some great circle on
the earth, and the _Gnomon_ the earth's axis; the vertex of a right
_Gnomon_, the centre of the earth or visible heavens. The earth
itself, compared with its distance from the sun, is considered as a
point, and therefore if a small sphere of glass be placed upon any
part of the earth's surface so that its axis be parallel to the axis
of the earth, and the sphere have such lines upon it, and such plans
within it, as above described, it will show the hour of the day as
truly as if it were placed at the earth's centre, and the shell of the
earth were as transparent as glass. The diversity of the titles of
sun-dials arises from the different situation of the planes, and the
different figure of the surfaces whereon they are described, whence
they are denominated equinoctial, horizontal, vertical, polar, erect,
direct, declining, inclining, reclining, cylindrical, &c.
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: The Pocket Ring Dial.] |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
All the before-mentioned time-measurers were up to a certain period
non-portable, and in addition to the drawback of being unserviceable
excepting when the weather was clear and the days bright were as
useless for private purposes, as they were unadapted for the
winter-time or for night. The next step was therefore a portable dial,
but this was probably not invented until after a very long interval.
The Dial of which the above is an illustration, was probably one of
the earliest of portable time-keepers, the time being shown by means
of a hole through which the light fell on the inside, which had an
inner ring adaptable to the day and the month. Ring-dials of this
description were in common use within the last century in this
country, and were manufactured in large numbers at Sheffield when
watches were too expensive to be generally attainable. Some of these
Ring-dials were of superior construction, and were made by means of
more than one ring to serve for different latitudes. As an example of
a still greater advance in the manufacture of pocket dials, see the
illustration on the next page.
The Dial consists of a thin silver plate properly divided and marked,
and having a compass with glass cover sunk at one end of it. The
_Gnomon_ or style moves upon a hinge so as to allow of its lying flat
upon the Dial while in the pocket, and thus rendering the instrument
conveniently portable. The _Gnomon_ itself is also susceptible of
elevation or depression and the beak of the bird carved on a thin slip
of silver at its side marks the exact extent of the _Gnomon's_
elevation. This Dial is indubitably of French manufacture.
One would imagine that it was such a dial as this that Shakspeare had
in his mind's eye when he wrote the well-known passage which he put
into the mouth of Jaques, wherein that philosophic satirist describes
his meeting with a fool in the forest.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Silver Pocket Dial (in the collection of the Honble |
| Company of Clockmakers, London).] |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
'Good morrow, fool, quoth I. "No sir," quoth he,
"Call me not fool till heaven hath sent me fortune;
And then he drew _a dial from his poke_,
And looking on it with lack-lustre eye,
Says, very wisely, "It is ten o'clock:
Thus we may see," quoth he, "how the world wags:
'Tis but an hour ago since it was nine,
And after one hour more 'twill be eleven.
And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe,
And then from hour to hour we rot and rot.
And thereby hangs a tale." When I did hear
The motley fool thus moral on the time,
My lungs began to crow like Chanticleer,
That fools should be so deep contemplative;
And I did laugh, sans intermission,
_An hour by his dial_.'
What the fool's dial was, has given rise to many conjectures, but
there is no better authority perhaps on the subject than Mr Halliwell,
from whose magnificent and elaborate folio we will make the following
very interesting extract.
'The term dial appears to have been applied in Shakspeare's time to
anything for measuring time in which the hours were marked, so that
the allusion here may be either to a watch, or to a portable journey
ring, or small dial. The expression "it is ten o'clock" is not
decisive, as it may be considered to be used merely in the sense of
the hour thus named. * * * A watch even is sometimes called a clock, *
* * and it seems by no means unlikely that the common ring dial which
has been in use for several centuries up to a comparatively recent
period, should be the dial referred to in the text.'
Whatever may have been the shape of the dial which Jaques saw drawn
from the fool's 'poke,' it is an undoubted fact that portable dials
did serve the part of time-keepers, and were in their way valuable as
such to those who had learnt how to use them. But the dial would not
do the work of the watch in an age when people no longer travel by the
waggon-load or with pack-horse, but are whirled fifty or sixty miles
in that time and have to reckon their engagements not by the day, but
by the minute. The world no longer 'wags' in jog-trot style, but
speeds at steam-pressure and sends its messages by lightning-conductor;
it consequently values its time more highly and measures it more
carefully.
The Horologe which possibly next succeeded in date the invention of
the Dial, was the Clepsydra or Water-Clock, the precise antiquity of
which is however unknown.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: The Clepsydra, or Water-Clock of the Greeks.] |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
The CLEPSYDRA is so named because the water escapes from it as it were
by stealth, but in a regulated flow so as to permit of the lapse of
time being computed thereby, even as by sand running through
sand-glasses. The Clepsydra appears to have been at first used to
limit the time during which persons were allowed to speak in the
Athenian Courts of Justice; 'the first water,' says Æschines, 'being
given to the accuser, the second to the accused, and the third to the
judges,'--a special officer being appointed in the courts for the
purpose of watching the Clepsydra and stopping it when any documents
were read whereby the speaker was interrupted. The time, and
consequently the water allowed, depended upon the importance of the
case. This custom, says Phavorinus, was to prevent babbling, that such
as spake should be brief in their speeches. Ctesibius of Alexandria,
who lived about 245, invented a much improved water-clock, mentioned
by Vitruvius and Athenæus. Another kind of Clepsydra consisted of a
vessel of water having a hole in it through which the fluid gradually
escaped; a miniature boat floated upon the water and descended as the
water decreased, whilst an oar placed in the boat indicated the hour
by pointing to certain line-marks on the side of the vessel. The hole
through which the water dropped was made, we are told, through a
pearl, because it was supposed that the action of the water upon the
pearl would not, as upon other substances, enlarge the aperture, nor
would the pearl, it was imagined, be choked by the adhesion of any
other material. The chief fault of the Clepsydra as a chronometer
arose from the inequality of the flow of water, it being found to
escape more rapidly when the vessel was full than when it was becoming
empty, and also more speedily in hot weather than in cold. The
Egyptians are however said to have measured by this machine the course
of the sun; by it Tycho-Brahe computed the motion of the stars; and by
it Dudley made his maritime observations. Plato furnished the original
idea of the hydraulic organ by inventing a Clepsydra, or water-clock,
which played upon flutes the hours of the night when darkness
precluded their being shown by the index. Clepsydræ are still used in
India.
The SAND-GLASS, as we have said, is an instrument of the same
character as the Clepsydra,--the one measuring time by the fall of
water and the other by the running of sand. Sand-glasses are known to
have been used 200 B.C. The best hour-glasses, it is said, were those
in which powdered egg-shells well dried in the oven were used instead
of sand, such powder being less affected by changes in the atmosphere
than sand would be. Sand-glasses are now seldom used except on board
ship, and by domestics to compute the time for the boiling of eggs.
King Alfred's invention for measuring time by the burning of candles,
which were marked by circular lines to show the progress of the hours,
was another effort of rude skill, which however could have been but
partially successful even in the opinion of its inventor, for the
accuracy of candle-horologes is interfered with by many different
influences, prominent among which must of course have been the varying
qualities of the materials used in their manufacture, and the more or
less care with which they were guarded from the wind, so as to prevent
their guttering.
We now come to consider the date of the next grand step in the
progress of Horology,--namely, that of the invention of the _clock_.
The name itself may be derived either from the French, _la cloche_, a
bell, or from the German, _die gloke_, or _die kloke_. There is no
doubt that the word _cloche_ was meant to distinguish the instrument
which marked the hours by sounding a bell, from the _montre_ or watch,
which (derived from the Latin _monstro_, to show) merely shows the
time by its hands. In ancient books the word _cloche_ simply stands
for a bell,--the monks being accustomed to ring a bell at certain
periods marked for them by their sun-dials or hour-glasses, and
'What's o'clock?' in old writers is often merely equivalent to the
inquiry, 'What hour was last struck by bell?' The word horologe or
hour-measurer of course equally applied to the sun-dial, the
clepsydra, and the clock, and this convertibility of terms makes it
all the more difficult to trace the point at which the newer invention
began. Beckmann, in an ingenious analysis of various statements as to
the first inventors of clocks made to go by weights and wheels,
ascribes the invention to the eleventh century, but he does not
attempt to name the first clockmaker. His authority for the date is
the life of William Abbot of Hirshan, wherein there is mention made of
a machine used by the monks for measuring time, which cannot in
Beckmann's opinion have been a clepsydra. Beckmann does not believe
that clocks were of European origin, but that they were derived from
the Saracens. He founds his opinion upon a horologe described by
Trithenius which was presented by the Sultan of Egypt in 1232, to the
Emperor Frederic II. of Germany. 'In the same year,' says he, 'the
Saladin of Egypt sent by his ambassadors, as a gift to Frederic II., a
valuable machine of wonderful construction, worth more than 5000
ducats. For it appeared to resemble internally a celestial globe in
which figures of the sun, moon, and other planets, formed with the
greatest skill, moved, being impelled by weights and wheels, so that
performing their course in certain and fixed intervals, they pointed
out the hour, night and day, with infallible certainty; also the
twelve signs of the Zodiac with appropriate characters, moved with the
firmament, contained within themselves the course of the planet.'
To whom the high honour belongs of inventing the clock is, to use a
not unknown phrase, 'lost in the mists of antiquity.' All the ancients
who were reported as skilful in mechanics seem to have obtained a
modicum of credit as clock-inventors. Archimedes and Posidonius
before, the Christian era, Boëthius in the 5th century, Pacificus
about the middle of the 9th, Gerbert at the end of the 10th,
Wallingford near the beginning of the 14th, and Dondi at the end of
the 14th, have each in their turn been asserted to be the inventors of
the clock.
The sphere of Archimedes, made 200 B.C., as mentioned by Claudian, was
evidently an instrument with a maintaining power but without a
regulator, and therefore would not measure time in any other manner
than as a planetarium, turned by a handle, measures, or rather
exhibits, the respective velocities of the heavenly bodies; and the
same may be said of the sphere of Posidonius, as mentioned by Cicero
('De naturâ Deorum'). The clock of Boëthius was a clepsydra, as was
also that of Pacificus, according to some, for Bailly in his History
of Modern Astronomy asserts that Pacificus was the inventor of a clock
going by means of a weight and a balance, and if so the invention must
be ascribed to Pacificus; but Bailly gives no authority for his
assertion. Gerbert's horologe is said to have been merely a sun-dial,
and Wallingford's horologe, called the Albion, must have as much
resembled a planetarium as a clock, for the motions of all the
heavenly bodies appear to have been conducted by the maintaining
power, whatever that was, without controlling mechanism. This
instrument, made in 1326, is also described as having shown the ebb
and flow of the sea, the hours, and the minutes.
There are, however, still earlier data as to clocks in England than
this of Wallingford's, for we find that in 1288 a stone clock-tower
was erected opposite Westminster Hall with a clock which cost 800
marks, the proceeds of a fine imposed upon Ralph de Hengham, Chief
Justice of the Queen's Bench. The tower mentioned was still standing
in 1715, and in it was a clock which struck the great bell known as
Tom of Westminster so as to be heard by the people in all the law
courts. In Queen Elizabeth's time the clock was changed for a dial
upon the clock tower, which, however, bore upon its face the same
Virgilian motto, 'Discite justitiam moniti,'--referring to the fine
inflicted upon the Chief Justice for making an alteration in a record
by which a poor dependent was made to pay 13_s._ 4_d._ instead of
6_s_. 8_d_. A dial with this motto was still to be seen in Palace
Yard, Westminster, within the last dozen years, but was removed with
the houses which were then demolished to make way for the gilded
palings which have since been erected between Palace Yard and Bridge
Street, Westminster.
In 1292 a clock was placed in Canterbury Cathedral, which, according
to a statement in a Cottonian MS., cost £30, a large sum at that time.
Dante, who died in 1321, aged 57, makes the earliest mention of an
_orologio_ which struck the hour:
'Indi come orologio che _ne chiami_
Nel hora che la sposa, d'Idio surge
Amattinar lo sposo, perche l'ami.'
_Il Paradiso._--C.X.
In 1344 James Dondi constructed at Padua, by the command of Hubert,
prince of Carrara, a clock similar to Wallingford's, and thus obtained
for himself the title of _Horologius_; which, it is said, is still
borne by his descendants in Florence. In 1364 Henry de Wyck, a
German, made a clock for Charles V. of France, which was erected in
the tower of his palace. This clock was regulated by a balance, the
teeth of the crown-wheel acted upon two small levers called pallets
which projected from, and formed part of, an upright spindle or staff,
on which was fixed the balance, and the clock was regulated by
shifting the weights placed at each end of the balance.
In 1368 Edward granted protection against 'injuriam, molestiam,
violentiam, damnum, aut gravamen' to three Dutch horologers, John and
William Uneman and John Lietuyt, who had been invited to this country
from Delft.
Chaucer, who died in 1400, speaks of a cock crowing with such
regularity as to rival a clock:
'Full sikerer (surer) was his crowing in his loge
As is a clok, or any abbey orloge.'
Whether the abbey horologe referred to was really a clock in our sense
of the term, or merely the bell rung by the monks at a certain hour
indicated by the clepsydra, is matter of conjecture, but the
probability is, that clockmaking had advanced sufficiently about this
time to have given rise to Chaucer's simile. Froissart speaks of a
famous clock which struck the hours, and was remarkable for its
mechanism, and which was removed in 1332 by Philip the Hardy, duke of
Burgundy, from Courtrai to his capital at Dijon.
After this date frequent mention is made of clocks in various
histories, some of which instruments remain even to the present day.
Dr Heylin thus describes a famous clock and dial in the Cathedral of
Lunden in Denmark. 'In the dial are to be seen distinctly the year,
month, week, day, and every hour of the day throughout the year, with
the feasts, both those which are movable and fixed, together with the
motions of the sun and moon, and their passage through each degree of
the zodiac. Then for the clock, it is so framed by artificial engines
that whensoever it is to strike, two horsemen encounter one another,
giving as many blows apiece as the bell sounds hours, and on the
opening of a door there appeareth a theatre, the Virgin Mary on a
throne with Christ in her arms, and the three kings or Magi (with
their several trains) marching in order, doing humble reverence, and
presenting severally their gifts,--two trumpeters sounding all the
while, to adorn the pomp of the procession.'
The clock at Hampton Court is one of the most ancient in England, but
all that remains of the original structure is the dial and work
connected with it, facing the east, in the second court of the old
part of the building erected by Wolsey. Of the ancient body or works
there is no record, and its maker is unknown, but it bears the
initials N.O. and the date 1540.
There is a celebrated antique clock at Strasburg which is described as
striking the quarter-hours by four figures, symbols of the ages of
man;--the first being struck by a child with an apple, the second by a
youth with an arrow, the third by a man with a staff, and the fourth
by an old man with a crutch, then came Death, who struck the hour, and
thus reminded the observer that his last hour would eventually arrive.
From the evidence adduced respecting the origin and inventors of the
clock it is not unreasonable to conclude with Ferdinand Berthoud (a
Frenchman who wrote much and was a great authority upon the subject)
that such a clock as that which was constructed by Henry de Wyck for
Charles the Wise of France, was not the invention of one man, but was
the result of a series of inventions made at different times by
various persons, each of which is worthy to be considered a separate
invention. It was the simple employment of the natural force of
gravity as to the fall of bodies in free space, that paved the way to
the extreme accuracy and constancy of rate which belong to the clocks
of modern times, and the conclusion to which Mons. Berthoud arrived
respecting the progression of the essential improvements is thus
stated:--
1. Toothed wheel-work was known in ancient times, and particularly to
Archimedes, whose instrument was provided with a maintaining power,
but had no regulator or controlling mechanism.
2. The weight applied as a maintainer at first had a fly, most
probably similar to that of a kitchen-jack.
3. The ratchet-wheel and click for winding up the weight, without
detaching the teeth of the great wheel.
4. The regulation of the fly depending upon the state of the air, it
was abandoned, and a balance substituted.
5. An escapement next became indispensable, as constituting with the
balance a more regular check than a fly upon the tendency which a
falling weight has to accelerate its velocity.
6. The application of a dial-plate and hand to indicate the hours was
a consequence of the regularity introduced into the going part.
7. The striking portion, to proclaim at a distance, without the aid of
a watcher, the hour that was indicated: and this was followed by the
alarum.
8. The reduction and accommodation of all this bulky machinery to a
portable and compact size, as in watches.
Such a succession of ingenious contrivances, introduced by different
men to improve upon the first rude instrument, is perfectly analogous
to the successive improvements which have been made in the modern
clock, since that of Henry de Wyck's was constructed. Large iron
wheels, continually exposed to the oxidizing influence of the air, in
which unequal and ill-shapen teeth were cut with the inaccuracy of a
manual operation, were by no means calculated to transmit the
maintaining power with perfect regularity to the balance, supposing it
to have been a good regulator; but when it is further remembered that
the alternate direct pushes of the escape-wheel against the pallets
must have produced jerks, and destroyed, or greatly disturbed, the
regularity of this most essential part of the mechanism, great
accuracy was not to be expected; even minutes were deemed too small
portions of time to be shown by such a machine. The clock was set
daily by some person specially appointed to the office, and even then
was not to be depended upon, for forty minutes' variation in
twenty-four hours was not thought to be an ill performance.
The most ancient clocks had no pendulum such as we now see, but had
instead a balance vibrating on the top of the clock, as seen in
illustration, p. 108, which is an example of ancient clockwork.
Upon the invention of springs, in lieu of weights, as the maintaining
or motive power in clocks, which was made towards the close of the
fifteenth century, it became obvious that time-pieces might be
rendered portable, and that the new motive power, a coiled spring,
could act independently of position. This discovery was of great
importance, and yet to whom we are indebted for it is unknown; the
value of the invention became still more apparent when the fusee, or
mechanism for equalizing the variable power of a coiled spring, was
applied. Berthoud says, 'It was soon perceived that the action of the
spring being much greater at the height of its tension than at the
end, great variations in the watch resulted therefrom. This was
remedied by a mechanism called _stack-freed_, that is, a kind of
curve, by means of which the great spring of the barrel acted on a
straight spring, which opposed itself to its action, and when this
spring was nearly down, acted more feebly.' The word _stack-freed_ was
stated to be German, and therefore gave rise to a supposition that the
invention was of German origin, but the word is not to be found in a
German dictionary, and, if ever German, it was probably strictly
technical, and soon became obsolete. Berthoud has given a drawing and
description of a portable clock, probably by Jourdain, without a
fusee, and some of the modern continental watch-makers have, perhaps,
derived their idea from it of making a watch keep time without a
fusee. Up to the close of the 15th century the motive power in clocks
was always obtained by means of weights; the invention of the coiled
spring rendered them portable.
Whatever be the date or origin of the watch or portable clock, certain
it is that there was mention made of such an instrument as far back as
1494, by Gaspar Visconti, an Italian poet, who in a sonnet describes
'Certain small and portable clocks made with a little ingenuity, and
which are continually going, showing the hours, many courses of the
planets, the festivals, and striking when the time requires it.' The
sonnet is, as it were, composed by a person in love, who compares
himself to one of these clocks. One of the earliest places of watch
manufacture was Nuremberg, and foremost among its horologers was Peter
Hele, who was thus described by Doppelmayer in his 'History of the
Mathematicians and Artists of Nuremberg.'
