{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_44838/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_44838","id":"gutenberg_44838","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44838","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Ancient","Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Science - Physics","Clocks and watches","Time"],"text":"Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this\n      file which includes the numerous original illustrations.\n      See 44838-h.htm or 44838-h.zip:\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/44838/pg44838-images.html)\n      or\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/44838/44838-h.zip)\n\n\n      Images of the original pages are available through\n      Internet Archive. See\n      https://archive.org/details/timeitsmeasureme00arth\n\n\nTranscriber's note:\n\n      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).\n\n      The notation \"_{n}\" means that n is a subscript.\n\n      Small capital text has been converted to all uppercase.\n\n\n\n\n\nTIME AND ITS MEASUREMENT\n\nby\n\nJAMES ARTHUR\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nReprinted from\nPopular Mechanics Magazine\n\nCopyright, 1909, By H. H. Windsor\n\nChicago, 1909\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n CHAPTER I\n\n HISTORIC OUTLINE\n\n Time as an abstraction. -- Ancient divisions of day and night.\n -- Night watches of the Old Testament. -- Quarter days and hours\n of the New Testament. -- Shadow, or sun time. -- Noon mark dials.\n -- Ancient dials of Herculaneum and Pompeii. -- Modern dials. --\n Equation of time. -- Three historic methods of measuring time. --\n \"Time-boy\" of India. -- Chinese clepsydra. -- Ancient weather and\n time stations. -- Tower of the winds, Athens, Greece          Page 13\n\n\n CHAPTER II\n\n JAPANESE CLOCKS\n\n Chinese and Japanese divisions of the day. -- Hours of varying\n length. -- Setting clocks to length of daylight. -- Curved line\n dials. -- Numbering hours backwards and strange reasons for\n same. -- Daily names for sixty day period. -- Japanese clock\n movements practically Dutch. -- Japanese astronomical clock. --\n Decimal numbers very old Chinese. -- Original vertical dials\n founded on \"bamboo stick\" of Chinese clepsydra. -- Mathematics\n and superstition. -- Mysterious disappearance of hours 1, 2, 3.\n -- Eastern mental attitude towards time. -- Japanese methods of\n striking hours and half hours                                 Page 25\n\n\n CHAPTER III\n\n MODERN CLOCKS\n\n De Vick's clock of 1364. -- Original \"verge\" escapement. --\n \"Anchor\" and \"dead beat\" escapements. -- \"Remontoir\" clock. --\n The pendulum. -- Jeweling pallets. -- Antique clock with earliest\n application of pendulum. -- Turkish watches. -- Correct designs\n for public clock faces. -- Art work on old watches. -- 24-hour\n watch. -- Syrian and Hebrew hour numerals. -- Correct method of\n striking hours and quarters. -- Design for 24-hour dial and\n hands. -- Curious clocks. -- Inventions of the old clock-makers\n                                                               Page 37\n\n\n CHAPTER IV\n\n ASTRONOMICAL FOUNDATION OF TIME\n\n Astronomical motions on which our time is founded. -- Reasons\n for selecting the sidereal day as a basis for our 24-hour\n day. -- Year of the seasons shorter than the zodiacal year. --\n Precession of the equinoxes. -- Earth's rotation most uniform\n motion known to us. -- Time stars and transits. -- Local time.\n -- The date line. -- Standard time. -- Beginning and ending of\n a day. -- Proposed universal time. -- Clock dial for universal\n time and its application to business. -- Next great improvement\n in clocks and watches indicated. -- Automatic recording of\n the earth's rotation. -- Year of the seasons as a unit for\n astronomers. -- General conclusions                           Page 53\n\n\n\n\nILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n                                                                  Page\n Portrait of James Arthur                                            8\n\n Interpretation of Chinese and Japanese Methods of Time Keeping     15\n\n Portable Bronze Sundial from the Ruins of Herculaneum              16\n\n Noon-Mark Sundials                                                 17\n\n Modern Horizontal Sundial for Latitude 40\u00b0-43\u00b4                     18\n\n The Earth, Showing