'Peter Hele, a clockmaker, was everywhere esteemed a great artist on
account of the pocket-clocks, which, soon after the year 1500, he first
made in Nuremberg, with small wheels of steel. The invention, which with
great justice may be ascribed to him, being something new, was praised
by almost every one, even by the mathematicians of the time, with great
admiration. He died 1540. On this subject Johannes Cocclæus, in his
Commentary on the Cosmographia of Pomponius Mela, published in Nuremberg
in 1511, makes the following announcement:--"Inveniuntur in dies
subtiliora, etenim Petrus Hele, juvenis adhuc admodum, opera fecit, quæ
doctissimi admirantur mathematici, nam ex ferro parva fabricat
horologia, plurimis digesta rotulis, quæ, quocunque vertuntur, absque
ullo pondere, et monstrant et pulsant XL. horas. Etiamsi in sinu,
marsupiove contineantur."' This quotation from Cocclæus may be thus
translated:--Ingenious things are just now being invented, for Peter
Hele, as yet but a young man, hath made works which even the most
learned mathematicians admire, for he fabricates small horologes of iron
fitted with many wheels, which, whithersoever they are turned, and
without any weight, both show and strike forty hours,--whether they be
carried in the bosom or the pocket.
Doppelmayer in continuation says: 'This, already so written by
Cocclæus in 1511, shows in the clearest way, that pocket-clocks were
made at Nuremberg many years ago, and he has fairly attributed the
invention of them to this artist, since it was the most deserving of
admiration, and the newest of his time, and which will be considered
as a Nuremberg invention; whence also clocks of this kind were for a
long time called Nuremberg living eggs, because they at first used to
make them in the form of small eggs, which name is to be found in the
German translation in chapter 26 of a strange book which F. Rabelais
has left behind him. Hence it is evident how erroneous it is to
ascribe, as many do, the invention of small striking-clocks, as of
these pocket-clocks, to Isaac Habrecht, a well-known mathematician who
lived about the beginning of the last century, and dwelt at Strasburg,
whereas our Peter Hele had made them in Nuremberg 100 years before.'
The art of watch-making soon extended itself over Europe, for we find
that in France, in 1544, Francis I. enacted a statute in favour of the
corporation of master clockmakers at Paris, to the effect that no one
should be permitted to make horologes unless he should have been
previously admitted into that society. Of the most antique watches
there are some very interesting collections at the South Kensington
Museum and other places,--originally brought together by private
persons whose antiquarian knowledge has lit up the subject with
wonderful interest. It would be impossible to furnish in a volume such
as this, a regular series of such productions, showing the development
of artistic skill in the embellishment and design of watches; we leave
that duty to some future writer who shall prepare an _edition de
luxe_, and show therein, in splendid colour-printing, all the beauties
of enamelling on the precious metals, all the elegance, as well as
perhaps the oddity, of design, which are to be observed in these
highly-interesting works of art. We will, for the nonce, be content
with interspersing our pages with a few examples, not perhaps of the
highest quality in point of design, but yet worthy of notice, either
as showing variety of form or as being made valuable by historical
associations. One of the earliest specimens of very small watches
which are now extant is the one given on the next page.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Ancient Watch, in form of a Book.] |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
This little time-piece dates from the period when blacksmiths were
watch-makers, or at all events when watch-makers were blacksmiths. The
works are all of iron; the case was made, probably, before glass was
used for such instruments, and it is not unlikely that this watch is
of as old a shape as even the Nuremberg eggs. A more ornamental
time-piece, of perhaps a somewhat later date, is the curious little
instrument which is portrayed in our next illustration; the works of
which are also of iron. It possesses the advantage of serving either
as a clock or a watch, or as both, being of a portable size, and yet
when set on a stand would serve as a pretty ornament to a drawing-room
table. The bell at the top is so arranged that when the hand touches a
trigger the hour is struck upon it, but the bell itself may be
detached without any interference with the movement by which the time
is kept.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Ancient Table Watch, with Bell for striking (Temp |
| _circa_ 1525).] |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
A clock was purchased by Queen Victoria at Strawberry Hill sale and is
now at Windsor, which was a present from Henry VIII. to Anne Boleyn,
and since from Lady Elizabeth Germains to Horace Walpole. It is
described by Walpole as a clock of silver gilt, richly chased,
engraved and ornamented with fleurs-de-lys, little heads, &c. On the
top sits a lion holding the arms of England, which are also on the
sides. On the weights are the initial letters of Henry and Anne within
true lover's knots, at the top 'Dieu et mon droit,' at the bottom 'the
most happy.'
The emperor Charles V. (Henry's contemporary) was so much pleased
with observing the movements of time-pieces, that it is related of
him, that he frequently sat after his dinner with a number of them
upon the table before him, and that even after his retirement to the
monastery of St Just he still continued his interest in them. He
endeavoured to adjust their movements and keep them in order, but,
upon finding it impossible to make any two watches agree with each
other in keeping time, he was induced to reflect how much more absurd
it must be for a man to attempt to regulate the more varied and hidden
emotions of nations in consonance with those in his own breast.
Ancient watches used to strike the time, and we read of Charles V. and
Louis XI. that, watches having been stolen from them in certain
crowds, the thief was detected by their striking the hour.
In 1577 Moestlin had a clock so constructed as to make just 2528 beats
in an hour, 146 of which were counted during the sun's passage over a
meridian, and thus determined its diameter. The alarum or alarm is one
of the earliest additions to the mechanism of the clock, and is still
used in Dutch clocks. This contrivance took its origin from the
circumstance of prayers being read at stated periods in monasteries by
night as well as by day, such an invention being of course of much
service in arousing the priest to perform his duties.
In 1631 the Company of Clockmakers was incorporated in England by
Charles I., who granted them a charter prohibiting the importation of
clocks, watches, and alarms. So that at this period Englishmen were
sufficiently skilled in the production of horological instruments to
consider their importation in the light of an intrusion. The Company
consisted of a Master, three Wardens, and ten or more Assistants who
had power to make by-laws for the government of all persons using the
trade in or within ten miles of London. They were authorized to enter,
with a constable or other officer, any ships, vessels, warehouses,
shops, or other places, _where they shall suspect bad and deceitful
works to be made or kept_, and if such were found they seized them in
the King's name, and having proved their unworthiness, the
objectionable works were broken up and destroyed. There are many
instances mentioned of such 'searches' upon the Books of the Company,
and although the practice has long become obsolete, for in these times
of free trade no such restrictions would be tolerated, yet it would
perhaps be found that some testing by a modern 'searcher' or tester
would be of some protection to the public now-a-days, when thousands
of watches are sold which, like Peter Pindar's razors, are intended
rather for the market than for use. The following are illustrations of
some time-keepers of the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the
seventeenth century.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Ancient Watch with Dial, 1580.] |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
This is a very curious but not uncommon combination of the watch with
the dial,--the latter being marked inside the watch-case and having a
gnomon moving on a hinge so as to allow of its lying flat and being
enclosed within the case when not in use.
Our next illustration is of one of the earliest examples of a round
watch made in England, the date being 1593. It contains not only a
dial showing the hour, but a sort of general calendar in miniature.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: English Round Watch, 1593.] |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Of much about the same date is the following example in silver and
brass. It is of the same style of time-keeper, and shows how our
forefathers liked to know not only the time of day but the period of
the month; and how they watched the moon's changes, and in a word
made an almanac of their watches.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Oval Watch, 1593.] |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
It was not an unusual thing for religious persons who used rosaries at
their devotions, to add to their beads a miniature skull, with a view
it may be to remind themselves of the frailty of life by way of
stimulus to the preparation for the future state. When watches were
invented the Memento Mori death's head was made into a watch-case, as
in the illustration on page 44.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Ancient Ornamental Watch.] |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
The Lauder family, of Grange and Fountain Hall, possess the _Memento
Mori_ Watch there engraved, they having inherited it from their
ancestors, the Setoun family. It was given by Queen Mary to Mary
Setoun, of the house of Wintoun, one of the four Marys, maids of
honour to the Scottish Queen. This very curious relic must have been
intended to be placed on a _prie-dieu_, or small altar, in a private
oratory; for it is too heavy to have been carried in any way attached
to the person. The watch is of the form of a skull: on the forehead is
the figure of Death, standing between a palace and a cottage; around
is this legend from Horace: '_Pallida mors æquo pulsat pede pauperum
tabernas Regumque turres_.' On the hind part of the skull is a figure
of Time, with another legend from Horace: '_Tempus edax rerum tuque
invidiosa vetustas_.' The upper part of the skull bears
representations of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, and of the
Crucifixion, each with Latin legends; and between these scenes is
open-work, to let out the sound when the watch strikes the hours upon
a small silver bell, which fills the hollow of the skull, and
receives the works within it when the watch is shut.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Old English Calendar Watch.] |
| |
|[Illustration: 'Memento Mori' Watch belonging to Mary Queen of Scots.]|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Nor about this time was the opportunity omitted of inculcating by
means of pictorial watch illustrations, that Scriptural knowledge
which was in the less educated times not so much taught by books as by
pictures. The watch case given on the following page is of about 1600.
It is obviously of English workmanship, and is a fair specimen of the
period,--it may be, indeed, that, looking at it, one may well doubt
whether art has much advanced in watch-ornamentation during the last
270 years or so.
We give our next illustration as another example of an ancient Table
Watch. This watch has a revolving dial at the top, by means of which
and the fixed point or hand the time is indicated (page 46).
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Watch-case (_circa_ 1600).] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Such was the state of clockwork when Galileo, the great astronomer,
then a medical student at Pisa, happened to discover, while gazing up
at the roof of the cathedral when he should, perhaps, have been
devotionally occupied, that the lamps suspended therefrom by chains
of equal lengths, swung, and made their vibrations in long or short
arcs, in almost the same space of time,--a fact, the truth of which he
ascertained by the beats of his pulse.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Table-Watch, _circa_ 1630.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
This isochronal property, as it was called, was described in a
treatise which he published at Paris in 1639, entitled 'L'Usage du
Cadron ou de l'Horloge physique universelle.' The first application
which Galileo made of his discovery was the professional one of
testing the rate and variations of the pulse, and it is even denied
that he did more than suggest its applicability to clockwork.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Ancient Silver Dial and Gold-cased Watch. One hand.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
The honours of the invention of the pendulum-clock have been contested
by Vincentio Galilei, son of the great astronomer, who is said to have
made a pendulum-clock at Venice in 1649, and Christian Huygens, a
noted Dutch mathematician, who (in his excellent treatise, 'De
Horologio Oscillatorio,' which was the foundation of most of the
subsequent improvements in horometrical machines) clearly shows that
he had constructed a pendulum-clock previous to 1658. His reputation
will be somewhat obscured, however, if we yield to the claims of an
Englishman named Richard Harris, an ordinary workman, who, it is said,
invented the pendulum-clock which was fixed in the turret of St
Paul's, Covent Garden, in 1642, and which is generally believed to
have been the first pendulum-clock in Europe. The pendulum when first
applied to clocks was suspended by a silken cord, and the arc
described by the bob or weight at its end was a segment of a circle,
but it being found that this was in opposition to scientific
knowledge, and that the curve described by it should properly be part
of a cycloid or oval; Huygens tried to remedy the error by causing the
silk cord in its motion to side or strike against a curved piece of
brass, but he thereby caused a greater error than he corrected. Dr
Hooke afterwards suspended the pendulum by a thin flexible piece of
steel, the bending of which, as the pendulum swings from side to side,
produces the required cycloidal motion. In 1658 Dr Hooke invented the
Anchor Escapement which is still in use together with the flexible
spring to the pendulum above described. Before, however, we proceed
further with our historical summary of the progress of watch and
clock making, it may be well to introduce here two illustrations of
the watches worn by two of the most eminent Englishmen of about this
period.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Ancient Box Watch.] |
| |
| [Illustration: The Watch of Oliver Cromwell.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
The following watch was made about 1625 by Jonn Midwall in Fleet
Street, who was Warden of the Clockmakers' Co. in 1635, and died about
1638. It is one of the early examples of a fob-watch. The case is of
plain silver, fitted with glass over the face, and the chain of the
same metal. The family crest of Cromwell was a demi-lion holding a
ring in its paw, but the Protector substituted for the ring the handle
of a tilting spear, as engraved on the chain; the Cromwell arms on
the reverse, and the initials O.C., certify to its genuineness. The
arms as engraved and the crest are identical with those on the banner
used at the Protector's funeral. The silver seals which were at one
time attached to this chain are now absent, but they were a few years
back in the possession of some descendants of the Cromwellian family,
who allowed Sir Charles Fellows to take impressions of them. The
watch, as it is here engraved, remained for upwards of a century in
Holland, was there purchased by an English nobleman who presented it
to his godson, and by him given to Sir C. Fellows, who believed that
it was probably worn by Cromwell from 1625 until his death in 1658. In
shape it reminds one of the Nuremberg egg watch. The following is an
excellent example of an early watch-case of the round shape still in
use.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Early Ornamental Round Watch-case.] |
| |
| [Illustration: John Milton's Watch, made by William Bunting, London, |
| 1631.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
The history of this watch is somewhat singular. From inscriptions
which appear upon it, it seems to have been made by William Bunting,
(whose name is entered upon the books of the Clockmakers' Co. as
elected to their court in 1645, he being then resident in Pope's Head
Alley, Cornhill,) in 1631, and presented to John Milton in the same
year, which was the date of the poet's leaving Christ's College,
Cambridge, and taking up his residence with his father in Horton,
Buckinghamshire, he being then about 23 years of age. From that time
down to the early part of the present century we have no record of
the watch or its possessors, but that in 1819 it was bequeathed by the
last surviving member of an old family in Baltimore in the United
States, who had treasured it for some generations, to some old ladies
residing near London, the bequest including also a number of coins of
the reigns of Charles the 1st and 2nd, some medals of Fairfax and
others, as well as a few rings, but nothing of a later date. The chest
which contained all these relics safely arrived in London, and not
long after was, with its contents, offered for sale to an eminent
chronometer-maker. The coins and medals being in an excellent state of
preservation were soon disposed of at high prices, but the watch being
only silver gilt, and steel-faced, was considered to be of little
value, and a few shillings only were allowed as a fair price for it.
It was put into a drawer in its discoloured state and there remained
until 1828, when for the first time the inscription on the face of it
was discovered upon its being accidentally cleaned up, and it was then
presented to Sir Charles Fellows, well known for his connoisseurship
in such matters, and as a collector of ancient time-pieces. The
maker's name upon the inside of this watch is thus given: 'Gulielmus
Bunting, London, 1631.' Sir Charles Fellows died in 1860 and
bequeathed this one watch only to the nation; but his relict, Lady
Fellows, who died in 1874, left the whole of the celebrated collection
of ancient watches which her husband had brought together, to the
British Museum.
In 1675 Tompion, under Hooke's direction, made a watch with a spiral
balance for Charles II. Up to this period watches had but one hand and
only pointed the hours, but the spiral pendulum spring having been
applied to the balance, it regulated the oscillations with some
nicety, and the minute wheel and hand were soon after added.
A watch was found upon Guido Fawkes when he was arrested for the
Gunpowder Plot, which had been purchased by Percy and himself the day
before 'to try conclusions' for the long and short burning of the
touchwood with which he had prepared to set fire to the train of
powder.
The following is one of the earliest examples we have met with of an
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Early Watch, with double case.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
It is apparently of French make, date of 1660, and is a remarkably
neat and small specimen of the watches of that time.
The annexed illustration is a curious example of a watch of the date
of 1580, to which a pendulum was added in 1670, and which is still
capable of keeping time.
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| [Illustration: Ancient Watch with Pendulum.] |
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Our next illustration is another specimen of antique design and
ornamentation.
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| [Illustration: Ancient Brass Watch-case with lid protecting Dial.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
In 1676 Barlow, a London clockmaker, invented some mechanism whereby a
person at night might ascertain, in the dark, the hour last struck, by
pulling a certain part of it, and this contrivance gave the name of
_repeater_ to all time-pieces in which it was used. For this invention
Barlow tried to obtain a patent, but he was opposed by Daniel Quare
and the Clockmakers' Company, who said that Quare was the original
inventor. The question was tried by James II., and the decision given
in favour of Quare. The following memorandum was entered upon the
books of the Company with reference thereto. '1688, Sep. 29.--Be it
remembered that in pursuance of the order of the Court of the 8th day
of February, 1687-8, and according to the order of the Court of the
5th March, 1687-8, the patent endeavoured to be obtained by one Mr
Edward Barlow, a priest, and to be granted to him by the king's
majesty for his sole making and managing of all pulling repeating
pocket-clocks and watches, he pretending to be the true and first
inventor of that art and invention, was by diligence and endeavour of
the Master, Wardens, and Assistants of this Company, with great charge
and expense, which was borne by and out of the stock of the Company,
very successfully prevented, and upon the 2nd March, 1687-8,
ordered by the king in Council not to be granted.'
In 1695 Tompion invented the cylinder escapement with horizontal
wheel, but this was not brought into general use until some time
after, when it was much modified. It was, however, a very valuable
invention, and exercised considerable influence upon the shape of
subsequent watches, inasmuch as it dispensed with the vertical crown
wheel, and permitted them to be made more flat and therefore more
conveniently portable.
We now come to the time when the use of jewels was first invented and
applied; and as these, by being so hard and uninfluenced by friction
as to allow the pivots to play without wearing away,--as metal would
do by constant action,--afterwards gained for the English peculiar
fame as manufacturers of watches, we shall be excused for enlarging
upon this point. About the year 1700 Nicolas Facio, a native of
Geneva, having invented the use of jewels in watches, and failed in
his attempt to persuade the Parisian watch-makers into the adoption of
his notions, came to London. In May, 1705, he and two other
watch-makers, Peter Debaufree and Jacob Debaufree, obtained a patent
for his invention to extend over fourteen years. In December, 1705, he
petitioned, as we shall presently see, to be granted a more extended
term, and then the Clockmakers' Company opposed the application upon
the ground of the invention not being a novel one, and in proof of
their statement produced the watch, of which we give an illustration,
as made by Ignatius Huggeford, a member of their own Company, some
time before the application of the pendulum-spring. As this watch had
a large amethyst mounted upon the cock or pivot of the balance-wheel,
the Committee of the House of Commons were induced to decide against
Facio's petition and to throw out his Bill.
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| [Illustration: Ignatius Huggeford's Original Jewelled Watch.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
This watch has since then obtained an extensive historical reputation,
and it is preserved in the archives of the Clockmakers' Company as one
of their most valuable treasures, for it is the earliest known English
jewelled watch, and is the identical instrument produced before the
House of Commons Committee, as evidence to upset, and which did upset,
poor Facio's claim for an extension of patent. Alas, for ancient
reputations, it has been but recently discovered that Huggeford's watch
was but a fraud, and that the jewel on the cock which deceived the
Parliamentary Committee into supposing that Ignatius Huggeford, an
Englishman, had applied jewels to watches long before Facio had been
heard of, _has nothing to do with the working_ of the watch. The jewel
has been merely stuck on, just in the place where a jewel should be;
but as it is only fixed to the surface of the brass and no pivot plays
in the jewel, it may be averred that the amethyst has no more to do with
the movement of the watch than the silver ornaments on the watch-case.