Relation of Dial Styles to Axis                 18\n\n Modern Sundial Set Up in Garden                                    18\n\n \"Time-Boy\" of India                                                19\n\n \"Hon-woo-et-low,\" or \"Copper Jars Dropping Water\"--Canton, China   19\n\n Modern Sand Glass or \"Hour Glass\"                                  20\n\n Tower of the Winds, Athens, Greece                                 20\n\n Key to Japanese Figures                                            25\n\n Japanese Dials Set for Long and Short Days                         25\n\n Japanese Striking Clock with Weight and Short Pendulum             26\n\n Japanese Striking Clock with Spring, Fusee and Balance             26\n\n Japanese Clock with Vertical Dial, Weight and Balance              27\n\n Japanese Clock with Vertical Dial Having Curved Lines, Weight\n and Balance                                                        27\n\n Japanese Vertical Dials                                            28\n\n Japanese Striking Clock with Two Balances and Two Escapements      29\n\n \"Twelve Horary Branches\" and \"10 Celestial Stems\" as Used in\n Clocks                                                             30\n\n Key to \"12 Horary Branches\" and \"10 Celestial Stems\"               30\n\n Dial of Japanese Astronomical Clock                                31\n\n Use of \"Yeng Number\" and Animal Names of Hours                     32\n\n Public Dial by James Arthur                                        37\n\n Dial of Philadelphia City Hall Clock                               37\n\n Verge Escapement                                                   37\n\n De Vick's Clock of 1364                                            38\n\n Anchor Escapement                                                  38\n\n American Anchor Escapement                                         39\n\n Dead Beat Escapement                                               39\n\n Remontoir Clock by James Arthur                                    40\n\n Remontoir Clock Movement                                           40\n\n Antique Clock, Entirely Hand-Made                              41, 42\n\n Double-Case Watch of Repouss\u00e9 Work                                 42\n\n Triple-Case Turkish Watches                                        43\n\n Watch Showing Dutch Art Work                                       43\n\n Triple-Case Turkish Watch                                          44\n\n Watches Showing Art Work                                           45\n\n Antique Watch Cock                                                 46\n\n \"Chinese\" Watch                                                    46\n\n Musical Watch, Repeating Hours and Quarters                        47\n\n Syrian Dial                                                        47\n\n Hebrew Numerals                                                    48\n\n Twenty-four Hour Watch                                             48\n\n Domestic Dial by James Arthur                                      49\n\n Local Time--Standard Time--Beginning and Ending of the Day         57\n\n Universal Time Dial Set for Four Places                            61\n\n\n[Illustration: James Arthur\n\nMr. Arthur is an enthusiastic scientist, a successful inventor and\nextensive traveler, who has for years been making a study of clocks,\nwatches, and time-measuring devices. He is not only a great authority\non this subject, but his collection of over 1500 timepieces gathered\nfrom all parts of the globe has been pronounced the finest collection\nin the world. Mr. Arthur is a pleasing exception to the average\nbusiness man, for he has found time to do a large amount of study and\nresearch along various scientific lines in addition to conducting an\nimportant manufacturing business in New York City, of which he is\npresident. Mr. Arthur is 67 years of age.--H. H. Windsor.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nHISTORIC OUTLINE\n\n Time as an abstraction. -- Ancient divisions of day and night.\n -- Night watches of the Old Testament. -- Quarter days and hours\n of the New Testament. -- Shadow or sun time. -- Noon mark dials.\n -- Ancient dials of Herculaneum and Pompeii. -- Modern Dials. --\n Equation of time. -- Three historic methods of measuring time. --\n \"Time-boy\" of India. -- Chinese clepsydra. -- Ancient weather and\n time stations. -- Tower of the winds, Athens, Greece.\n\n\nTime, as a separate entity, has not yet been defined in language.\nDefinitions will be found to be merely explanations of the sense in\nwhich we use the word in matters of practical life. No human being\ncan tell how long a minute is; only that it is longer than a second\nand shorter than an hour. In some sense we can think of a longer\nor shorter period of time, but this is merely comparative. The\ndifference between 50 and 75 steps a minute in marching is clear to\nus, but note that we introduce motion and space before we can get a\nconception of time as a succession of events, but time, in itself,\nremains elusive.\n\nIn time measures we strive for a uniform motion of something and\nthis implies equal spaces in equal times; so we here assume just\nwhat we cannot explain, for space is as difficult to define as time.\nTime cannot be \"squared\" or used as a multiplier or divisor. Only\nnumbers can be so used; so when we speak of \"the square of the time\"\nwe mean some number which we have arbitrarily assumed to represent\nit. This becomes plain when we state that in calculations relating\nto pendulums, for example, we may use seconds and inches--minutes\nand feet--or seconds and meters and the answer will come out right\nin the units which we have assumed. Still more, numbers themselves\nhave no meaning till they are applied to something, and here we are\napplying them to time, space and motion; so we are trying to explain\nthree abstractions by a fourth! But, happily, the results of these\nassumptions and calculations are borne out in practical human life,\nand we are not compelled to settle the deep question as to whether\nfundamental knowledge is possible to the human mind. Those desiring\na few headaches on these questions can easily get them from Kant\nand Spencer--but that is all they will get on these four necessary\nassumptions.\n\nEvidently, man began by considering the day as a unit and did not\ninclude the night in his time keeping for a long period. \"And the\nevening and the morning were the first day\" Gen. 1, 5; \"Evening and\nmorning and at noonday,\" Ps. LV, 17, divides the day (\"sun up\") in\ntwo parts. \"Fourth part of a day,\" Neh. IX, 3, shows another advance.\nThen comes, \"are there not twelve hours in a day,\" John XI, 9. The\n\"eleventh hour,\" Matt. XX, 1 to 12, shows clearly that sunset was\n12 o'clock. A most remarkable feature of this 12-hour day, in the\nNew Testament, is that the writers generally speak of the third,\nsixth and ninth hours, Acts II, 15; III, 1; X, 9. This is extremely\ninteresting, as it shows that the writers still thought in quarter\ndays (Neh. IX, 3) and had not yet acquired the 12-hour conception\ngiven to them by the Romans. They thought in quarter days even\nwhen using the 12-hour numerals! Note further that references are\nto \"hours;\" so it is evident that in New Testament times they did\nnot need smaller subdivisions. \"About the third hour,\" shows the\nmental attitude. That they had no conception of our minutes, seconds\nand fifth seconds becomes quite plain when we notice that they\njumped down from the hour to nowhere, in such expressions as \"in an\ninstant--in the twinkling of an eye.\"\n\nBefore this, the night had been divided into three watches, Judges\nVII, 19. Poetry to this day uses the \"hours\" and the \"watches\" as\nsymbols.\n\nThis 12 hours of daylight gave very variable hours in latitudes some\ndistance from the equator, being long in summer and short in winter.\nThe amount of human ingenuity expended on time measures so as to\ndivide the time from sunrise to sunset into 12 equal parts is almost\nbeyond belief. In Constantinople, to-day, this is used, but in a\nrather imperfect manner, for the clocks are modern and run 24 hours\nuniformly; so the best they can do is to set them to mark twelve at\nsunset. This necessitates setting to the varying length of the days,\nso that the clocks appear to be sometimes more and sometimes less\nthan six hours ahead of ours. A clock on the tower at the Sultan's\nprivate mosque gives the impression of being out of order and about\nsix hours ahead, but it is running correctly to their system. Hotels\noften show two clocks, one of them to our twelve o'clock noon system.\nEvidently the Jewish method of ending a day at sunset is the same\nand explains the command, \"let not the sun go down upon thy wrath,\"\nwhich we might read, do not carry your anger over to another day. I\nventure to say that we still need that advice.