It is clear by the words in Facio's petition that his application of
jewelling to watches was not merely done with the idea of ornamenting
them,--in that there would have been no novelty,--and it seems probable
that the amethyst would have been placed upon the face of the watch if
the object of inserting it anywhere had simply been ornamentation; to
speak plainly, none other than a fraudulent purpose could be served by
its being placed where it is. It is, we fear, not impossible that the
jewel was placed there at the insistence of some of the members of the
Clockmakers' Company, who, being perhaps jealous of the foreign
invention, and fearful of its effects upon their own private trade, were
still unable to prevent the grant of a patent, in May, 1703, for
fourteen years to the inventor. But by December of that year, when
application was made for the extension of the patent, they had had time
to consider affairs and to prepare their opposition. We may believe this
watch to have been Ignatius Huggeford's, and to have been all that it
was sworn to be by the members of that Company, but, when we remark that
neither is any mention whatever made by them, nor, as far as it appears,
any question asked of them before the Parliamentary Committee as to the
jewel being upon the cock during the whole of the time of its being in
their possession, we cannot but arrive at the conclusion that the jewel
was placed upon Huggeford's old watch--the date of which could be
shown--at the order of some of the members of the Clockmakers' Company
with the purpose of defeating the patent, and that the Committee of the
House of Commons were not as careful as they ought to have been in
inspecting the jewel, for if they had, they must have seen the want of
connexion between the amethyst and the pivot, which, it was pretended,
was working in it. The probability is that at this time our English
watch-makers scarcely knew how to apply a jewel, or otherwise they would
have inserted the pivot in a proper manner. The story is anyhow a very
extraordinary one, for, supposing the Clockmakers' Company to be
innocent of conspiracy on the subject, it must have been a miraculously
curious whim which possessed old Huggeford to insert a jewel as an
ornament in a place where it would not be seen, and still more wonderful
that it should, sham as it was, be placed exactly where it should suit
the purpose of after-litigation. Of course there can be no imputation
arising out of this incident to affect the members of the Clockmakers'
Company of the present time, for they are no more answerable for what
was done above a century and a half ago than the Parliament of to-day is
to be blamed for allowing the execution of Charles I., or for enacting
the laws which led to the loss of our American colonies.
After the invention of jewels for watches came a still more important
discovery.
Since 1530, when Gemma Frisius first proposed to ascertain the
relative longitude of any place or ship at sea, by means of an
horological machine for indicating the time of the first meridian, the
subject had excited the attention of most of our philosophers, but
unavailingly, as there was then no chronometrical instrument, upon
which reliance might safely be placed. Huygens, in 1664, had contrived
a time-piece actuated by a spring and regulated by a pendulum, but the
pendulum was affected by the tossing of the ship, and by a change of
temperature, as well as being subject, as was afterwards discovered,
to a variation in weight depending on the parallel of latitude. The
Academy of Sciences at Paris proposed, in 1720, a reward for the best
paper in reply to the question:--'What is the most perfect method of
preserving on the sea the equable motion of a pendulum?' The reward
was given to a Dutchman named Massy, but his plan was not carried out.
An English watch-maker named Henry Sully happened to be about this
time in Paris directing a large manufactory of chronometers, and he
presented the French Academy with a marine time-keeper of superior
construction to the time-pieces of that period, and accompanied his
gift by a memoir describing it. Whilst still engaged in the study of
his art, Sully, who was a clever man, unfortunately died, and the
opportunity of advance seemed to have passed away.
About this time Graham invented the Mercurial Compensation pendulum,
which consisted of a glass or iron jar filled with quicksilver and
fixed to the end of the pendulum rod, which, when heat lengthened the
rod, expanded simultaneously the quicksilver, and made the centre of
oscillation to continue at the same distance from the point of
suspension. He afterwards conceived a notion, which John Harrison
subsequently worked out, of making a compensation pendulum (or a
pendulum that should in itself contain the power of equalizing its own
action, whatever the change of temperature), forming it of various
metals. In 1726 Harrison invented what is called the gridiron
pendulum, composed of nine rods, five of steel and four of brass,
which are so arranged that those which expand most are counteracted
upon by those of less expansion. These two compensation pendulums, the
gridiron and mercurial, are still in use, and with slight improvements
are found to keep to time very accurately.
The period had now arrived for the making of marine time-keepers
sufficiently accurate for nautical use, and styled chronometers
because they are most accurate time-measurers. Their value to
navigators, and the immense impetus which would by such instruments
be given to the science of navigation, had long been foreseen, but
there were many great difficulties in the way of obtaining a perfect
chronometer. The sailor, before the invention of this instrument,
could ascertain the latitude of his ship at sea, by observation of the
fixed stars. Supposing these stars to have first appeared to him in
the zenith, and at his next observation to be one, two, or three
degrees south of the zenith, he would know that he had sailed just so
many degrees north of the place in which he first observed them. It
was not, however, so easy for him to compute longitudes, because the
diurnal revolution of the earth causes each meridian to pass
successively under the same stars. It was necessary to have an
accurate time-keeper, and to set it carefully to the solar time of
some port in the kingdom, whose longitude was well known. The
time-piece might then be carried out in a vessel sailing abroad, and
the computations made by means of it would prove most wonderfully
exact and important. By simply observing the moment at which the sun
reached his meridian, when of course it would be 12 o'clock at noon,
solar time, and then noting the difference between the solar time thus
ascertained and the time of the chronometer, the mariner would be able
by calculating 15 degrees to one hour of time, or 15 geographical
miles to one minute, to make out his longitude. For example, if the
time-piece had been set to time at the meridian of Greenwich
observatory, and if it be one o'clock by the time-piece when it is
mid-day, or meridian by the sun, then the place in which the longitude
is taken must be in long. 15 degrees east of the meridian of
Greenwich, and if it be eleven o'clock by the chronometer when the sun
attains his meridian, then the place must be in long. 15 degrees west
of the meridian of Greenwich. It is not indispensably necessary, that
every chronometer used for maritime purposes should keep time exactly
with that of the Greenwich observatory, or of any other instrument of
known excellence, provided always that its _rate_ as seamen call it,
or the daily loss or gain of the chronometer, is well ascertained, and
so may be computed in the calculations to be made. The indispensable
requisite of a chronometer, however, is that the daily loss or gain
shall not vary materially from itself at different periods, or under
the changes of temperature of different climates, and these qualities
being found in an instrument of any shape or make, constitute a marine
chronometer.
It will be generally obvious of what immense and universal importance
it was for men who 'go down to the sea in ships and do their business
on the great waters' to be provided with a chronometer, and so be
enabled to calculate with a great degree of nicety,--almost as a
traveller by land learns his distances by milestones and
finger-posts,--the precise position on the wide ocean of the vessel
they are engaged in navigating. So impressed was the British
Parliament with the value of such an invention, that as early as 1714,
in the reign of Queen Anne, a reward of £10,000 was offered, for any
method for determining the longitude within the accuracy of one
degree; of £15,000 within the limit of 40 geographical miles; and of
£20,000 within the limit of 30 geographical miles, or half a degree,
provided such method should extend 80 miles from the coast. In 1736
John Harrison invented the first chronometer, for which, after having
added many improvements, he received the gold medal of the Royal
Society in 1749. He still continued to persevere in improvements in
his instrument, and at last applied to be allowed to test its powers
in such a voyage as might permit of proof of its value. After some
time his application was granted, and his son, William Harrison,
embarked at Portsmouth, Nov. 18, 1761, for Jamaica. After eighteen
days sailing the vessel was computed to be 13° 50´ west of Portsmouth,
when the distance calculated by the watch was 15° 19´. When the vessel
arrived at Madeira, on the 9th of December, it was found that the
reckoning was corrected by the time of the piece, about a degree and a
half. From Madeira to Jamaica the reckoning was amended 3°; and at the
several islands where the ship touched the known longitudes agreed
very closely with those indicated by the chronometer. Upon having
returned again to England after a very stormy voyage, the instrument
underwent examination, and its entire error amounted to 1^m. 53^s. 5.
Harrison, on this report being made, obtained from Parliament a reward
of £5000. A second experiment was afterwards made in 1764, in March of
which year Harrison left Portsmouth with his instrument on board the
Tartar for Barbadoes. He had previously conveyed to the Lords of the
Admiralty his statement of the rates at which his chronometer went,
and the extent to which it was affected by change of temperature. On
May 13th the vessel arrived at Barbadoes, and it was found that the
amount of the daily deviations from mean time was only 43^s. in
excess. He returned to England after an entire voyage of 156 days, and
found that, allowing the gain of one second per day as stated by him
in his sealed 'rate,' the whole gain was only 54^s. Harrison then was
examined by a committee appointed for the purpose, and, having
explained satisfactorily to them the principles of his instrument, he
received another £5000. A trial was then made by another person with a
chronometer made upon Harrison's plan, and this experiment also
terminating favourably, the remaining parliamentary reward was paid
over to Harrison, amounting in all to £20,000, a sum which was still
further increased by gratuities from the Board of Longitude and the
East India Company.
Harrison's improvements in time-measuring were of considerable
importance, as any one may readily conceive, but he was sufficiently
candid to acknowledge that the balance, balance-spring, and
compensation curb, as then used, were not simultaneously affected by
changes of temperature, that small pieces were more readily affected
than large ones, and pieces in motion sooner than pieces at rest,
whence he concluded that if the provision for heat and cold could
properly be arranged in the balance itself, as in his gridiron
pendulum-clocks, the time might be better kept.
Harrison's suggestion of a compensation balance in lieu of a
compensating curb, incited Peter le Roy, a native of France, to the
consideration of the question, and ultimately to the invention of a
balance acted upon by mercury and alcohol. The compensation was
effected by the balance itself, which, carrying the two thermometers,
adjusted the mercury nearer or farther from the centre of the balance,
according to the state of the atmosphere.
About this period there was considerable emulation exhibited, both
here and on the continent, upon the subject of time-measuring. Sully
had aided largely in the advancement of the art of watch-making in
London and Paris. Berthoud, Julien, and Pierre le Roy made many
ingenious propositions, and amongst others the invention of the
detached escapement is attributed to the last-named.
In England we find the names of Arnold, Earnshaw, and Mudge associated
about this date with the greatest improvements in chronometry, and as
being those to whom prizes were at different times awarded by the
Board of Longitude. In fact, few great inventions have since been made
in the art, and our present high position as chronometer-makers is
mainly due to the skill, energy, and perseverance then exhibited.
It would be superfluous to give any detailed description of the many
valuable advantages derived from the science of horology, to which
indeed all arts, sciences, trades, and callings are considerably
indebted, and will probably be still more so in proportion to the
increase of the use of steam-power and electricity. As by means of
these recently-discovered powers mankind are enabled to compress into
a day what would previously have required weeks and even months to
accomplish, so must they regard with higher esteem, as these
improvements are extended, the science by means of which they may
divide and subdivide the precious minutes which are sufficient to
perform so much. It will be worth while by way of illustration to
point to the assistance given by horology to astronomical and nautical
science. It is by means of carefully-made and exact chronometers that
we calculate the distance and relations of the various heavenly bodies
to ourselves and to one another. Having ascertained, by comparison,
the rapidity of light and sound, and that the former travels at the
rate of 192,000 miles per second, we discover that the light of the
sun requires eight minutes to reach the earth, and thus compute the
sun's actual distance from us. So also observing the number of seconds
which elapse between the flash of lightning and the roll of thunder,
or between the flash and report of a cannon, and remembering that in
mild weather sound travels at the rate of 1123 feet, and in frosty
weather 1080 feet in a second, we shall be able, on making allowances
for the state of the atmosphere, to arrive at a tolerably correct
conclusion as to distances. It is by means of a chronometer, though it
be but a sand-glass, that the sailor uses his log-line at sea and
finds the rate of his vessel's speed. His lead, enclosed in the log,
or wood, is attached to the log-line, which has certain lengths called
knots marked upon it for nautical miles, and according to the knots
paid out in the half-minute of the sand-glass, so is the ship's rate
of sailing, _i. e._, if ten knots are passed in half a minute the
vessel's speed is at the rate of ten miles an hour.
It would be both impossible and unnecessary to describe the various
experiments in which it is of great consequence to measure time into
minute proportions,--the number of these increases with advancing
science; it will suffice if we have made the subject sufficiently
interesting to the general reader to induce him to inquire further
into the details. It is only by such investigations that he will be
enabled to give anything like a proper answer to the question 'What is
Time?'
MODERN WATCHES:
THEIR VARIETIES AND MODES OF MANUFACTURE.
'He that would wear a watch two things must do,--
Pocket his watch and watch his pocket too.'--_Old Maxim._
The first possession of a watch by young persons of either sex is
perhaps one of the most vividly retained of all their early memories.
The sense of responsibility, of importance, which such a wonderful
little piece of mechanism gives to them, the alacrity with which they
thenceforth note the flight of time and compare the working of all
other time-pieces, is remarkable. One of the first things usually done
by the juvenile with his or her watch is, curiously enough, to
challenge thereby the performance of the old-established time-pieces
in the house,--even the infallible old Hall Clock, a very Nestor among
clocks, does not escape scrutiny. Woe be to his ancient reputation if,
when 'weighed by the new balances'--compensation or otherwise,--he be
'found wanting.' The yet unfledged urchin will, upon the evidence of
his own newly-acquired chronometer, unhesitatingly expose and
denounce the slightest delinquency of the antique time-piece, and
pride and plume himself accordingly. At this time of day, when watches
of a sound and durable kind may be had for a comparatively small sum,
and when education commences so early, it may be supposed that youths
attain earlier to years of discretion, and so rise to the dignity of
watch-wearers sooner than their predecessors did. Anyhow, the value of
time can scarcely be inculcated at too juvenile an age, nor can it be
brought home to the mind of the pupil without providing him with the
means of studying the operations of his own personal time-keeper. From
the hour when such a gift comes into his possession until the latest
day of his life a watch remains his indispensable mentor, and,
literally, his bosom-friend. There are few, perhaps none, who can look
upon the face of an old watch, their day and night companion for many
years, without associating it with the bygone times when it reckoned
off for them their moments of pain or anxiety, their joys and sorrows.
There is perhaps scarcely any memento of a friend or relative so
suggestive as that semi-living object which has been his constant
friend for so long, the chief valuable of all his 'portable property.'
Our Old English popular rhymes and songs have frequently been pointed
with witticisms directed at the care with which watches have been
guarded, or the dexterity with which they have been filched away. Who
can overlook the evergreen old dramatic joke, of which the point
consisted in connecting the time-teller with the name of the ancient
street-guardian; _e.g._:--
'I knocked him down, then snatched it from his fob.
"Watch, watch!" cried he, when I had done the job;
"My watch is gone!" said he: said I, "Just so,
Stop where you are, watches were made to go."'
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| [Illustration: The Horizontal Watch.] |
| |
| [Illustration: The Skeleton Lever Watch.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Who can forget Dickens's description of the watch of the wonderful
Captain Cuttle, which, if you set so far forward at night and so far
backward in the morning, was asserted to be 'a watch that would do
anybody credit;' or again, how can we omit mention of that earlier
Dickensian figure, mentioned by Sam Weller, wearing his enormous watch
with so much happy fearlessness, his seals dangling from his fob, the
continual temptation and despair of eager pick-pockets, whose
ineffectual efforts to abstract the watch from such a tightly-protuberant
stomach, were the never ceasing delight of its jolly proprietor? Who
shall narrate the characteristics of the various fashions in watches,
and the trinkets that were worn along with them, the manners of the
fine gentlemen who carried two at a time soon after swords were exchanged
for walking-canes, and when pantaloons anticipated the easier but less
graceful trowsers? Snuff-boxes, bag-wigs, pig-tails, high cravats,
shoe-buckles, have all gone more or less out of fashion, but the watch
is a perennial, which may indeed change its outer-casing and its
decorations, like man himself, but knows no period of absolute
disuse since first it started into being.
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| [Illustration: The Full Plate Patent English Lever.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Three-Quarter Plate English Lever.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
From the time when the first Nuremberg egg-watch was produced, there
has always been noticeable an endeavour to make pocket time-pieces
more and more small and portable so far as they could be made so
consistently with their durability. Sometimes the love of very minute
workmanship has been carried to an extreme, but toy-watches of
eccentric shapes and patterns are but the few exceptions to the
general rule, which has settled that usefulness and convenience are
best provided for within certain moderate sizes, and that of all
shapes the round and flat are the most easily carried. The great
object of the watch-maker's ambition is to produce a time-keeper
minutely accurate, and yet not so delicately constructed that it
cannot withstand the rough usage to which even moderately careful
wearers subject it.
It has been estimated that the manufacture of and trade in watches
annually in England, France, Switzerland, and America, amount to over
£5,000,000 per ann.; and that in Switzerland alone there are 38,000
persons, one-third of whom are women, engaged in the manufacture. It
is probable that even the immense number of new watches thus annually
produced barely exceeds the growing requirements of the people, who,
as they increase in intelligence and receive higher wages, soon learn
the advantage of personally possessing a pocket time-keeper, and make
it accordingly their first ambition to purchase one. The Watch Clubs
which are formed in the various towns and rural districts throughout
the kingdom enable this desire to be gratified at but small pecuniary
inconvenience, inasmuch as payment is thus made in small instalments
at fixed intervals, and the watch is bought with sums which might have
been spent thoughtlessly and to no permanent benefit. This first
lesson in thrift having been well learnt, and the result being so
palpably beneficial to those who exercise it, has often laid the basis
of a regular habit of economy.
The motive power in the watch is derived, not as in the clock from
weights, but from a spiral spring called THE MAINSPRING, set in a
drum or barrel, and any inequality in the pressure of the spring is
fatal to regular time-keeping. A highly tempered and finished spring
is a primary requisite in watch-making; in order to provide for the
uniform transmission of motive power from the barrel throughout the
train to the escapement, the fusee and chain are used, the fusee being
a hollow-sided cone, and the chain round it. When the spring is wound
up its force is of course greatest, for the chain is then acting on
the smallest end of the fusee. The proportions of the barrel to the
centre wheel, and the size of the teeth in that wheel, have all to be
carefully planned, and adjusted to one another, and these all again to
the moving of the hands upon the dial.
The ESCAPEMENT is one of the most important parts of the mechanism of
a watch. It may be one of either of the following.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Verge Escapement.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
The _Verge_ escapement, as applied to Watches, will be seen annexed,
A, part of the balance; _b_, the verge body; C, C, the pallets; D, the
escape-wheel; E, escape-wheel pinion. The verge or arbor B of the
balance has two pallets, C, C, which stand out at right angles, so as
to be acted on alternately by the sloping teeth in the opposite sides
of the crown or escapement-wheel, C.
The _Horizontal_ escapement, on the following page, so called because
of the escape-wheel acting horizontally to the axis of the balance.
This invention was perfected by Graham, after the death of the
inventor, his master and friend, Thomas Tompion. _a_, the
escape-wheel, having pins or stems rising from it, on the tops of
which are teeth of a wedgelike form, of such a length as to permit
little freedom within and without the cylinder _b_, which is firmly
fixed to the balance _c_. Although _b_ is one piece, the two edges of
the hollow part serve as distinct pallets, inasmuch as they receive
alternately, during each vibration of the balance, an impulse from the
curved outer edge of each tooth in succession; and as the wedge-shaped
tooth passes from the pallet, the coming tooth falls on to the
circular part of the cylinder, and there remains until the return of
the balance, when that tooth which had previously rested on the
circular portion of the cylinder, comes upon the edge or pallet, gives
impulsion to the balance _c_, and falls upon the concave portion of
the cylinder, and there remains until the balance again returns, when
another impulse takes place, and so on in succession. Watches having
the cylinder escapement were not known in France till the year 1728,
when Julien le Roy obtained one of them from Graham.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Horizontal Escapement.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Duplex Escapement.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
The _Duplex_ escapement is of a very peculiar construction, and nearly
approaches the chronometer; it is probable that it was originally
invented by Dr Hooke, although, as we now have it, it came from the
hands of Tyrer. It is seen in our illustration. A, the escape-wheel; B,
the escape-wheel teeth; C, the balance; D, the pallet of impulse; E, the
ruby roller; F, a notch in ditto: 1, 2, 3, cogs or upright teeth on the
rim of the escape-wheel. The balance is supposed to be turning downwards
towards the right, the tooth of the escape-wheel just resting against
the ruby roller. When this (which is called the return) vibration is
complete, the balance, by the strength of the hair spring, is carried in
the opposite direction, and as the notch F passes the tooth of the
escape-wheel, this latter is enabled to pass the roller, and the upright
tooth or cog falls upon the pallet D, and thus gives impulse to the
balance. The next straight tooth of the escape-wheel is now resting
against the roller _e_, and the same operation again takes place. This
escapement is much superior to the horizontal, and is almost independent
of oil. It can carry a balance of much greater weight, and when well
made performs admirably. Duplex watches, however, should never be
selected by persons who are accustomed to ride on horseback, as these
instruments are liable to be affected by any sudden motion. Even the
stepping quickly from a vehicle may stop them, and yet the escapement be
as perfect as possible. They are only adapted for persons of very quiet
habits. Thomas Mudge, in the year 1766, introduced an admirable
invention, which, after many alterations and improvements, is now
universally known as the '_Patent Detached Lever_' escapement,
represented by--_a a_ the escapement-wheel, _b b_ the ruby pallets, _c_
the lever, _d_ the balance. On the axis of the balance _d_, towards the
lever _c_, is a small disc of steel, into which is inserted a small pin
made of ruby. This pin fits with great nicety into a notch or opening in
the end of the lever _c_, upon which are firmly fixed the two pallets _b
b_, into which are secured rubies very finely polished. The balance in
its vibration on either side, carrying with it the steel disc and ruby
pin, causes that pin to enter the notch in the lever and carry the lever
with it, and at the same time, to draw the pallet from the tooth of the
escapement-wheel _a_. Power being exerted upon this wheel by the
mainspring, the wheel tooth gets disengaged from the locking-face of the
pallet, forces itself down the slopes of the pallet, and thus gives
impulse to the balance. At each vibration the same unlocking takes
place, but as soon as the wheel tooth falls from the slope, the opposite
pallet is prepared to receive the advancing tooth of the
escapement-wheel, and so on in succession beat after beat takes place.
So excellent was this escapement considered a few years back, that
chronometers were made upon the principle, and placed in the Royal
Observatory for public trial. But since then many improvements have been
made in it, so that makers are now enabled to produce a pocket watch,
with the short angle lever escapement, which marks time at a steady rate
of within four or five seconds weekly,--a rate which approaches so near
to the time-keeping of a pocket chronometer, that unless the minutest
exactness for some specific purpose is required, the last-named watch is
all that can be wished for.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Lever Escapement.] |
| |
| [Illustration: Chronometer Escapement.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
About the year 1780 was invented the escapement which is now denominated
the Detached or _Chronometer Escapement_ (see opposite page), the
principles of which are the nearest approach to perfection, the impulse
to the balance being given at the centre of vibration. A is the
escape-wheel, B the escape-wheel teeth, C the roller let on the verge,
or axis of the balance. This roller is a circle of polished steel, with
a notch cut out of it, into one side of which, D, a flat polished piece
of ruby is inserted for the acting part. Below this steel roller,
carried on the same verge, is a smaller roller of steel (E),
denominated the discharging pallet, having a sapphire fixed on its outer
edge. F is a slender spring, which is screwed at I to the stouter one,
having its fixture at the stud L, and polished away very thin at K, in
order that it may bend readily, so as to cause very little resistance to
the balance while forcing it on one side. G is a projecting piece,
carrying an upright pin made of ruby, against which the wheel tooth B
rests; at B is a small screw against which the spring L K G strikes, and
thus prevents it from springing too far back. The action of these parts
is as follows:--When at rest the circular edge of C is just clear of the
two teeth of the wheel B, which cannot be set in motion while E and G
remain quiescent; G rests against the screw at B, and the tooth resting
against the locking pallet G, the escapement-wheel cannot turn. To set
the chronometer going it is necessary to give it a rotary motion, which
sets the balance in action. This causes the lower piece on the verge
(called the lifting piece or discharging pallet) to strike against the
end of the spring F, which, from its over-lapping the curved end of the
prolonged spring K G, pushes it back, and thus releases the pin or
locking stone G from before the tooth of the wheel: that is, it unlocks
the escapement-wheel, which is immediately set in motion by the force
of the mainspring. The same vibration given to balance and verge brings
the ruby pallet D round before the tooth B, which strikes against it and
carries it round. The recoil of the spring F has now brought the locking
pallet G to catch the tooth B, the escapement-wheel is thus again
stopped. But the stroke of the tooth upon the face of the ruby pallet D
has driven the balance on in its vibration till it is counteracted by
the tension of the balance spring, which brings it back again; in this
return vibration the lifting pallet E, by its curved back, pushes the
slender spring F before it, and passes it without affecting K, G, which
is stiff enough to remain unmoved by F, even when this strikes and rests
against it in recoiling. The wheel, therefore, continues locked on the
upright pallet G, and the vibration proceeds uncontrolled till the great
pallet is again brought round, and the balance spring again checks the
vibration, the above process being repeated. In this escapement,
consequently, part of one vibration in one direction, and the whole of
that in the other, is performed without the balance being in any way
under the influence of the motive power; while the parts are so
contrived that the impulse given by the tooth of the escape-wheel,
affects in a very slight degree the natural motion of the balance. It
can be easily understood that the lifting pallet E can pass the spring F
in one direction without moving K and G, while in the other it carries E
and G with it.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Compensation Balance.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Several appliances have been from time to time introduced to correct
the error in time-keeping caused by variations in the temperature, but
none have come into such general use as that known by the term
'_Compensation Balance_,' invented by Thomas Earnshaw, of London, and
for which he received a government reward. This balance, when properly
adjusted, causes the watch to keep the same time whether the
temperature be 32 deg. or 90 deg.; while without it a watch will show
a considerable difference in time, on being merely transferred from
the pocket to the dressing-table, where, probably, the temperature
would not be so high. Our woodcut represents a balance of this kind;
the divided rim A A, is composed of steel and brass run together by
fusion, the more expansible metal, brass, being placed outwards, the
result of which is as follows:--Heat elongates the pendulum spring,
and thereby causes a slower vibration of the balance. The same amount
of heat will also expand the metals composing the balance; but as the
inner rim of steel does not expand so freely as the outer one of
brass, the conflicting action of the two tends to draw the free end of
the circular rim inwards towards its centre, and thus decreases in all
but one direction the diameter of the balance. This decrease tends to
_quicken_ its vibration, and thus counteracts the effect of the
elongation of the pendulum spring. In cold temperatures the pendulum
spring is contracted, making the vibrations quicker, but the
contraction of the brass rim draws the free end outwards, thus
increasing its diameter, retarding its vibrations, and counteracting
the effect of the contraction of the pendulum spring.
Many contrivances have been introduced to test the equality of
compensation balances, but the majority have been abandoned from the
circumstance that the heat was not equally distributed to the watches
under trial. In pursuance of this object, an oven was invented, heated
by hot water, which answers the desired end. It is an apparatus made
of copper, two feet high, thirteen inches broad, and eight inches
deep. From the top to the bottom, at the distance of fifteen inches,
it is divided into two compartments. All around the upper one (except
the front, which has a glass door through which the chronometers and
watches are seen without opening it) is one inch of water. It has a
chamber thirteen inches high, eleven inches broad, and seven inches
deep for the reception of chronometers and watches. The water is
introduced at the top in the same manner as a solar lamp is supplied
with oil. The bottom compartment contains a jet of gas, which can at
pleasure be regulated so as to keep the watch at any required
temperature. The heat radiated from the inner surface of the
chronometer chamber is thus equally distributed among the instruments
under trial. A thermometer placed within the upper chamber indicates
the temperature, and by this simple apparatus a watch can be regulated
with the greatest nicety to suit the particular climate into which it
may be taken.
The DIAL AND HANDS should be sufficiently in contrast one to the other
to show the time at a glance. Dials are sometimes made of gold or
silver, but these are not so distinctly seen as white enamelled dials,
with black figures or numerals, and dark blue steel hands; the
enamelled faces, although, perhaps, more brittle than gold or silver
dials, are therefore in greatest request. Up to a comparatively recent
date the seconds' hand was placed upon the level face of the watch,
but sunk seconds are now everywhere in use, even in the cheaper sorts
of watches. The chief objection taken to the sunk seconds is that it
disfigures the dial by breaking the uniformity of the numeral letters,
the VI being of course obliterated to make room for it, but this
obliteration seems of smaller consequence than the confusion which may
arise from the use of longer seconds' hands and their being at any
time mistaken for that of the hour or minute.
The JEWELLING of a watch is an important part of its manufacture,
inasmuch as it is by means of jewels that durability is chiefly
secured. Watch pivots would rapidly wear out the metal in those parts
in which there is continual friction, and jewelling has therefore
become general. The watch-maker uses for his best watches a peculiarly
hard kind of ruby, which has been known to withstand the wear and tear
of the best part of a century without showing symptoms of yielding,
whereas inferior jewels are perhaps scarcely so hard as the best
tempered metal.
The FRAME, usually of brass gilt, sustains both ends of each axis, and
is now principally designed to fit a full-plate movement or a
three-quarter-plate movement. The former is undoubtedly the more simple
construction, but with considerable disadvantage in taking to pieces the
watch and putting it together again when repairs are needed. The
examination of the escapement in a full-plate watch, and the cleaning,
or altering, or oiling which may be needed, cannot be done without
taking the whole movement to pieces. The three-quarter-plate movement is
not only preferable on account of its superiority in respect to
solidity, and the economy of labour in its manufacture, but from its
being flatter than the full-plate watch, and allowing of repairs being
more easily made.
The WATCH-CASE, which used to be of various materials, such as
tortoiseshell, pinchbeck, or one of the precious metals, is now almost
universally of gold or silver. Silver cases are invariably of the
standard required by the law and stamped accordingly; gold cases vary in
fineness,--some being made and stamped of 9 carat gold, but the best
for wear, and as such preferred by the best makers, are of 18 carats,
and are stamped as such with the hall mark, usually in three or four
places,--on the bow, the pendant, and the inside of the case. Much
depends upon the care with which this part of a watch is finished, for
an ill-fitting case admits dust which renders frequent cleaning
necessary, and prevents accurate time-keeping. After the casemaker has
constructed the case it has to pass through several hands before it is
completed,--for instance, it is one man's work to fit the works to the
case by making the joint at the 12 o'clock and the bolt at 6 o'clock,
and to supply the wheels to propel the hands; it is another's to perform
the part of engine turner, and to mark the case with those curiously
intricate lines whose wonderful precision cannot be secured by mere
hand-work, but by a combination of mechanical and human labour;
another's to finish the joints, or, as the uninitiate would perhaps call
them, the hinges; and last of all the fitter of the case with springs,
and polisher to give the necessary finish. In the same way has each part
of the mechanism of the interior passed through a series of workmen's
hands. Nearly every wheel and pinion has been separately made by men
whose entire time is given to the perfecting of their several branches
of labour, the subdivisions of which and their ramifications would need
many lengthy chapters of description, to do them justice. The
escapement is of itself a distinct department requiring a number of
co-operating hands, from those which first shape the metal to the
balance-maker working in brass, steel, or gold, and the final adjustment
of the escapement-maker. The chain, the spring, the jewelling, the
brass-work, the engraving, the gilding, have each their separate
history, some of them being brought from one district and some from
another, to be put together in the watch manufactory, which is finally
to produce them unitedly as an entire watch. Division of labour provides
a larger amount of skilled work, and a more satisfactory result, than
any other method. The workman whose entire life is spent in making the
head of a pin or in fixing it on, will do his work better than the man,
however clever he may be, who should attempt to make the whole pin; and
not only is the work thus better done, but it is done by combination
much more expeditiously and cheaply. All that the watch-manufacturer can
do by way of choosing his materials is, however, of course, but
antecedent to his own work of actual construction, of finishing,
examining, and regulating. He is to the watch what the architect is to a
house; the latter is none the less the rearer of the structure because
he did not himself make the bricks, or saw the timber, or mix the
mortar. Each subordinate brings certain materials to the hand of the
constructor, and he combines them, and gives them their places, he
turns them into shape and produces them as a perfect whole. So the
watch-manufacturer, instead of going himself back through the various
stages of work which in Nuremberg-egg time had, perhaps, all to be done
by one pair of hands, chooses, adapts, combines the labours of hundreds
of busy collaborateurs, all of whom have made portions and pieces,--he
alone makes the Watch.
COMPLICATED WATCHES are so called because besides the ordinary watch
movement they possess other mechanism more or less complicated, by
means of which they can indicate special portions of time,--as for
instance the _Chronograph_, which marks on its dial the fifth of a
second; the _Quarter_, and _Half-Quarter_, and _Minute Repeaters_,
which furnish the time in the dark to within a minute, and are
invaluable to invalids and blind persons; the _Clock-Watch_, which
strikes the hours even in the pocket; the _Clock-Watch Repeater_,
which strikes and repeats; the _Independent split Centre Seconds, and
Fifth Seconds Watch_, which shows (by comparing the one with the
other) the lapse of time to the fifth of a second; the _Perpetual
Calendar Watch_, which shows the day of the week and of the month, the
name of the month, the phases of the moon, &c.; the _Perpetual
Calendar Repeating Watch_, which in addition to the calendar shows by
a repeater the hour, quarter, and minute; and the _Meridian Watch_,
which shows the time of day in any given number of places in any part
of the world. A few words descriptive of the peculiarities of each of
the above complicated watches will be necessary here, and observing
the sequence as above, the following brief particulars will perhaps be
sufficient for ordinary reference, or for being kept in memory.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Complicated Watches.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
The CHRONOGRAPH is undoubtedly the most perfect instrument yet
invented for marking the exact time occupied by certain rapid
movements or events or performances,--and is therefore well adapted
for astronomical and medical observations, for timing machinery, for
indicating the speed of a race, and of similar quick events even to
the tenth of a second. It consists of an ordinary quick train lever
movement on a scale sufficiently large to carry the hands for an
8-inch dial. The peculiar feature of the chronograph is its second
hand, which is double, consisting of two distinct hands,--the one
lying over the other. The lower of the two is furnished at the tip
with a small reservoir having an extremely small orifice below; over
this orifice the point of the upper hand is bent so as to fall exactly
upon the puncture, and to convey through it, as with a pen, the ink
held in the reservoir. The mode of operating with the chronograph at a
race has been thus described. 'The chronograph is held firmly in the
left hand of the operator, who watches the starters, but need not
trouble himself to keep at the same time an eye upon the dial. At the
moment of the start he presses the finger or thumb of his right hand
gently upon the button of the pendant, and instantly a black dot is
deposited on the dial, and--the operator being ready to touch the
button at the precise moment of the finish, and thus to complete what
we may call the chronogram of the event--the exact length of the race
is registered, even to a decimal fraction of a second, and an
indisputable record written by the instrument itself in black and
white. The chronograph, it should be mentioned is, apart from its
chronographic mechanism, an excellent time-keeper, and may be worn as
an ordinary watch, being the same size as a gentleman's lever watch.
REPEATING WATCHES are now made so as to require no key. They are
constructed with a lever or chronometer escapement, and are known
according to their method of repeating,--the ordinary _Repeater_
strikes the hours and quarters,--the _Half-quarter Repeater_ strikes
the hours, quarters, and half-quarters,--the _Minute Repeater_ strikes
hours, quarters, and minutes. The first tells the time in the dark or
to the blind person to within a quarter of an hour, the second tells
it within seven minutes and a half, the third tells it to the minute.
The CLOCK WATCH and CLOCK REPEATING WATCH are also made so as to need
no key. They strike the hours and quarters while being worn in the
pocket, and have not only the two trains of wheels for going and
striking as in a clock, but a third train provided for repeating
purposes. Both mainsprings are wound up by the same winder by a
forward and backward action of the pendant. They are constructed with
either Lever, Duplex, or Chronometer Escapements, and some are
provided with compensation balances adjusted to act equally at
extremes of temperature.
THE INDEPENDENT CENTRE SECONDS WATCH is peculiarly adapted for the use
of the medical profession. By means of its two trains it carries,
besides the ordinary hands denoting hours, minutes, and seconds, a
long seconds hand which can be stopped without stopping the watch. It
is made with a stem winder, and therefore requires no key.
THE SPLIT CENTRE SECONDS is not quite so complicated as the last
named. It has two centre second hands revolving round the dial, the
one directly over the other, as also, in another part of the dial, a
small hand revolving five times in a second. Upon pressing a
stop-piece one of the long second hands is stopped, and another
pressure will stop the other--the space between the two hands will
then indicate precisely the time occupied by the event which it is
desired to measure. Another push to the stop-piece will make both
hands again fly together, and enable the operator it may be to make a
new experiment or observation.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: The Perpetual Calendar Keyless Watch.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
THE PERPETUAL CALENDAR KEYLESS WATCH, shows on its dial the year, the
month of the year, the day of the month, the day of the week, the phases
of the moon, as well as hours, minutes, and seconds. It requires no
setting, as the old-fashioned Calendar Watch did at certain intervals,
but, by a very ingenious contrivance, the changes from month to month,
as for example from February 28th to the 1st of March, or from 30th or
31st of other months to the 1st of the next, are all performed by the
watch, which also of itself marks the extra day for Leap Year. When to
all the above are added, as is sometimes done, the Minute Repeating Work
to repeat the hours, quarters, and minutes, it may be said that the
power of complication can no farther go within the limits of the small
box which is called a watch case,--for these watches are provided with
either Lever, Duplex, or Chronometer Escapements as may be preferred,
and with compensation balances adjusted to serve in extremes of
temperature. But in the examples set forth in the following
illustrations, it will be seen that superadded to all the foregoing are
a thermometer, and an index showing the calendar by the old and new
style, as indicated by the words Gregorian and Russian,--the former
referring to Pope Gregory who decreed the alteration to the new style,
and the latter to the fact that the Russians still reckon by the old
style.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Perpetual Calendar.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
THE COMPLICATED PERPETUAL CALENDAR AND INDEPENDENT SECONDS KEYLESS
WATCH, is another example of this kind of mechanism, which, without
being re-set from time to time for leap year and other changes, keeps
a perpetual register of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months,
and years, shows Old and New Styles, the phases of the moon, and
variations of heat and cold. It has also two separate trains of
wheels and two mainsprings, both of which are wound up by the button
at the pendant. It will be seen that the dial has two hour circles
with hour and minute hands showing separate time. Below the centre is
the sunk seconds dial with two seconds hands, the one over the other,
and each working independently, so that the one may be stopped by a
push at the button of the pendant and yet the other go on, to be in
its turn stopped, so that the operator may use it as a stopwatch.
Underneath the hour hands of each circle is the hand showing the month
and the day of the week. The two centre hands, with the letters G and
R, are pointing to the days of the month, and showing the Gregorian
and Russian day. In the small square space just below the centre is
the year, and below this and lying over the second hands is another
hand pointing to the degrees of temperature to which the watch is
exposed; near the top of the dial is a small plate showing the phases
of the moon,--the position indicated in this illustration is that of
full moon.
The MERIDIAN WATCH shows the time of day in any number of places in
any part of the world. It is set to Greenwich time, and marks the
difference between this and the time of all the great metropolitan
cities in both hemispheres,--as St Petersburg, Constantinople, New
York.