\n\nThis simple line of steps in dividing the day and night is taken\nprincipally from the Bible because everyone can easily look up the\npassages quoted and many more, while quotations from books not in\ngeneral use would not be so clear. Further, the neglect of the Bible\nis such a common complaint in this country that if I induce a few\nto look into it a little some good may result, quite apart from the\nmatter of religious belief.\n\nSome Chinese and Japanese methods of dividing the day and night are\nindicated in Fig. 1. The old Japanese method divides the day into\nsix hours and the night also into six, each hour averaging twice as\nlong as ours. In some cases they did this by changing the rate of the\nclock, and in others by letting the clock run uniformly and changing\nthe hour marks on the dial, but this will come later when we reach\nJapanese clocks.\n\nIt is remarkable that at the present time in England the \"saving\ndaylight\" agitation is virtually an attempt to go back to this\ndiscarded system. \"John Bull,\" for a long period the time-keeper\nof the world with headquarters at Greenwich, and during that time\nthe most pretentious clock-maker, now proposes to move his clocks\nbackward and forward several times a year so as to \"fool\" his workmen\nout of their beds in the mornings! Why not commence work a few\nminutes earlier each fortnight while days are lengthening and the\nreverse when they are shortening?\n\nThis reminds me of a habit which was common in Scotland,--\"keeping\nthe clock half an hour forward.\" In those days work commenced at six\no'clock, so the husband left his house at six and after a good walk\narrived at the factory at six! Don't you see that if his clock had\nbeen set right he would have found it necessary to leave at half\npast five? But, you say he was simply deceiving himself and acting\nin an unreasonable manner. Certainly, but the average man is not a\nreasonable being, and \"John Bull\" knows this and is trying to fool\nthe average Englishman.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 1--Interpretation of Chinese and Japanese Methods\nof Time Keeping]\n\nNow, as to the methods of measuring time, we must use circumstantial\nevidence for the pre-historic period. The rising and the going down\nof the sun--the lengthening shadows, etc., must come first, and we are\non safe ground here, for savages still use primitive methods like\nsetting up a stick and marking its shadow so that a party trailing\nbehind can estimate the distance the leaders are ahead by the changed\nposition of the shadow. Men notice their shortening and lengthening\nshadows to this day. When the shadow of a man shortens more and\nmore slowly till it appears to be fixed, the observer knows it\nis noon, and when it shows the least observable lengthening then\nit is just past noon. Now, it is a remarkable fact that this crude\nmethod of determining noon is just the same as \"taking the sun\" to\ndetermine noon at sea. Noon is the time at which the sun reaches his\nhighest point on any given day. At sea this is determined generally\nby a sextant, which simply measures the angle between the horizon\nand the sun. The instrument is applied a little before noon and the\nobserver sees the sun creeping upward slower and slower till a little\ntremor or hesitation appears indicating that the sun has reached his\nheight,--noon. Oh! you wish to know if the observer is likely to make\na mistake? Yes, and when accurate local time is important, several\nofficers on a large ship will take the meridian passage at the same\ntime and average their readings, so as to reduce the \"personal\nerror.\" All of which is merely a greater degree of accuracy than that\nof the man who observes his shadow.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 2--Portable Bronze Sundial from the Ruins of\nHerculaneum]\n\nThe gradual development of the primitive shadow methods culminated\nin the modern sundial. The \"dial of Ahas,\" Isa. XXXVIII, 8, on which\nthe sun went back 10 \"degrees\" is often referred to, but in one of\nthe revised editions of the unchangeable word the sun went back 10\n\"steps.\" This becomes extremely interesting when we find that in\nIndia there still remains an immense dial built with steps instead of\nhour lines. Figure 2 shows a pocket, or portable sundial taken from\nthe ruins of Herculaneum and now in the Museo National, Naples. It\nis bronze, was silver plated and is in the form of a ham suspended\nfrom the hock joint. From the tail, evidently bent from its original\nposition, which forms the gnomon, lines radiate and across these wavy\nlines are traced. It is about 5 in. long and 3 in. wide. Being in the\ncorner of a glass case I was unable to get small details, but museum\nauthorities state that names of months are engraved on it, so it\nwould be a good guess that these wavy lines had something to do with\nthe long and short days.\n\nIn a restored flower garden, within one of the large houses in the\nruins of Pompeii, may be seen a sundial of the Armillary type,\npresumably in its original position. I could not get close to it, as\nthe restored garden is railed in, but it looks as if the plane of the\nequator and the position of the earth's axis must have been known to\nthe maker.\n\nBoth these dials were in use about the beginning of our era and were\ncovered by the great eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D., which destroyed\nPompeii and Herculaneum.\n\nModern sundials differ only in being more accurately made and a few\n\"curiosity\" dials added. The necessity for time during the night,\nas man's life became a little more complicated, necessitated the\ninvention of time machines. The \"clepsydra,\" or water clock, was\nprobably the first. A French writer has dug up some old records\nputting it back to Hoang-ti 2679 B.C., but it appears to have been\ncertainly in use in China in 1100 B.C., so we will be satisfied\nwith that date. In presenting a subject to the young student it\nis sometimes advisable to use round numbers to give a simple\ncomprehension and then leave him to find the overlapping of dates and\nmethods as he advances. Keeping this in mind, the following table may\nbe used to give an elementary hint of the three great steps in time\nmeasuring:\n\n Shadow time, 2000 to 1000 B. C.\n\n Dials and Water Clocks, 1000 B. C. to 1000 A. D.\n\n Clocks and watches, 1000 to 2000 A. D.\n\nI have pushed the gear wheel clocks and watches forward to 2000 A.D.,\nas they may last to that time, but I have no doubt we will supersede\nthem. At the present time science is just about ready to say that\na time measurer consisting of wheels and pinions--a driving power\nand a regulator in the form of a pendulum or balance, is a clumsy\ncontrivance and that we ought to do better very soon; but more on\nthis hoped-for, fourth method when we reach the consideration of the\nmotion on which we base all our time keeping.\n\nIt is remarkable how few are aware that the simplest form of sundial\nis the best, and that, as a regulator of our present clocks, it is\ngood within one or two minutes. No one need be without a \"noon-mark\"\nsundial; that is, every one may have the best of all dials. Take a\npost or any straight object standing \"plumb,\" or best of all the\ncorner of a building as in Fig. 3. In the case of the post, or tree\ntrunk, a stone (shown in solid black) may be set in the ground;\nbut for the building a line may often be cut across a flagstone of\nthe footpath. Many methods may be employed to get this noon mark,\nwhich is simply a north and south line. Viewing the pole star, using\na compass (if the local variation is known) or the old method of\nfinding the time at which the shadow of a pole is shortest. But the\nbest practical way in this day is to use a watch set to local time\nand make the mark at 12 o'clock.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 3--Noon-Mark Sundials]\n\nOn four days of the year the sun is right and your mark may be set at\n12 on these days, but you may use an almanac and look in the column\nmarked \"mean time at noon\" or \"sun on meridian.\" For example, suppose\non the bright day when you are ready to place your noon mark you read\nin this column 11:50, then when your watch shows 11:50 make your noon\nmark to the shadow and it will be right for all time to come. Owing\nto the fact that there are not an even number of days in a year, it\nfollows that on any given yearly date at noon the earth is not at\nthe same place in its elliptical orbit and the correction of this\nby the leap years causes the equation table to vary in periods of\nfour years. The centennial leap years cause another variation of 400\nyears, etc., but these variations are less than the error in reading\na dial.