The name CHRONOMETER,--derived from the
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: The Meridian Watch.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Greek, and meaning a time-measurer,--is chiefly applied to marine
time-pieces and to watches which have been carefully made with
chronometer or detached escapements and compensating balances serving
to equalize the effects of heat and cold. MARINE CHRONOMETERS are the
chief instruments for discovering the longitude at sea, and are
therefore subjected to special tests at Greenwich observatory and
elsewhere before being sent on board ship. They have dials of three or
four inches in diameter, hour, minute, and second hands, besides a
hand to indicate the day upon which the instrument was last wound
up,--and they are made to go from two to eight days. Being well
mounted on gimbals inside of an air and water-tight brass case they do
not toss about with the motion of the ship but always preserve their
equilibrium. For extra protection they are generally kept enclosed in
a mahogany case. Chronometers have for their motive power, like
watches and spring-clocks, a mainspring acting on the fusee by the
chain,--as the chain winds upon the fusee the force of the spring is
so equalized that it is exactly the same whatever the position of the
chain. When marine chronometers are sent to the Greenwich observatory
they are subjected, under the directions of the Astronomer Royal, to
extreme degrees of heat and cold, and up to the year 1835 prizes were
awarded to those makers whose instruments best stood these tests; but
such prizes are no longer given. It has even been found that
chronometers which are most capable of withstanding extremes of
temperature are not the most perfect in medium climates, and this
discovery brought about new endeavours and a new suggestion known as
the Auxiliary or Secondary Compensation.
MARINE TIME-PIECES FOR SHIPS AND YACHTS. These instruments possess the
character rather of clocks than of chronometers, inasmuch as they are
designed to hang against a bulk-head, and they would not appear
unsuitable to house purposes. They are portable and useful clocks, and
having a lever escapement with compensated balance, the motion of the
vessel does not affect them. Some yacht time-pieces are constructed so
as to chime the quarters or tunes, and to strike the ships' bells as
well as the hours. They are also sometimes placed in very handsome
cases of bronze or ormolu, decorated with special designs to
illustrate the name of the ship or yacht to which they belong. Their
movements are not as accurately adjusted as those of Marine
Chronometers, but they, nevertheless, are made to keep time
excellently.
KEYLESS WATCHES.
The keyless mechanism to a watch is one of the great modern
improvements in watch work; it does away with the old-fashioned key,
with which so many persons have ruined their watches, the watch is
wound by turning a knurled knob, placed on the handle or bow (see
illustrations, pp. 96-7) instead of by the ordinary means: the hands
are set in the same way, with the addition of pressing a small
projection on the side of the case. The advantages of these
improvements are obvious; the case, which never need be opened in
winding, is made air tight and dust tight, thus preserving much longer
the fluidity of the oil, and greatly prolonging the intervals between
the necessary cleaning of the watch. Besides which, the keyless
mechanism being attached to the watch, the key can never be lost or
mislaid, or worn out.
_Strict attention to the following simple Directions is necessary for
the proper Management of a Watch._
1st.--Wind your watch as nearly as possible at the same time every
day--the morning is the best. Care should be taken to avoid sudden
jerks.
2nd.--Be careful that your key is in good condition, free from dust
and cracks. It should not be kept in the waistcoat pocket, or in any
place where it is liable to rust or get filled with dust.
3rd.--Keep the watch while being _wound_ steadily in the hand, so as
to avoid all circular motion.
4th.--The watch, when hung up, must have support, and be perfectly at
rest; or, when laid horizontally, let it be placed on a soft substance
for more general support, otherwise the action of the balance will
generate a pendulous motion of the watch, and cause much variation in
time.
5th.--The hands of a duplex or chronometer watch should never be set
backwards; in other watches this is a matter of no consequence, but to
avoid accidents it is much better to set them always forward.
6th.--Should the watch vary by heat or cold, as when worn or not worn
in the pocket, the hands may be set to time, but the regulator should
not be altered; but when it is found necessary to alter the regulator,
it should be done gently, and very little at a time.
7th.--_The glass should never be opened in watches that are set and
regulated at the back._
8th.--Keep your watch-pocket free from dust or nap, which generally
accumulates in the pocket when much used.
9th.--Be cautious to whom you give your watch for repair; the best
watches being frequently irretrievably damaged by inexperienced
workmen. Never allow your watch to go longer than two years without
being cleaned.
HOUSE CLOCKS.
Between the small wooden Dutch Clock of the value of but a few
shillings, and the carefully-made Regulator Clock which costs ten
times as many pounds, there is necessarily a wide difference; but both
may be considered as within the general designation, 'House Clocks.'
The former sometimes go for many years with a fair amount of
regularity, and are found to be useful to the humblest classes, whose
hours for early morning labour are frequently regulated thereby. The
latter are made with such accuracy as to correct the time of other
clocks, such as turret and church clocks, which are more exposed to
the influence of the weather, and are necessarily made upon a coarser
scale. In large mansions there is no handsomer or more necessary
appointment for the hall or vestibule than a fine eight-day clock, 'to
welcome the coming, speed the parting guest,' and to give the time of
day to the entire household.
It would be worth while, did our purpose admit of it, to write a
chapter on the longevity of Clocks, by way of showing the comparative
cheapness of the solid, well-built piece of mechanism whose every item
has been carefully put together of the very best and most durable
materials by the most skilled horologers. For generation after
generation such a sound, well-made time-piece shall keep accurate
time, and put to shame by both its performance and the insignificant
expense of keeping it in order, the instruments of, it may be, more
showy appearance, but less careful construction. Such a clock descends
from father to son until its own age is scarcely to be remembered, and
is regarded as one of the family heir-looms,--nay, as more,--almost,
we would say, as a friend familiar with all the scenes and experiences
which have made up family history. It was of such a clock that
Longfellow wrote--
'By day its voice is low and light,
But in the silent dead of night,
Distinct as a passing footstep's fall,
It echoes along the vacant hall,
Along the ceiling, along the floor,
And seems to say, at each chamber-door,
For ever--never,
Never, for ever.'
It was such an one that Dickens apostrophized in that
wonderfully-genial style which won for him so much love and fame:--'My
old cheerful, companionable clock. How can I ever convey to others an
idea of the comfort and consolation that this old clock has been for
years to me!... What other thing that has not life could cheer me as
it does! what other thing that has not life (I will not say how few
things that have) has proved the same patient, true, untiring friend!
How often have I sat in the long winter evenings feeling society in
its cricket voice! how often in the summer twilight, when my thoughts
have wandered back to a melancholy past, have its regular whisperings
recalled them to the calm and peaceful present! how often, in the dead
tranquillity of night, has its bell broken the oppressive silence, and
seemed to give me assurance that the old clock was still on guard at
my chamber-door!'
The Hall clock is often a plain, simple, undecorated instrument, where
all others are perhaps somewhat ornamented. Bracket clocks for the
staircase or landings, Mantelpiece clocks for the drawing and dining
rooms, for the study, the boudoir, and the best bed rooms, have each
their separate shape and character specially designed, and are to be
found in simple black-stained wood or real ebony, in marble of different
colours, in bronze, in buhl, and in ormolu, with or without enamel
ornaments, and with or without miniature figures at base, sides, and
top. Until lately most of our ornamental mantelpiece clocks were
imported from the continent, although French workmanship is generally
inferior to our own, but preference was shown by the public to the
former on account of the greater attention given by the French to
external decorations and variety of pattern. I am endeavouring to
provide that for the future this branch of clockmaking shall not be
abandoned entirely to our continental neighbours, whose exports of this
kind to our country yearly are very considerable. Henceforth by means of
new designs specially made for me and by me, and of a sufficiently
skilled staff of artistic workmen, selected for the purpose of working
under my superintendence, on my own premises, I shall be able to compete
on equal, nay, as to mechanism, on superior, terms with the best
specimens of decorated clocks from foreign _atéliers_. There is no
reason why the admitted superiority of English mechanism should not be
coupled with the best designs for decorated clock-cases; there is every
reason why handsome clocks should be made which will keep time well, and
add not only by their beauty but their usefulness to the enjoyment of
domestic life. If the proverb, 'handsome is that handsome does,' applies
to clocks, English workmanship should soon obtain pre-eminence, for it
is well known that the principle upon which French clocks are generally
made renders them less durable time-pieces.
The most ancient clocks differed in many respects from those now in
use. Clocks of the earlier period had, as we have said, instead of the
pendulum now in use, a _balance_, vibrating on the top of the clock,
as the regulating medium. The escapement was of the verge
construction, a sketch of which will be seen below, which represents a
clock of a most ancient character.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Old Balance-Clock.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Without entering into any very minute detail of the manner in which
motion in a clock is successively communicated from one toothed wheel (G
or R) or pinion (_e_ or _g_) to another, which, indeed, would only tend
to perplex the mind of the general reader, it will be sufficient to
state the following. S is a square piece of steel fixed to and forming
part of the pinion P. In winding the clock the key is placed upon this
square, and being turned round continuously in one direction, the pinion
P turns with it. This communicates its motion to the wheel R, which is
fixed to the cylinder B, and which in its revolution coils or winds up
the cord to which is attached the weight A. While this takes place the
wheel G is held in check by another wheel, called the 'ratchet,' and a
click (neither of which is seen in the sketch), but when the operation
of the winding is completed, and the weight A begins to descend, the
cylinder B, together with the wheel G, turn on their common pivots V, V,
and the motion is thus communicated from wheel to pinion until it
reaches the escapement-wheel I. The teeth of this wheel, in its
revolution, act alternately on the pallets _i_, _h_, which project from
and form part of the spindle or verge K, M, and thus produce a vibratory
or backward and forward motion of the balance L, L.
Were it not for this detention, the duration of which is much
increased by the swing of the balance, the weight A would descend with
gradually accelerated speed, till, in a few moments, the cord would be
entirely unwound from the cylinder, and the clock be at rest.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Clock Spring.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
The SPRING CLOCK as ordinarily made is thus constructed. The frame
consists of two oblong plates of brass pinned together by short
pillars, and pierced with holes, in which run the arbors of the
various wheels. Next, the mainspring, the moving or motive power of
the clock, which is a riband of steel, highly tempered, and enclosed
in a cylinder or barrel. In the middle of this barrel is the spring or
barrel arbor, to which the spring is hooked at one end, the other end
being fixed to the circumference of the barrel. Outside the frame or
plate, and at the end of the arbor, is the ratchet, a wheel with
saw-like teeth. This is acted upon by a click, which, falling into the
ratchet teeth, prevents the recoil of the mainspring, so that the
spring has no means of uncoiling itself, except by the moving of the
train of wheels. This click is screwed to the outside of the oblong
plate. The power of the mainspring is transmitted to the train of
wheels by means of a chain or gut, one end of which is fastened to the
outer edge of the barrel, and the other end to the fusee, which is of
conical shape, securely fastened to the arbor or axis of the main
wheel; on this same arbor is the square, on which the key is put for
winding. When this square is turned in winding, the fusee draws the
chain or gut from off the outer edge of the barrel, and coils up the
spring within it. The spring when fully wound, and consequently at its
greatest power, acts by means of the chain or gut on the small end of
the fusee, which in turning drives the train of wheels. As the spring
becomes gradually uncoiled, and the power exerted less, the leverage
is increased in the same proportion by the increased width of the
fusee on which it acts.
To prevent the straining of the spring, a little contrivance called
the stop-work is introduced. It consists of a piece of steel somewhat
in the shape of a bayonet, which is so fixed and contrived that the
last turn of the gut or chain on the fusee forces the stop into
contact with a projection on the end of the fusee, which abutting
against it, forms the check felt when the clock is wound up. On the
same arbor with the fusee is fixed the main wheel, which with the
before-described contrivance of click and ratchet, permits the turning
of the fusee or winding-up of the clock, while it itself remains
stationary. This wheel acts in the centre pinion (a pinion is a little
wheel playing in the teeth of a larger wheel, and has six, eight, ten,
or twelve teeth, or, as they are called, leaves), which is fixed to
the centre arbor, and carries the minute hand. This pinion is so
constructed in relation to the other parts of the clock as to make one
revolution in an hour; the centre wheel being firmly riveted on the
pinion, it must also revolve once an hour. The centre wheel acts into
another pinion, which is called the third wheel pinion, upon the arbor
or axle of which is securely fixed the third wheel, which again acts
in the escape-pinion carrying the escapement-wheel. On the top of the
back plate is firmly screwed the back cock, or the support of the
pendulum, which is suspended from it by a flexible spring, as before
described. This pendulum receives impulsion from the wheel-work by
means of the crutch, a small part attached to the arbor of the
pallets, and which projects downwards about three inches, parallel
with the pendulum rod. To the lower part of the crutch is screwed or
riveted at a right angle a piece of steel, in such a direction as to
penetrate the pendulum rod, which has a slot or hole cut to receive
it; impulsion is thus given to the pendulum. Between the frame and
dial-plate is the motion work, consisting of three wheels; the first,
called the minute wheel, is attached to the arbor of the centre wheel,
which, it will be recollected, makes one revolution an hour, and acts
in a wheel of the same size, whose axle carries a pinion serving to
drive the hour wheel. This hour wheel is supported by a bridge screwed
over the minute wheel. The dial is pinned on to the front plate; the
hour hand is fixed on a socket communicating with the hour wheel, and
the minute hand on the arbor of the centre wheel.
When a clock is intended to strike, a separate train of wheels has to
be introduced into it,--one train of wheels serving to keep the time,
and another train for the striking part. It may be as well to add that
a greater amount of labour is required to make the striking than the
going part of a clock.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Rack Striking Work.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
There are only two kinds of striking parts now in use, and these are
characterized by the terms 'Rack' striking work, and 'Count-wheel,' or
'Locking-plate,' striking work. The Rack striking work (see next page)
is the best and safest ever introduced, because with it the clock may be
made to strike any number of times within the hour. A, the minute wheel
revolving in the direction of the arrow, and driving the wheel B, which
is of the same size, and has the same number of teeth. C, a pin fixed in
the wheel B, and acting on the lever D, which has its centre of motion
in the point E. L, the click, the lower point of which acts in the teeth
K of the rack M. S, the rack-spring, which acts upon the lower end of
the rack, or, as it is called, the rack-tail, and brings it in contact
with the snail P. Q and R are the jumper and its spring, by which the
snail P, fastened to the star-wheel O, is kept in its place. Y, the
centre of motion of the rack, on which it acts freely. In the wheel A is
fixed a pin U, which, as the wheel A rotates, gradually forces before it
a tooth of the star-wheel O, which carries with it the snail P, until
at last the second step of the snail is opposite the rack-tail. While
this is going on, the wheel B, driven by the wheel A, is advancing in
the opposite direction, and, by means of the pin C, is pushing before it
the end of the lever D. It is obvious that the other end, F, of the
lever will be gradually raised, and this will lift the lower point of
the click L out of the teeth of the rack. The latter being now free will
yield to the action of the spring S, which will force its lower end into
contact with the second step of the snail, and throw back the head of
the rack to a corresponding extent. By this action the striking train of
wheels is released, and the two wheels, G and I, seen in the upper part
of our cut, begin to rotate, but are stopped by H, a pin that is caught
by a stud which projects from the end F of the lever. As the wheel B
advances, the pin C gradually frees itself from the long arm of the
lever D, which drops by its own weight into its original position, and
frees the wheels G and I, which immediately commence once more to
rotate. At the centre of the wheel I is fixed the gathering pallet,
that, as it revolves with the wheel, gathers up one by one the teeth of
the rack, which is prevented from falling back by the lower end of the
click L, and thus gradually draws it forward until the last tooth is
reached, when the end of the gathering pallet abuts on the end of the
rack head, and the train of wheels is once more at rest. It is obvious
that for every tooth of the rack which is gathered up, there is one
revolution of the wheel I, and this communicates with the tail of the
hammer, causing at each revolution a blow on the bell. There is, as will
be at once seen, an important connection between the various parts. When
the second step of the snail is presented to the rack-tail, the head of
the rack is thrown back a distance corresponding to the width of two of
its teeth. This requires two revolutions of the gathering pallet to
return it to its place; and these two revolutions of the pallet and the
wheel which carries it govern the two blows on the bell which signify
the hour. At three o'clock the third step of the snail will be presented
to the hammer-tail, and so on.
On the next page is an illustration of the back part of a French
Clock, as seen upon opening the door of the case. At the right hand
side will be observed the count-wheel A, fitting tightly upon a
prolonged square arbor of the second wheel in the train, and having
twelve openings of unequal length around its outer edge, 1, 2, &c.
Just above the wheel towards the right will also be seen the 'Dog,' or
'Detent,' F, which falls into these notches, and is a part of the
locking similar to that which is represented at the stud and the pin
H. So soon as the stud is lifted the pin becomes disengaged, the
wheel-work revolves, and the count-wheel being firmly fixed to the
prolonged arbor of one of those wheels, advances with it in the
direction indicated by the arrow, the detent resting upon the plain
part of the locking-wheel. When the required number of hours have
struck, the notch approaches the detent, the gravity of which allows
it to fall therein.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Back of French Clock.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
In connection with this detent is also another projecting piece, which
is carried inside the frame, and when it falls presents a broad
surface to a pin fixed in the rim of one of the wheels. Thus the
motion of the wheel-work is stayed until this piece is again lifted by
the going parts from the pin, and held in that position by the outer
rim of the locking-wheel A, until again the next notch is presented to
the detent. When it falls, the stud is carried with it, against which
the pin becomes engaged. The number of strokes depends on the distance
which the count-wheel has to revolve before being stopped by the
detent F. The chief objection to the locking-plate being used for
striking, arises from the fact that, if ever the clock is allowed to
run down, or if the clock gets otherwise stopped, it strikes wrong
afterwards, until it has been properly re-set to the hour.
Clocks are made of all manner of shapes, patterns, and sizes, for all
manner of places, positions, and persons.
BRACKET CLOCKS, which are intended to occupy but a small space, say on
a staircase, or lobby, or landing, are sometimes made with extreme
finish, care, and elegance, sometimes are simply plain and devoid of
embellishment. They are constructed with or without striking work.
CHIME CLOCKS are a great addition to the attractions of a house. They
are usually made to go eight or fifteen days; to strike the hours and
quarters on four or eight bells or gongs.
MUSICAL CLOCKS are constructed so as to play several tunes at certain
intervals with the greatest finish and perfection. The mechanism for
time-keeping being easily disconnected from the musical mechanism, the
latter may be stopped without any interference with the clock as a
time-keeper.
CARRIAGE CLOCKS are made so as to be unaffected by the motion of the
vehicle. They are usually of a small and squarish shape, enclosed in
leather, so as to protect the case from scratches; but they vary in
size,--measuring usually from four to seven inches high by
two-and-a-half to four inches in breadth and the same in depth. Some
are made without striking movement, some to strike hours, half-hours,
and quarters, some with repeating work, and some with an alarm added
to them.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Carriage Clock.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
LIBRARY and DINING-ROOM CLOCKS are frequently seen decorated with
highly elegant ornaments, in bronze, marble, ormolu, and with
miniature figures, as well as objects of still life, but these clocks
are usually not so conspicuously ornamental as those which are
designed for the drawing-room.
SKELETON CLOCKS are so named from their movements being all bare and
uncovered. When watches were comparative novelties it was not at all an
uncommon desire on the part of their possessors to watch the operations
of a mechanism which was regarded as wonderfully resembling life itself.