\n\n SUN ON NOON MARK, 1909\n -------------------------------------------------------\n           Clock               Clock               Clock\n  Date     Time       Date     Time       Date     Time\n -------------------------------------------------------\n Jan.  2   12:04     May   1   11:57     Sep. 30   11:50\n   \"   4   12:05       \"  15   11:56     Oct.  3   11:49\n   \"   7   12:06       \"  28   11:57       \"   6   11:48\n   \"   9   12:07     June  4   11:58       \"  10   11:47\n   \"  11   12:08       \"  10   11:59       \"  14   11:46\n   \"  14   12:09       \"  14   12:00       \"  19   11:45\n   \"  17   12:10       \"  19   12:01       \"  26   11:44\n   \"  20   12:11       \"  24   12:02     Nov. 17   11:45\n   \"  23   12:12       \"  29   12:03       \"  22   11:46\n   \"  28   12:13     July  4   12:04       \"  25   11:47\n Feb.  3   12:14       \"  10   12:05       \"  29   11:48\n   \"  26   12:13       \"  19   12:06     Dec.  1   11:49\n Mar.  3   12:12     Aug. 11   12:05       \"   4   11:50\n   \"   8   12:11       \"  16   12:04       \"   6   11:51\n   \"  11   12:10       \"  21   12:03       \"   9   11:52\n   \"  15   12:09       \"  25   12:02       \"  11   11:53\n   \"  18   12:08       \"  28   12:01       \"  13   11:54\n   \"  22   12:07       \"  31   12:00       \"  15   11:55\n   \"  25   12:06     Sep.  4   11:59       \"  17   11:56\n   \"  28   12:05       \"   7   11:58       \"  19   11:57\n Apr.  1   12:04       \"  10   11:57       \"  21   11:58\n   \"   4   12:03       \"  12   11:56       \"  23   11:59\n   \"   7   12:02       \"  15   11:55       \"  25   12:00\n   \"  11   12:01       \"  18   11:54       \"  27   12:01\n   \"  15   12:00       \"  21   11:53       \"  29   12:02\n   \"  19   11:59       \"  24   11:52       \"  31   12:03\n   \"  24   11:58       \"  27   11:51\n -------------------------------------------------------\n The above table shows the variation of the sun from \"mean\"\n or clock time, by even minutes.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 4--12-Inch Modern Horizontal Sundial for Latitude\n40\u00b0-43\u00b4]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 5--The Earth, Showing Relation of Dial Styles to\nAxis]\n\nThe reason that the table given here is convenient for setting clocks\nto mean time is that a minute is as close as a dial can be read, but\nif you wish for greater accuracy, then the almanac, which gives the\n\"equation of time\" to a second for each day, will be better. The\nreason that these noon-mark dials are better than ordinary commercial\ndials is that they are larger, and still further, noon is the only\ntime that any dial is accurate to sun time. This is because the\nsun's rays are \"refracted\" in a variable manner by our atmosphere,\nbut at noon this refraction takes place on a north and south line,\nand as that is our noon-mark line the dial reads correctly. So,\nfor setting clocks, the corner of your house is far ahead of the\nmost pretentious and expensive dial. In Fig. 4 is shown a modern\nhorizontal dial without the usual confusing \"ornamentation,\" and in\nFig. 5 it is shown set up on the latitude of New York City for which\nit is calculated. This shows clearly why the edge FG of the style\nwhich casts the shadow must be parallel to the earth's axis and why\na horizontal dial must be made for the latitude of the place where\nit is set up. Figure 6 is the same dial only the lines are laid\nout on a square dial plate, and it will give your young scientific\nreaders a hint of how to set up a dial in the garden. In setting up a\nhorizontal dial, consider only noon and set the style, or 12 o'clock\nline, north and south as described above for noon-mark dials.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 6--Modern Sundial Set Up in Garden]\n\nA whole issue of Popular Mechanics could be filled on the subject\nof dials and even then only give a general outline. Astronomy,\ngeography, geometry, mathematics, mechanics, as well as architecture\nand art, come in to make \"dialing\" a most charming scientific and\nintellectual avocation.