Watch cases were consequently made of crystal, and were found strong and
serviceable. In skeleton clocks the escapement is sometimes made a
peculiarly interesting feature to the non-professional eye delighting in
noting the amazing accuracy with which each piece of the mechanism works
and combines to produce the result required.
REGULATOR CLOCKS are, as we have said, the most perfect time-pieces
which can be manufactured.
TELL-TALE CLOCKS are of great service in securing the attention and
watchfulness of persons left in care of premises or property. They are
made with a number of pins projecting round the edge of the dial, and
coming into contact once every quarter of an hour with a pin fixed at
the top part of the dial, over the part which in an ordinary clock is
occupied by XII. The dial revolves completely once every twelve hours,
and presents one of the projecting pins to the index every quarter of an
hour; the watchman should then be ready at hand to pull a cord, by means
of which the projecting pin is pushed in; otherwise the dial shows the
exact time of his absence and neglect of duty.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: English Ormolu Clocks.] |
| |
| [Illustration: English Ormolu Clock, &c.] |
| |
| [Illustration: English Ormolu Clock, &c.] |
| |
| [Illustration: Tell-Tale Clock.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
ELECTRICAL CLOCKS have been several times planned and made by
different ingenious inventors, and obtained considerable notice, but
they have not been hitherto as successful as was expected. Electricity
has been applied to the direct movement of the pendulum itself, and
subsequently to the raising a small weight to act upon the pendulum in
the style of a gravity escapement. In perhaps the latest of these
instruments, called a Magnetic Clock, an electromagnet was used to
relieve the pendulum from the influence of the spring by which
impulsion had been given, and to make the return or reflex vibration.
Electric clocks are now seldom made; electric dials without any
clock-movement in connection with them are made to show the standard
time by means of a galvanic current sent from the Greenwich
Observatory clock at intervals of a minute or half-minute it may
be,--even as Electric Timeballs show to distant towns and out-ports,
by means of such a current, the exact Greenwich time once a day.
The ELECTRO-CHRONOGRAPH is a new and useful invention for timing with
great precision the quickest of events. It is applied to a central
seconds clock with a dial three feet in circumference showing the
hours, minutes, seconds and fifths of seconds. This clock erected in a
prominent position, say on a raceground, and worked by electricity,
enables the starter of a race to set the works in motion; by means of
a tape held up at the winning post and connected with the batteries,
the winner upon breasting the tape stops the hand of the clock.
* * * * *
The following simple directions will be found of great use in the
management of a Clock:--
When the Clock is unpacked it should be carefully handled with a silk
handkerchief or piece of tissue paper, to prevent the moisture of the
hands soiling the case. Unscrew the bell and take it off, then put on
the pendulum by passing it through the fork, and hang it upon the two
small brass pins, _with the hook from you_. Screw on the bell with the
convex part outwards, taking care that it does not touch the pendulum.
The stand or bracket should be both steady and level before the Clock
is placed upon it; for, unless the Clock is quite in proper beat--that
is, unless the beats or ticks occur at equal intervals, it cannot go
regularly.
In order to set the Clock to the hour of the day, the minute-hand
should be turned on carefully forward with the finger and thumb, the
setter pausing as he reaches the XII. and the VI., to allow the Clock
to strike each hour and half-hour.
If the striking should at any time be wrong, and it should strike the
hour at the half-hour, or the half-hour at the hour, the error can be
rectified by moving the minute-hand on to 5 minutes before the hour,
or half-hour, and then back until it strikes.
Or, if it should strike a wrong hour--_e.g._, supposing the Clock
should strike 3, and the hour-hand point at 7, then the hour-hand may
be moved back to 3, and the Clock afterwards set to the hour of the
day in the usual manner.
If, at any future time, the Clock should require regulating, the small
steel square above the XII. is the regulator, and turning it a
_little_ to the right (half-turn of key) will make the Clock go
faster, and to the left, slower. This should be repeated until the
desired effect is obtained.
The bell-stud, or arm to which the bell is screwed, is purposely made
of soft metal, so that it can be bent up or down so as to obtain a
heavy or light blow of the hammer as may be desired.
Both squares in the dial should be wound once a week.
TURRET CLOCKS.
A Church tower without a clock and bells seems an unfurnished edifice,
which must be fitted and filled before it can serve the purpose for
which it was built;--like a form without life, a body without a soul.
A good Church clock is useful to everybody; it is the friendly monitor
alike of rich and poor,--the regulator of every private
time-piece,--the standard of time for a whole parish or township. By
it the artisan or mechanic trudges off to his daily labour; by it the
tradesman opens and closes his shop; by it the schoolboy is admonished
as 'with shining morning face he creeps like snail unwillingly to
school;' by it the law itself regulates its penalties,--(enacting, as
it does, house-breaking between nine at night and six in the morning
to be the heavier crime of burglary;)--by it, in a word, are all the
multifarious transactions of everyday life more or less regulated and
measured, and when the church clock stops, it produces a social
discomfort and anarchy throughout a whole neighbourhood, to an extent
scarcely credible. A good public clock is a benefit to all,--a faulty
one is a general nuisance and a continual source of irritation. A
public clock is in its way as necessary as the public highway, the
public market, the public law itself. It is the product and the symbol
of advanced civilization, the one everwakeful watchman and trusty
friend of all, by whose chimes the sleepless merchant has often
planned his ventures or sighed o'er apprehended losses and dangers;
the student busied with researches has consumed the midnight oil; the
sick have counted their hours of pain, longing in the night for the
dawn, in the daytime for the night. On the other hand, when one like
Mr Justice Shallow is reminded of the mad days of his London youth, he
very aptly associates them with the Bacchanalian memories which
Falstaff appeals to,--'We have heard the chimes at midnight.'
To have lived 'where bells have knoll'd to church' was according to
Shakspeare to have been blessed by humanizing influences comparable with
those produced by having--
'Sat at good men's feasts, and wiped our eyes
Of drops that sacred pity has engendered.'
Cowper can find no better words to describe the utter desolation of
the island where the shipwrecked Selkirk bemoaned his absolute
solitude 'out of humanity's reach,' than by putting into his mouth the
language--
'But the sound of a church-going bell
These valleys and rocks never heard,
Never sigh'd at the sound of a knell,
Nor smiled when a Sabbath appear'd.'
In our everyday experience we can each testify to the truthfulness of
the poet who points to the close association which exists in most
minds between the church clock and the varying times and seasons, with
their different joys and sorrows, and we can most of us say, with
Southey,--
'I love the bell that calls the poor to pray,
Chiming from village church its cheerful sound,
When the sun smiles on labour's holy-day
And all the rustic train are gather'd round,
Each deftly dizen'd in his Sunday's best,
And pleased to hail the day of piety and rest.
And when, dim shadowing o'er the face of day,
The mantling mists of eventide rise slow,
As through the forest gloom I wend my way,
The minster curfew's sullen voice I know,
And pause, and love its solemn toll to hear,
As made by distance soft it dies upon the ear.'
It is but a short step from the sentimental consideration of such
reminiscences to the practical inquiry how is the public time kept,
and yet it is one which probably is seldom taken with a view to more
or less thorough investigation. Without traversing the distance which
divides us from that antique time when Archimedes measured the shadows
of the Pyramids by his walking-stick, or when the 'dial of Ahaz' was
constructed as one of the first of historical time-measurers, we can
discover the principles upon which an instrument such as a thoroughly
serviceable public clock of the present time, with all the newest
improvements both in time-keeping and in wearing qualities, should be
produced.
It is of some consequence, in the first place, to know that the
introduction of steam-machinery has added to the accuracy of clockwork
and at the same time considerably diminished its cost; fifty or sixty
years ago there would have been charged as much as £800 for a turret
clock inferior to that which may now be procured for £150; and the
result is to be seen in the largely increased numbers of public
time-pieces. It is obvious, however, that there is none the less need
of care in the choice of a Clockmaker, for upon his skill and
trustworthiness will depend whether the money be well spent or not,
and whether the instrument furnished by him prove to be valuable and
serviceable. It is not a purchase wherein the buyer can usually of
himself judge of the merits of his bargain, he must rely upon the
reputation established by previous works of the same kind. If the
Clockmaker be not merely a clock-seller (as is too often the case, for
Turret Clockmakers are but few), he will be able to point to similar
instruments made and set up by himself in different towns and cities,
in proof of his ability, but there will still be a necessity for
explaining to the purchaser the chief points upon which the accuracy
of such a time-keeper must depend.
In the first place, it is necessary to say that Turret Clocks are not
merely house clocks upon an enlarged scale, differing from the latter
merely in size and weight, but that the extra strength of the
machinery requires greater weight of materials 'in a ratio as much
higher as the cube is higher than the square of any of its
dimensions,' and that increased weight means increase of friction.
Besides this point which is peculiarly the province of the Turret
Clockmaker, there are important questions to be considered by
architects and their employers as to the proper method of constructing
a Turret Clock chamber, so as to prevent too much atmospheric
variation,--heat and cold, wind and damp, being each likely in some
degree, as the seasons change, to affect the public time-keeper,--as
witness the clock of St Paul's Cathedral, popularly believed to be an
exemplary piece of mechanism, and yet often forced by the wind to vary
its time so as to damage its own reputation among those who narrowly
watch its behaviour under what may be called trying circumstances. It
is not wise to build a tower without careful consideration for the
tenant which is to occupy it, or having regard merely to architectural
notions of external proportion, for usually it happens that when clock
and bells occur as an afterthought, there is often some difficulty
and extra expense in planning the room for them. Plenty of length and
breadth to allow of the proper fall of the clock-weights and the swing
of the pendulum save much in the cost of fixing, and are necessary to
secure good time-keeping with the least trouble, for it is obvious
that where numerous bevelled wheels with rod-work are employed for the
purpose of moving the hands over the dial, if the probabilities of
unvarying accuracy are not lessened, the cost must be much increased.
Works which have to be placed at some distance from the dials must be
more powerful than if they could be put in their proper place, and a
little forethought in the architect will save much money both in the
original price of the machinery of a clock and in its subsequent
repair. Then again, there is always the question for and against the
illumination of dials to be considered, and of course with this is
unavoidably mixed up not only the arrangements as regards space for
the proper working of the time-keeping, striking, and lighting
machinery, but the vexed question of ventilation above referred
to,--some horologers asserting that chambers as nearly air tight as
may be should be devised, and others that there ought to be a draught
through the clock-room. There are in fact so many opinions more or
less excellent, according to the circumstances of each case, that
there is no laying down any arbitrary and unvarying rule, much must be
left to the discretion of the Turret Clock manufacturer,--upon whom as
has been already stated it is necessary also to rely for the
essentials of a good clock, viz., the soundness of the materials, the
quality of the workmanship, and the scientific accuracy with which the
instrument has been planned and put together. Now before considering
the present advanced state of the art of Turret Clockmaking and the
various improvements which have to be carefully studied and applied by
the makers who would bear the highest reputations as manufacturers, it
will be necessary to bear in mind what has been said of the
step-by-step progress in horological science of which we have already
endeavoured to give the chief particulars. From 1288 A.D., the date of
the oldest historical clock--that mentioned as having been set up near
Westminster Hall by means of funds derived from a fine levied by the
Lord Chief Justice of the period--till now when Big Ben reigns in its
stead, is a long interval, with many wonderful incidents, and some
great historical names. Henry de Wyck's Paris invention, Galileo's
discovery of the pendulum, Huygens's practical application of that
discovery, Dr Hooke's 'anchor' escapement, and Graham's dead-beat
escapement, Harrison's 'gridiron' pendulum, and the latest
applications of electricity and eccentricity, have each and all their
peculiar attraction for horological students, but we need not recur
to these branches of this highly interesting subject elsewhere treated
of. We will proceed to mention a few memoranda about several old
public clocks whose ingenious mechanism gained for them a
well-deserved fame,--not, perhaps, so much for accuracy in
time-keeping as for the grotesque devices with which old clockmakers
amused their contemporaries? To them time, as such, was perhaps of not
so much consequence as it is to us in these days of telegraph and
steam communication. We moderns seem to think it a task sufficiently
difficult to set up a sound public time-piece without connecting
therewith the wonder-working machinery of a wax-work exhibition.
The CLOCK AT WELLS CATHEDRAL, made originally A.D. 1340, by a monk
named Peter Lightfoot, is one of the best known of its class still in
some sort of working order. The dial of this horologe is divided into
24 hours; it shows the motion of the sun and moon, and bears upon its
summit eight armed knights on horseback, tilting with lance in rest at
one another, by a double rotatory motion. This clock was removed from
Glastonbury to Wells after the dissolution of the Glastonbury
Monastery. In 1835 the works were so worn away that they were replaced
by a new train, the curious old dial and equestrian knights being
still retained.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Wells Cathedral Clock.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
ST DUNSTAN'S CLOCK [see p. 137]. This Clock, when old St Dunstan's
Church in Fleet Street was pulled down, was sold by public auction,
and bought by the late Marquis of Hertford, for whom Decimus Burton the
architect erected St Dunstan's Villa in the Regent's Park. In the
grounds of that villa this old clock with its automaton giants striking
the hours and quarters was put up, and it is there still, to be seen in
full working order, performing the same duties as of yore in Fleet
Street.
ST JAMES'S PALACE CLOCK [see p. 138] is one of the most ancient public
time-pieces now in use, but is intended soon to be removed it is said
to South Kensington Museum. It has a locking-plate with ting-tang
quarter, the quarter hammers being raised from the pin wheel while the
striking hammer is lifted from the pins in the main wheel. It has a
crown-wheel escapement with teeth on its edge, and the pallets working
upright instead of over the top like a verge escapement. The hands are
connected by the bevel wheels below the clock. The whole of the going
train with the intermediate and bevel wheels are attached to the one
bar so that the whole of the works have to be removed if one piece
requires alteration or renewal. The pendulum rod is of iron.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: St Dunstan's Clock.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL CLOCK [see p. 140] is one of the best examples of
old-fashioned clocks in London; it occupies the clock-room in the
south-western tower. It may be described as a ting-tang quarter on the
rack principle, having hammers raised from pins in the main wheel as in
St James's Palace Clock. The train is run in a bar, so that to get away
one piece the rest must be disturbed. The escapement is a recoil,
beating two seconds with a wood rod pendulum. The length of the minute
hand is eight feet, and its weight 75lb; the length of the hour hand is
five feet five inches, and its weight 44lb. The diameter of the bell,
made from old 'Great Tom of Westminster,' is about 10 feet, its weight
11,474lb; the hammer weighs 145lb, and the clapper 180lb.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: St James's Palace Clock.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
The OLD CLOCK AT THE ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL, GRAY'S INN LANE, is a fair
specimen of the work of 120 years ago. It has a recoil escapement,
most of the wheels are of wrought-iron, cut by hand, as is also the
pinion. The pendulum rod is of iron with leaden bob.
THE WHEELS.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: St Paul's Cathedral Clock.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
And now, in order to form a judgment of what is necessary to be done to
make a really sound and valuable Turret Clock of the present day, let me
describe the materials of which it should be formed. One of the most
important parts of a clock is the wheel-work. Iron wheels are of course
very much cheaper than those which are made of gun metal or hard brass,
but iron wheels, however well they may sometimes wear, are more liable
to oxidize and to decay, and although it is certain that a large number
of clocks are constructed with iron wheels by London houses of some
reputation, a few years are generally sufficient to prove such
time-pieces to be very faulty, and to necessitate the substitution of
wheels of the superior metal.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Old Clock at the Royal Free Hospital.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
The best clocks are usually made with wheels of the best gun metal.
The teeth are cut by steam power, with an improved cutting engine; and
at the same moment that the teeth are cut, they are finished by the
engine without the aid of the file, sand-paper, or other polishing
materials, so that the most minute difference cannot possibly occur,
their accuracy being secured even to the thousandth part of an inch.
In the old times this work was done by a man turning a fly-wheel, but
that method necessarily occasioned an unevenness of cut which had
afterwards to be removed by filing and hand polishing. Wheels thus
made could not of course have that precision of movement which is
essential in a public clock, and which can only be obtained by a
perfect mechanical fit of the teeth of the wheels, such true
mechanical fitting being only secured by truly accurate cutting
machines. Hand cutting varies with each artisan, and therefore cannot
be equally trustworthy. In cheap clocks, constructed to suit public
companies who give their contract to the lowest tender, iron is
frequently used instead of steel, both in the pinions and arbors, and
cast-iron takes the place of gun metal or hard brass in the wheels and
bosses,--the result usually being that the Public Clock gets into
disrepute through its requiring to be repaired so frequently, and more
money is expended upon such repairs than would have sufficed for the
purchase of a thoroughly perfect time-keeper. It is urged by the
advocates of iron wheels that a clock can be manufactured at a
considerably less cost by their employment, but in estimating expense
there seems to have been overlooked the important question, as to what
will be the probable durability of the machine.
I should be sorry to condemn wholesale all clocks, the main wheels of
which are made of iron, but very certain it is that a large proportion
of clocks constructed of this material and by London houses of great
reputation (despite of their possessing an escapement invented by
amateurs who consider themselves the depositories of all horological
knowledge), have been found most faulty time-keepers, and after a few
years have become entirely worn out and useless.
It is argued (and rightly so) by the advocates of iron wheels that
case-hardened pinions should not be used, in consequence of their
wearing with great unevenness, but such persons should be reminded
that this objection is much greater in the instance of cast-iron
wheels. A case came under my notice some time since of a clock made by
a London house, with iron wheels, which after comparatively little
time became entirely worn out and had to be removed, a result not at
all surprising to those who are aware of the porous nature of iron.
The TEETH OF WHEELS have to be made with the greatest skill and care
in order that the entire mechanism shall work without friction, and
shall not only temporarily keep time with regularity, but shall last
for many years without renewal. Teeth should fit into one another
without a squeezing pressure (which is equivalent to friction), but
with exact uniformity of contact, the action being almost entirely
between the teeth separating from each other and not between those
which are approaching, i.e. in technical language, the action should
be after the line of centres of the wheels and not before it.
Church clocks were accustomed formerly to be made to go for
thirty-four hours, and to be wound up every day; by the frequency of
which winding the clock could be made to keep time with great
accuracy, for regulating could be attended to as frequently, and no
great variation could well occur in twenty-four hours. But the
regulating, as a matter of course, requires a regulator, or standard,
of time, which is not always to be found in country places, nor even
is the man in charge of clock-winding always in possession of a watch
sufficiently accurate to convey the time from the regulator if there
were one to the Church clock. Of late, Church clocks are made to go
eight days, and so the labour of frequent winding has been saved,
while at the same time by extra care in the manufacture and fixing of
a clock, there need be no necessity for frequently regulating it.
PENDULUMS.
Whether the credit of practically applying the mathematical theory and
properties of the pendulum was or was not due to Huygens the Dutchman,
we have seen that Harris, a London clockmaker, put up the first
pendulum clock in St Paul's Church, Covent Garden, in 1621. The great
advance upon this discovery was that the pendulum bob must move not in
a circle but a cycloid; and that back and front should be alike both
in weight and shape to secure regular vibration. Cylindrical bobs are
now in general use for large clocks. The old iron rod pendulums were
soon discovered to be affected considerably by variations of heat and
cold,--the difference between winter and summer being ascertained to
amount to the loss of a minute a week. Harrison's gridiron pendulum
was one of the chief endeavours to prevent such variation, followed
after a long interval by other ingenious inventions, which gained
temporary approval and gradually fell into disuse. Room should be
provided by the architect of every clock-tower in the chamber below
that containing the movement, to allow of the swing of a 15-foot
pendulum.
FALL OF THE WEIGHTS.
We have seen that the position in which a clock is placed in regard to
the dial or dials whose hands it is to drive is a matter requiring
some attention. Properly the floor of the clock-chamber should be so
planned that the clock might stand immediately behind, and level with
the dials; for there is extra expense and inconvenience connected with
any more distant situation of the works,--the fall of the weights
being sometimes difficult in such case to be provided for. The weights
should hang, wherever it is possible so to arrange, immediately from
the barrel to which they are affixed, without the intervention of
pulleys of any kind, and much expense may be saved by providing for
the descent of the weights to a considerable depth below the
clock-chamber. As an instance however of the extent to which such
difficulties can be overcome, I may mention that the hands of my great
clock at the International Exhibition were situated nearly 400 feet
from the clockworks, while the weights were carried by iron wire ropes
over pulleys below the floor to a distance of 200 feet from the
movement, then over another pulley fixed at a height of 80 feet from
the ground.
The ESCAPEMENT is perhaps the most important part of a clock.
CROWN-WHEEL ESCAPEMENT.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Escapement.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
This is the earliest known escapement, and is to be found, as we have
said, in Henry de Wyck's clock, all the difference between his
escapement and the above being that one of the weights in de Wyck's
balance is now set in a vertical instead of a horizontal plane. The
bent end or fork seen in the illustration connects the pendulum with
that arm technically called the crutch.
THE ANCHOR ESCAPEMENT.
After the crown-wheel escapement, the anchor escapement, invented by
Dr Hooke or one of his contemporaries, came into general use, and
remains so still; but it is not generally applied to those clocks
which are required to go with the nicest accuracy.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Anchor Escapement.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
In the next illustration the tooth is seen escaping from the left
pallet at the moment of the right pallet's infringing upon the
opposite tooth, the pendulum is therefore to be seen still rising a
little to the left, and will thus cause the wheel to recoil a little;
upon its return the pallet and pendulum are again urged to the right,
and so the impulse is continued which is necessary to maintain the
motion.
THE DEAD-BEAT ESCAPEMENT.
invented by Graham is the one in most general use for the best clocks
made by London makers of the highest repute.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Dead-beat Escapement] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
FRENCH SINGLE-PIN ESCAPEMENT.
This is a simple and ingenious escapement (see next page), which after
being used for some time in both France and England went out of use,
when, but recently, it was re-invented by a London watch-maker. The
teeth are pins of steel set in the face of the wheel, and the upper
half of each cylinder cut off as well as a small portion of the under
or acting side. This escapement has one great advantage--that if a pin
becomes worn or injured it is easily replaced, whereas in a wheel, if
one tooth is damaged the wheel itself is worthless.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: French Single-Pin Escapement.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
THREE-LEGG'D GRAVITY ESCAPEMENT.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Another.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
The above illustration represents a regulator escapement as it would
appear in a front view; the pallets are lifted by the three central
pins. The locking teeth vary in size from one to nearly two inches.
The horizontal pieces projecting from the top of the pallets form the
adjustment for the arc of the pendulum.
The great advantages possessed by this escapement over all other
gravity escapements, &c., are as follows:--
1. It requires no oil.
2. The angle of the detent planes reduces the friction to almost nil.
3. As the impulse and the unlocking are in one direction, the
escapement is unlocked without recoil of impulse arms.
4. No impending force to the pendulum from inertia of impulse arms.
5. The hold in the stops can be increased or diminished to any
practical extent by reason of the inverted impulse arms.
6. Less affected by any disturbing forces of the train in proportion
to the pressure on the stops.
7. Will bear more weight and give more power to the train without
increasing the arc of oscillation.
8. No possibility of tripping under any increase of motive power.
9. The minimum arc of vibration to unlock is 8-tenths of a degree.
Other escapements of similar construction require from 4° to 7°.
10. Take less weight for the motive power in proportion to the
difference of pressure and draught on the lockings.
11. Unlocks by gravitation instead of by the pendulum and at the time
of impulse.
12. Requires no fly nor remontoir, and thus reduces the weight of the
motive power by one half.
13. The impulse giving motion to the pendulum increases as the force
of gravity on the pendulum decreases. A great advantage over those
escapements in which the unlocking is done by the pendulum when its
momentum is nearly expended and at the extremity of its arc of
vibration.
14. The angle of the detent planes can be set so as not only to offer
no resistance to the unlocking, but to give an actual impulse in the
same manner as the impulse pallets of a dead escapement. This
completely frees the impulse which gives motion to the pendulum from
any retarding influence of the train.
15. The arc of vibration is more equal in this than in any other
gravity escapement.
16. It is not so liable to stop in consequence of a diminution of arc
from the variation of motive force in train.
17. It will answer for regulators as well as for turret clocks, its
arc of vibration being from 1° to 3°.
DOUBLE THREE-LEGG'D ESCAPEMENT.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Double Three-legg'd Gravity Escapement.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
This escapement is chiefly designed for turret clocks with heavy
dial-work requiring much power on the scape-wheel. The peculiarity
consists of two locking wheels with one set of lifting pins between
them. The wheels are set so that the pallets may lie between, and the
pallets fall with the pendulum clear of all other contact. The pallet
D for instance has its stop in front for the wheel A B C to act upon,
and the E stop is acted upon only by _a b c_, the E and A being on
different planes. In this escapement, by making the teeth longer and
the pallets shorter, the resistance of the pendulum is much reduced,
and the stride of the pallets being wider, the actual weight required
of them is considerably lessened,--a point of some importance.
THE REMONTOIRE.
is an invention which, being derived from the French, still bears its
French title, and consists of either a train remontoire, or a gravity
or remontoire escapement, in which latter the impulse is not given to
the pendulum directly by the clock-train or weight, but by some small
weight lifted up or a small spring bent up by the clock-train at every
beat of the pendulum, so as to secure a uniform and constant impulse,
the remontoire weights being lifted either faster or slower according
to need. The train remontoire differs from the escapement but
slightly, the chief difference being that the small weight or spring
which gives the impulse to the pendulum is not wound up at every
beat, but at some larger interval, seldom more than half a minute. Its
effect is to counteract the various errors to which large clocks
driving heavy hands are always liable, and to diminish the friction
which arises from the use of heavy weights--these being in very large
clocks almost incredibly heavy; for instance, the weights used by me
for my clock in the Great International Exhibition of 1862 amounted to
more than two tons. Whatever the cause of inequality of movement in
the clock, whether it be dust or dirt, or insufficient oil, or whether
it be wind delaying or expediting the progress of the hands on the
dial, the remontoire regulates and counteracts.
THE DIALS.
The utility of a Public Clock is considerably enhanced by its being
provided with a dial marking the time in the simplest and most
unmistakeable lines, so that it may readily be ascertained at any
reasonable distance from the clock-tower what is the hour either by
day or night. In order that this important requisite may be attained,
it is of course necessary that the dial shall be so constructed as to
be visible both by night and day, and so arises the necessity for
providing illuminating power either from within or from without. Now
the simplest method, and perhaps also in the end the least
objectionable, is that followed at the Horse Guards, where the dial
forms part of the tower itself, and is lighted not from within, but
from without. The advantage of this arrangement is, that the architect
can make the dial harmonize with the character of the building, that
the illuminating power is kept apart from the clock, and if the centre
of the dial be slightly sunk the hands may be brought quite close to
the face, so as to prevent any seeming error in time, as is sometimes
caused by the convexity of a copper dial. The figures too, having been
once carefully divided and cut into the stone, are renewed, so to
speak, by merely being painted over.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Memorial Turret Clock Dial.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Dials may be made of any material, wood, stone, slate, iron, brass,
copper, and coloured or semi-opaque glass. Copper dials possess many
advantages, and these have been of late years preferred, except where
more ornamental dials are required, in which case slate and skeleton
frames are used with good effect. The large dial of my great clock
which was placed over the principal entrance of the International
Exhibition Building in the Cromwell Road was of slate, elaborately
enamelled with white and gold on a blue ground. Another kind of dial
having a good effect is that erected by myself some time since for Sir
Moses Montefiore, at the Synagogue, Ramsgate, consisting of a skeleton
or framework of iron fitted with Minton or encaustic tiles. A dial
such as this can thus be made with comparatively little expense during
the erection of the tower, and the architect can then, as I have said,
design it so as to be in keeping with the edifice; the Minton tiles
have also the advantage of being almost indestructible, and of being
made of any pattern or colour. The chief points to remember are that
the dials should be slightly sunk in the centre so as to allow the
hour hand to traverse in the sinking point close to the disc and the
figures, and especially that the dial should be made large enough to
distinctly show the hour. Properly the dial should never be less in
diameter than one-tenth of the number of feet which it is distant from
the ground, and in all cases where it is possible I should recommend
it to be much larger than this. The dials of St Paul's and Westminster
are larger than they would be under the above rule, and they are
certainly not too large. As to the colour of the dials, figures, and
hands, there is not much choice; dark ground and gilt figures, or
white ground with black figures, or a skeleton frame with gilt figures
are the chief in use. In the white semi-transparent dials with opaque
figures used for illuminated clocks, the time, which is seen with
sufficient distinctness by night when the light is behind the figures,
is not as clearly indicated by day. To remedy this defect an invention
has been applied by which the dial when illuminated at night throws
out a beautiful transparent light admirably marking the position of
the figures and hands, which being black or dark blue, or even
strongly gilt, can also be distinctly seen by day, even as clearly as
the long-approved copper dials painted black with gilt figures.
THE HANDS
should be most carefully made, and like the figures should be painted
of a colour which shall most powerfully contrast with that of the
dial. The hands are almost invariably made of copper strengthened by
diaphragms, and poised from the inside. In some old-fashioned clocks
in which the hands have been poised from the outside the effect has
been produced of a third hand, and numerous mistakes caused thereby.
As to the shape of the hands, there is but one simple rule, namely,
that the less of ornamentation in them the better. The minute hand
should be perfectly plain, with a tapering but not too fine point,
extending to the top of the figures; the hour hand should be of equal
breadth and plainness, but its point should be more marked by perhaps
an arrowhead or heart-shaped tip only reaching to the bottom of the
figures. With large hands counterpoises are found necessary, and these
should be placed inside the dial if possible, for they are when
outside sometimes mistaken for the point of the hour hand. If a
counterpoise must be placed outside, it is better to arrange that it
shall be as little as possible, and that the inside counterpoise make
up the difference, giving to the latter perhaps two thirds, and one
third to the former,--but in any case care has to be taken to prevent
the counterpoise appearing like a hand.
THE FRAME.
The old-fashioned clock-frame, known in the trade as the 'bedstead,'
is now generally superseded by the horizontal frame originally
introduced by the French, which possesses the special advantage of
not only being durable and strong, but that it allows of any part of
the clock which may have been injured, or may require cleaning, being
easily taken out and replaced without interfering with other portions
of the mechanism,--any wheel can be separately handled and removed. In
the old upright frame which is even now still in use by some of the
more ancient firms of clockmakers, if any part of the clock be injured
the entire machine must be taken to pieces.
THE FIXING
of a Turret Clock requires much careful forethought and experienced
labour; because whatever oversight has been made by the architect in
planning the clock-room must be made good by the clockmaker who has to
fix up a public time-piece. In the first place the latter will take
care that the supports of the clock shall be sufficiently strong and
free from vibration, and that the movement shall be bolted securely to
the iron girders, or strong oak beams provided for the purpose; he
will remember that when it is intended that the clock shall strike the
hours and quarters, that the bell or bells should be hung as high in
the tower as possible, so that when the stroke of the hammer is given
by a perfect fall of the weights, the louvres of the tower should be
so arranged as to bring out the full sound of the bell, as in the
case of the bell at St Paul's cathedral, which, though only weighing 5
tons 4 cwts., is frequently heard on clear nights as far as Windsor.
He will in a word require to be acquainted with all the points of
importance attached to his rather intricate duty, or he may by failure
render nugatory the best workmanship that could be bestowed in
clockmaking. The wiser arrangement as to clock-fixing is to intrust
the duty to the clockmaker, and he will then necessarily bear the sole
responsibility of any mistake.
THE WINDING and keeping in order is, as we have said, a less laborious
task as respects modern clocks than those which were made fifty years
ago, inasmuch as, although it is the duty of a clock-winder to watch
daily the action of the time-piece under his charge, he need not
perform his winding duties oftener than once a week. He must be on the
alert to observe any effect produced by the action of the wind or the
fall of snow upon the hands of the clock, which under certain
conditions is not uncommon; he must note by some good regulator any
tendency to variation in the Church clock, and he must also observe
the Equation of Time, which is the difference between true and mean
solar time for each day, and which is not quite the same for every
year, because it moves on about a quarter of a day in each year until
leap year comes and puts it back again. The Equation may be reckoned
by an Equation Table, or by the time mentioned in the Almanacs as
'clock before' or 'clock after sun.' It is obviously a very important
requisite for good time-keeping that good horological instruments
shall be intrusted to skilful and careful hands. In many instances it
has happened that escapements made upon the truest scientific
principles, and set going in thorough working order, have been so
injured by the mechanical genius of the village (some blundering
sexton, or some jack-of-all-trades, whose education in mechanism must
be exercised at the parish expense), that the new clock with all its
merits has been seriously damaged. In such a case the clockmaker had
better be at once consulted.
A MODERN TURRET CLOCK DESCRIBED.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: A Modern Turret Clock.] |
| |
| [Illustration: Hour-Wheel and Snail.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
The Turret Clock which the highest skill and the best experience of
the value of the latest improvements can produce, may be thus
described:--
The Bed or Frame is of cast-iron. The Barrel on which the cords are
wound possesses a metal cap in front, and a ratchet or toothed wheel at
the back end; between this cap and ratchet is a metal drum or tube
adapted to the width of the Frame. Passing through the drum is an axle
or barrel-arbor, on the back end of which the main or barrel-wheel is
fitted so as to allow the line which carries the weight to be wound
upon the barrel without moving the wheel, which latter is kept in place
by means of a cap or key pinned tight on the arbor. Upon the barrel
wheels are fitted clicks and springs, the former falling into the
toothed wheel or ratchet, and the latter keeping the clicks in place
while the clock is being wound up, for as the weights are wound up the
clicks prevent the barrel running back. At each end of the barrel arbor
is a pivot in brass bearings fitted in plumber block, and bolted on the
bed or frame with bolts and washers. Beyond the pivot on the front of
the arbor is a square to receive the winder. The uprights or small
frames for carrying the going-train contain the following; first, there
is an arbor across the frame at the back of which is a pinion working in
the teeth of the barrel-wheel; at the other end of the arbor is the
centre-wheel with teeth cut in it, and above this wheel is another
pinion running into it with a wheel at the other end, termed the third
wheel and pinion. The escape-pinion runs into the third wheel; on this
arbor is fitted the escape-wheel, which has very fine teeth cut in it.
Above the escape-wheel is an arbor termed the verge arbor, to which are
fitted the pallet arms. The pallet bits or pads working in the
escape-wheel teeth are of hardened steel polished. At the back end of
the verge arbor is fitted the crutch which connects the escapement and
the pendulum rod. The escapement is that called the dead-beat or lever
escapement, found to be the best for time-keeping, and least likely to
get out of order. Upon the set-hand arbor, used for setting the hands on
the dial to time, are two springs or keys to keep in place a wheel
fitted loosely on the arbor, and working in the teeth of the
centre-wheel. The hands are set by means of the set key which fits on
the end of the arbor in front. At the back end of the same arbor is a
joint by means of which an iron rod connects the clock to the dial, and
works the outside hands. The whole of the arbors are turned with
suitable pivots into brass bearings screwed into the uprights, and all
bolted to the bed or frame by stout bolts and washers. On the front
upright is fitted an index or set-dial by which to set the outside
hands, and two wheels and pinions, termed the motion or dial-work,
fitted on sockets and working on iron studs which are screwed into the
upright. Upon the largest wheel, known as the hour-wheel, is fixed a
snail having twelve steps in it for regulating the strokes to be given
at the different hours. The striking-train consists of a barrel similar
to the going-train, only that it has a camm or toothed-wheel fitted on
the back of the barrel-wheel for the purpose of raising the hammer
which strikes the bell, a lever being used called the hammer-tail. This
barrel is fitted into bearings in plummer-block, and bolted on frame.
The train of wheels and pinions fitted in arbors, and working in brass
bearings, consists of,--the pallet pinion fitted tight in the pallet
arbor and working in the teeth of the barrel-wheel; at the front end of
this arbor is a pallet of steel working in the teeth of the rack (see
next illustration), and gathering it up as the blows of the hammer
striking the hours are given on the barrel. Above the pallet arbor is a
pinion running into the teeth of the pallet wheel and termed the
fly-pinion, as it is used for regulating the blows or strokes. Fans are
attached to the fly-pinion to assist in regulating the striking,--the
intervals between the strokes being thus made longer or shorter as
desired. Fitted to the fly-frame is a ratchet with two clicks and
springs, these being used to prevent the train being stopped too
suddenly, and the damage likely to arise therefrom. At the right-hand
side of the clock frame is an arbor to carry the work for the
maintaining power, by means of which work the clock is kept going even
while it is being wound up, and injury to the escapement is at the same
time prevented. But for this maintaining power during the winding-up,
whilst the pendulum is vibrating to and fro, the pallets are liable to
catch the teeth of the wheel, and these are so fine as to be readily
injured. As properly fixed the clock cannot be wound up unless this
maintaining power is put in action by means of a lever passing in front
of the barrel-square, so that the winder cannot be put on the square
until the lever is raised and puts this power in action. The repeating
work for the striking-train is fitted on brass sockets working on
wrought-iron studs screwed into the front upright, and consists of the
Rack-hook, Warning, Locking, and Lifting pieces. The Rack is a portion
of a circle with a number of half-circular teeth cut on its edge; at the
end of the Rack is the Rack-arm fitted with a spring having a nib or pin
in it, which nib or pin falls upon the steps of the before-mentioned
hour-snail, and thus the different strokes are given at the hours; as
the nib falls nearer the centre the rack drops a greater number of
teeth. The Rack-hook is placed above the rack to catch the rack as it is
gathered up by the gathering pallets, and when the proper number of
strokes has been given this hook falls into a deep tooth, and then, by
means of a locking-piece attached to it, causes the train to be locked
with the stop-piece on the fly-pinion arbor, this latter piece forming
part of both the locking and warning work. The lifting-piece lifts the
rack-hook out of the deep tooth in the rack and locking, by means of a
snail or eccentric fitted on the set-hand arbor. On this lifting-piece
is also a piece for the warning, fitted on a small stud. The pendulum
rod has a brass top, and some adjusting work with a steel suspension
spring set in brass, by means of which the clock can be put in beat with
great exactness, there being no necessity with this adjustment to bend
the crutch as heretofore, for the crutch on the verge arbor has a pin
screwed into it which communicates the escapement to the adjusting work
or pendulum, and keeps it in motion. At the bottom of the pendulum rod
is an iron screw and nut by means of which the pendulum bob is raised
or lowered, and the clock made to go faster or slower. The motion or
dial work for driving the hands are outside at the back of the dials,
and consist of two wheels and pinions working in one another, the larger
of the two being fitted to a socket and tube. At the other end of this
tube is another socket for the hour hand to be fixed to; and through
this tube passes another iron rod, at one end of which rod is fitted one
of the pinions and the minute hand, the other wheel and pinion being
fitted on a socket worked upon a stud in a cock bolted on a bar called
the dial bar. If the clock has to drive more than one pair of dial
hands, wheels called bevelled or angle wheels are used, which may be cut
to suit any angle, so it will not matter how far off the dials may be
fitted, or how many they may be, so long as the proper expansion and
universal joints are fitted to them. The Hammer-work consists of an iron
frame with an arbor pivoted into brass bearings, and upon this arbor is
fitted a lever, one end of the lever holding the hammer-head, and the
other end raising the hammer. The lifting of the hammer is done by means
of a wire from the hammer-tail previously mentioned. There is also a
steel spring attached to the lever to prevent the hammer chattering on
the bell.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: The Rack.] |
| |
| [Illustration: Pendulum Rod.] |
| |
| [Illustration: Quarter or Chime Clock.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
QUARTER or CHIME CLOCKS differ from the above only in having another
barrel and train of wheels to provide the extra power for such
striking and chiming.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: GAS WHEEL FOR ILLUMINATED DIALS.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
In instances where it is requisite that the clock face should be
visible at a great distance, it is necessary that the dial should be
made of semi-transparent glass and be illuminated by gas, which is
usually turned as low as possible by day and turned on at night by
means of the 24-hour wheel, as shown in the annexed illustration, the
time for the turning on being regulated by the man in charge of the
clock, who takes out or screws in the pins placed in the rim for that
purpose.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: NEST OF BEVELLED WHEELS FOR FOUR DIALS.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
These wheels should be rather large, inasmuch as they have to carry
the hands moving upon the face of the dial. The size of these wheels
varies of course with the size of the clock, but they are seldom less
than five inches and are generally from seven to nine inches wide.
HAMMER AND BELL.
The next engraving exhibits the relative positions of hammer and bell
in a turret clock,--the hammer being fixed at right angles to the
swing of the bell, so that the blow of the hammer should not drive the
bell out of reach of its next blow, and this position least
interfering with the ringing of the bell, when the bell is required to
be rung. The hammer spring, as shown, is sometimes so adjusted as to
allow of the hammer being brought nearer or further from the bell.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Hammer and Bell.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
THE GREAT CLOCKS OF THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF 1862.
BENSON'S GREAT CLOCK.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Benson's Great Clock.--The Exterior.] |
| |
| [Illustration: Benson's Great Clock.--The Movement.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
The movement of this clock, next to that at Westminster, is the largest
in the world, and, in point of quality of material and finish of
workmanship, it is unequalled by any. The three main wheels are each two
feet in diameter, and cast in the solid, of the very finest gun-metal,
the teeth being afterwards cut by an engine made expressly for that
purpose. The frame is of the best wrought-iron planed to a smooth
surface, and by means of a contrivance, known to engineers as plumber
blocks, any part of the mechanism may be removed without disturbing the
remainder. The pendulum, which is self-compensating, is over 15 feet
long, and vibrates or beats once in two seconds. The quarter chimes,
which are struck on four bells, are a modification of those of S. Mary,
Cambridge.
The great weights necessary to drive so large a clock, and which by
the friction they would cause might prejudicially influence its
performance, are in this case not allowed to act directly upon the
pendulum, but are made to wind up a small auxiliary weight once every
half-minute, and this weight imparts an exactly uniform impulse to the
pendulum at each vibration. This arrangement, which is called the
_remontoir_, is supplemented in this clock by a double lever
escapement of a novel kind, in connection with that known as Graham's
Dead Beat.
A CALENDAR AND WIND-DIAL
are useful additions to some edifices. The CALENDAR indicates on
special circles of a large dial--by means of three separate hands--the
month of the year, the day of the month, and the day of the week. The
peculiarity of this invention is that it needs no correction for the
long and short months, nor even for the month of February, with its
occasional 29 days; as by means of a wheel cut for the successive
months in a period of four years, and which takes that time for a
single revolution, the calendar is rendered a perpetual one. The
mechanism which directs the pointers to the days of the week and of
the month is discharged, by the clock, each night at 12 o'clock, when
the levers shift the hands to their proper places on their several
dials. On the first of the month all three hands on the dial are moved
at the same instant.
The WIND-DIAL is lettered with the four cardinal points of the compass
and the 12 intermediates. The hand which points on the dial is
connected by rods and bevelled wheels with a vane at the top of the
house, placed 20 feet above the roof in order to be affected, not by
wind eddies, but by the true current of air. The connecting rods boxed
in the wall are broken at every eight feet with universal joints, and
hardened steel is used for all pivots and sockets. The dials are
generally made of semi-transparent ground glass and are lit by gas
after dark. In a set of Clock Calendars which I some time since
provided for His Grace the Duke of Portland, the clock showed the time
on four illuminated dials five feet nine inches in diameter, chiming
quarters, hours, &c. (the well-known Cambridge chimes) on bells of 12
cwt., repeating the hour after the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd quarters. The two
sides of an adjoining tower show a calendar similar to the one above
mentioned, with the addition of an extra circle on the dial to mark
the age of the moon and the equation of time, so that each dial has
four circles, besides the circle of the moon, shifted simultaneously
at 12 o'clock every night.
SUN-DIALS
(see illustration on following page) are chiefly used now to mark the
solar meridian or noon. Those which indicate other hours have a gnomon
with its edge parallel to the earth's axis and inclined to the horizon
at the angle corresponding to the latitude of the place in which the
dial is fixed.
CARILLON CHIMES.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration: Sun-Dial.] |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
These beautiful examples of _al fresco_ music, which have been hitherto
chiefly identified with Belgium, are now being produced in England with
perhaps even more pleasing and satisfactory musical effect. Carillons
attached to Church or Turret Clocks are being set up in various churches
and mansions in different parts of the kingdom, and it is not improbable
that the taste for such chimes may grow with the opportunity for hearing
them. As in musical clocks, the works for time-keeping and those for
chiming are entirely distinct, with the exception of the means by which
the clock at certain fixed intervals lets off the chiming machinery
after the striking is done. Chimes were much more popular years ago than
they have been until lately. The old-fashioned machinery used to be rude
enough, consisting chiefly of a large wooden barrel, stuck, like that of
a musical box, with pins. These pins pulled the hammers that struck upon
the bells, and the time was regulated by a rope coiled round one end of
the barrel driving two or three wheels connected with a fly-wheel. More
recent inventions have improved upon these conditions. The barrel is
sometimes of cast-iron instead of wood, with steel or brass pins fixed
in it to lift the hammers, and a very heavy weight is necessary to give
the motive power. Instead of the ordinary method of raising the hammers
and letting them fall by means of the pins on a chime barrel, the
hammers are immediately after use returned to their places in striking
position ready to be liberated by the pins on the chime barrel, and upon
being so liberated are prepared to strike again. The tunes to be played
upon these bells will of course be such as are adapted to the particular
number of bells in each case, and the cost of the entire chimes depends
upon the number and sizes of the bells so used,--varying with the
circumstances,--the size and capacity of the tower, and the difficulties
to be overcome in providing accommodation for the necessary bells,
weights, chime barrel, &c. In each instance, as with turret clocks, the
cost of the whole works depends to a great extent upon the cost of
fixing the machinery. The tones of the bells have to be carefully
provided for, as also the best position in which they can be heard at a
distance. With fourteen bells of different sizes almost any tune can be
played.
One was erected recently upon the new principle, of which the cost was
something under £5000, including 12 bells weighing from five to seven
cwt. each, clock, architect's charges, gas-fitting, and £1200 for
timber-trussing, floors, &c. The Carillon machine is let off by the
clock and plays seven times on the ringing peal of bells, but is
adapted to play twenty-eight tunes on fifteen bells. It is wound up
every morning and plays eight times in twenty-four hours, _i_. _e_.
once every three hours, giving the tune on each occasion three times,
and occupying about four minutes in doing so. At the expiration of the
24 hours the tune changes involuntarily, and of course with seven
tunes there is one for each day in the week. The Carillon machinery is
connected with the clock and set in motion thereby, by a lever which
at three hours' intervals dislodges a pin and allows the weights, 14
cwt. each, to act upon the machinery, the speed being easily
regulated, as in clockwork, by revolving vanes. The barrels are five
feet long, by one foot in diameter, and are studded with brass pins
like that of a musical box. When the bells are required to be rung, a
bar is turned down on the keys which prevents the motion of the
machinery for any length of time that the ringing is to be continued.
Notwithstanding that the twenty-six hammers weigh from 2 cwt. to 70lbs
each, it is possible that the tunes could be played by means of an
ivory keyboard, as in a church organ, and with almost as much ease and
facility.
Persons requiring to know the cost of a Church or Turret Clock should
furnish the Clockmaker with the following data:--
--------------------------------------------------------------
How many Dials? |
-------------------------------+------------------------------
Their Diameter? |
-------------------------------+------------------------------
Their Elevation, or distance |
from the ground? |
-------------------------------+------------------------------
If to be Illuminated? |
-------------------------------+------------------------------
Of what material is |
Dial to be? |
-------------------------------+------------------------------
Can the Movement be |
placed on a level with the |
centre of Dial, if not, how |
far above or below it? |
-------------------------------+------------------------------
Is the Clock to strike? |
if so, on what size or |
weight bell? |
-------------------------------+------------------------------
If to strike half-hours |
or quarters, or how many |
bells, and their sizes and |
weights? |
-------------------------------+------------------------------
What number of feet |
can be obtained for descent |
of weights? |
-------------------------------+------------------------------
What length of Pendulum |
will the building |
admit of, and is a compensating|
Pendulum required? |
--------------------------------------------------------------
A FEW DATES AND DETAILS FOR ALMANAC READERS.
The following data may be found useful in studying an Almanac.
The columns for SUNRISE AND SUNSET are nearly the same year after year
for any given place; for by the alteration of styles and the day
allowed at Leap Year the civil and astronomical year are almost
exactly the same; but the difference in latitude of different places
makes a London almanac useless for sunrise and sunset, say at
Edinburgh. The sun rises at each place to a greater height in June
than in December, but he is always at a less height in Edinburgh than
in London both in winter and summer, Edinburgh being farther than
London from the equator, where the sun is more immediately overhead.
The RISING AND SETTING OF THE MOON vary greatly day by day. The moon
is constantly moving eastward, and she is not moving in the same path
with the sun; the latitude and longitude of the observer's position,
the place of the moon in her orbit, the rapidity of her motion, and
other particulars, are to be taken into account in computing her
rising and setting.
The GOLDEN NUMBER is a term arising from the discovery that the sun
performs his annual course 19 times to the moon's 235. The golden
number is the number which any given year holds in the Lunar Cycle.
After the lapse of 19 years the new moons occur on the same days of
the same months as before. This discovery being esteemed by the Romans
to be highly important, they set up the rule for ascertaining the
number of the year in the Lunar Cycle in a tablet with letters of
gold, hence the term Golden Number. To find the year of the Lunar
Cycle add one to the present year, then divide by 19 and the remainder
will show the year of the Cycle.
The EPACT is the number of days which must be added to a lunar year to
complete a solar year. Twelve lunar months being nearly 11 days less
than the solar year, the new moons in one year falling 11 days earlier
than in the year preceding it, it becomes necessary on the fourth
year, when the difference would amount to 33 days, to take off 30 days
as an intercalary month, during which the moon has made a revolution,
and the three remaining would be the epact or 'addition,' which thus
continues to vary until the 19 years have expired, and the new moons
recur as before.
The SOLAR CYCLE is complete in 28 years, after which the days of the
month return to the same days of the week as before.
The DOMINICAL OR SUNDAY LETTER, as one of the first seven letters of
the alphabet, used to denote the days of the week, one of which must
of course fall on the Sunday throughout the year. Owing to Leap Year
their order every fourth year is disturbed, so that the Solar Cycle
must pass round before the letters can fall to the same days of the
week.
THE NUMBER OF DIRECTION. The Council of Nice having decided, A.D. 325,
that Easter Day is always the first Sunday after the full moon which
happens upon or next after the 21st of March, it follows that Easter
Day cannot take place earlier than the 22nd of March, or later than
the 25th of April. The number of Direction is that day of the 35, on
which Easter Sunday falls.
ROMAN INDICTION was a period of fifteen years, appointed by the
Emperor Constantine, A.D. 312, for the payment of certain taxes. It
was observed by the Greek and Roman Churches.
THE JULIAN PERIOD consists of 7980 years, produced by the
multiplication into each other of the Solar and Lunar Cycles and the
Roman Indiction, 28×19×15=7980. This period is reckoned from 709
before the Creation of the World, when the three Cycles are supposed
to have commenced together; the lapse of the entire period will be
A.D. 3267.
EQUATION OF TIME is the difference between the time as indicated by a
sun-dial, and that by a good clock. It is necessary because the sun,
the chief agent in measuring time, does not upon all days of the year
appear to move equally fast, inasmuch as an hour by a sun-dial,
correctly indicating the sun's motion, is sometimes longer, sometimes
shorter, than an hour by the clock, the hours of which are supposed to
be perfectly equal, although the sun's are not. The Equation of Time
shows how many minutes are to be added to, or subtracted from,
sun-dial time in order to show clock time. The same table of equation
will serve all over the world. [See following pages for Equation
Table.]
TRUE OR SOLAR TIME is that marked by the sun, and it is taken at the
moment when he has attained his greatest height above the
horizon,--such a moment being of course dependent upon the latitude of
the place of observation. The solar time by which our nautical
standard is fixed, is that of the meridian of Greenwich.
SIDEREAL TIME is that measured by the fixed stars, which are at such
an immense distance from the earth that the diurnal motion of the
earth brings these stars to the meridian at sufficiently regular
intervals. It is necessary, however, to remember when making
observations for sidereal time that these must be made from fixed or
twinkling stars, not from planets.
Of the various Eras from which time has been dated, the following are
the chief:--
A.M. _Anno Mundi._ The Year of the
World, dating from the Creation, according
to Jewish Calendar 5635
The Deluge, Era of, variously
reckoned 2348 to 3155 B.C.
The first Olympiad 776 B.C.
A.U.C. or _Anno Urbis Conditæ_, the year
of the building of Rome 753 B.C.
The Hegira, or Flight of Mahomet from
Mecca to Medina 622 A.D.
The Birth of Christ in the year of the
World 4004
The Jewish year 5635 commenced Sept.
12, 1874 A.D.
Table Colunm Headings
A. 3m.fa.45s.
B. 13m.fa.50s.
C. 12m.sl.36s.
D. 14m.fa. 1s.
E. 3m. sl. 0s.
F. 2m. sl.30s.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| A TABLE OF THE EQUATION OF TIME, |
| For regulating Clocks and Watches for 1875. |
+-----+-----------+---------+----------+---------+---------+----------+
| Day | January |February | March | April | May | June |
+-----+-----------+---------+----------+---------+---------+----------+
| 1 | A | B | C | D | E | F |
| 3 | 4 41 | 14 4 | 12 11 | 3 25 | 3 14 | 2 12 |
| 5 | 5 36 | 14 16 | 11 45 | 2 49 | 3 26 | 1 51 |
| 7 | 6 29 | 14 24 | 11 16 | 2 14 | 3 35 | 1 30 |
| 9 | 7 20 | 14 29 | 10 47 | 1 41 | 3 43 | 1 7 |
| 11 | 8 9 | 14 30 | 10 16 | 1 8 | 3 48 | 0 44 |
| 13 | 8 55 | 14 29 | 9 43 | 0 36 | 3 51 | 0 19 |
| 15 | 9 39 | 14 24 | 9 9 | 0 5 | 3 51 | 0 fa. 6 |
| 17 |10 20 | 14 16 | 8 35 | 0 sl.24 | 3 50 | 0 31 |
| 19 |10 58 | 14 6 | 7 59 | 0 52 | 3 46 | 0 57 |
| 21 |11 33 | 13 53 | 7 23 | 1 18 | 3 40 | 1 23 |
| 23 |12 5 | 13 37 | 6 46 | 1 42 | 3 32 | 1 48 |
| 25 |12 34 | 13 19 | 6 9 | 2 5 | 3 22 | 2 14 |
| 27 |13 0 | 12 58 | 5 32 | 2 25 | 3 10 | 2 39 |
| 29 |13 22 | - - - | 4 55 | 2 44 | 2 55 | 3 4 |
| 31 |13 41 | - - - | 4 19 | - - - | 2 39 | - - - |
+-----+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------+--+
Table Colunm Headings
A. 3m.fa.28s.
B. 6m.fa. 5s.
C. 0m.sl. 3s.
D. 10m.sl.16s.
E. 16m.sl.18s.
F. 10m.sl.52s.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| EQUATION OF TIME, 1875--_continued_. |
+-----+-----------+---------+----------+---------+---------+----------+
| Day | July | August |September |October |November |December |
+-----+-----------+---------+----------+---------+---------+----------+
| 1 | A | B | C | D. | E | F |
| 3 | 3 51 | 5 57 | 0 41 | 10 54 | 16 19 | 10 5 |
| 5 | 4 13 | 5 47 | 1 20 | 11 30 | 16 17 | 9 17 |
| 7 | 4 33 | 5 34 | 2 0 | 12 5 | 16 12 | 8 26 |
| 9 | 4 52 | 5 19 | 2 41 | 12 38 | 16 4 | 7 33 |
| 11 | 5 9 | 5 2 | 3 22 | 13 10 | 15 52 | 6 38 |
| 13 | 5 24 | 4 42 | 4 4 | 13 40 | 15 37 | 5 42 |
| 15 | 5 38 | 4 20 | 4 47 | 14 8 | 15 18 | 4 45 |
| 17 | 5 49 | 3 55 | 5 29 | 14 33 | 14 56 | 3 47 |
| 19 | 5 59 | 3 29 | 6 12 | 14 56 | 14 31 | 2 47 |
| 21 | 6 6 | 3 1 | 6 54 | 15 17 | 14 2 | 1 48 |
| 23 | 6 11 | 2 31 | 7 36 | 15 34 | 13 30 | 0 48 |
| 25 | 6 13 | 1 59 | 8 17 | 15 49 | 12 55 | 0 fa.12 |
| 27 | 6 14 | 1 26 | 8 58 | 16 1 | 12 17 | 1 12 |
| 29 | 6 12 | 0 52 | 9 37 | 16 10 | 11 36 | 2 11 |
| 31 | 6 8 | 0 16 | - - - | 16 16 | - - - | 3 10 |
+-----+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+---+
|_Note_.--Fa. means clock to be fast, _that is_, your Clock, to be |
|right, must be so much faster than the Sun-Dial--Sl. that your Clock |
|must be so much slower than the Sun-Dial. _To set a Clock or Watch on|
|any Day by means of this Table_:--Take out the number of Minutes and |
|Seconds which stand against that day, and make your Clock or Watch so|
|much faster or slower (according as the table is marked _fa._ or |
|_sl._) than the time on a good Sun-Dial. Thus, on January 1st, the |
|Clock must be set 3m. 45s. _faster_ or _before_ the Dial; on the 1st |
|of October, it must be set 10m. 16s. _slower_. Correct the Watch when|
|the Dial marks just an hour, as 9, 10, 11, 1, 2, 3, or 4 o'clock. |
|Noon is _not_ best, nor near Sunrise or Sunset. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious punctuation and spelling errors repaired.
Italic text is denoted by _underscore_.
The carat character (^) indicates that the following letter is
superscripted (example: 53^s).
Inconsistent hyphenation has been repaired.
The cover for the eBook version of this book was created by the
transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
In ambiguous cases, the text has been left as it appears in the
original book.
Corrections:
Line 1304: "instance" replaced with "insistence".
Line 1332: "inputation" replaced with "imputation".
Line 2279: "abanboned" replaced with "abandoned".
Line 2656: "Shakspere" replaced with "Shakspeare".
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