\n\nDuring the night and also in cloudy weather the sundial was useless\nand we read that the priests of the temples and monks of more modern\ntimes \"went out to observe the stars\" to make a guess at the time\nof night. The most prominent type after the shadow devices was the\n\"water clock\" or \"clepsydra,\" but many other methods were used, such\nas candles, oil lamps and in comparatively late times, the sand\nglass. The fundamental principle of all water clocks is the escape\nof water from a vessel through a small hole. It is evident that such\na vessel would empty itself each time it is filled in very nearly\nthe same time. The reverse of this has been used as shown in Fig. 7,\nwhich represents the \"time-boy\" of India. He sits in front of a large\nvessel of water and floats a bronze cup having a small hole in its\nbottom in this large vessel, and the leakage gradually lowers this\ncup till it sinks, after which he fishes it up and strikes one or\nmore blows on it as a gong. This he continues and a rude division of\ntime is obtained,--while he keeps awake!\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 7--\"Time-Boy\" of India]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 8--\"Hon-woo-et-low\" or \"Copper Jars Dropping\nWater\"--Canton, China]\n\nThe most interesting of all water clocks is undoubtedly the \"copper\njars dropping water,\" in Canton, China, where I saw it in 1897.\nReferring to the simple line sketch, which I make from memory, Fig.\n8, and reading four Chinese characters downwards the translation is\n\"Canton City.\" To the left and still downwards,--\"Hon-woo-et-low,\"\nwhich is,--\"Copper jars dropping water.\" Educated Chinamen inform me\nthat it is over 3,000 years old and had a weather vane. As they\nspeak of it as \"the clock of the street arch\" this would look quite\nprobable; since the little open building, or tower in which it stands\nis higher than surrounding buildings. It is, therefore, reasonably\nsafe to state that the Chinese had a _weather and time station_\nover 1,000 years before our era. It consists of four copper jars\npartially built in masonry forming a stair-like structure. Commencing\nat the top jar each one drops into the next downward till the water\nreaches the solid bottom jar. In this lowest one a float, \"the bamboo\nstick,\" is placed and indicates the height of the water and thus in\na rude way gives the time. It is said to be set morning and evening\nby dipping the water from jar 4 to jar 1, so it runs 12 hours of\nour time. What are the uses of jars 2 and 3, since the water simply\nenters them and drips out again? No information could be obtained,\nbut I venture an explanation and hope the reader can do better, as\nwe are all of a family and there is no jealousy. When the top jar is\nfilled for a 12-hour run it would drip out too fast during the first\nsix hours and too slow during the second six hours, on account of\nthe varying \"head\" of water. Now, the spigot of jar 2 could be set\nso that it would gain water during the first six hours, and lose\nduring the second six hours and thus equalize a little by splitting\nthe error of jar 1 in two parts. Similarly, these two errors of jar 2\ncould be again split by jar 3 making four small variations in lowest\njar, instead of one large error in the flow of jar 1. This could\nbe extended to a greater number of jars, another jar making eight\nsmaller errors, etc., etc. But I am inclined to credit our ancient\nChinese inventor with the sound reasoning that a human attendant,\nbeing very fallible and limited in his capacity, would have all he\ncould properly do to adjust four jars, and that his record would\naverage better than it would with a greater number. Remember, this\nman lived thousands of years before the modern mathematician who\nconstructed a bell-shaped vessel with a small hole in the bottom,\nand proportioned the varying diameter in such a manner that in\nemptying itself the surface of the water sank equal distances in\nequal times. The sand glass, Fig. 9, poetically called the \"hour\nglass,\" belongs to the water-clock class and the sand flows from one\nbulb into the other, but it gives no subdivisions of its period, so\nif you are using one running an hour it does not give you the half\nhour. The sand glass is still in use by chairmen, and when the oldest\ninhabitant gets on his feet, I always advise setting a 20-minute\nglass \"on him.\"\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 9--Modern Sand Glass or \"Hour Glass\"]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 10--\"Tower of the Winds\"--Athens, Greece]\n\nIn the \"Tower of the Winds\" at Athens, Greece (Fig. 10), we have a\nlater \"weather bureau\" station. It is attributed to the astronomer\nAndronicos, and was built about 50 B. C. It is octagonal in plan\nand although 27 ft. in diameter and 44 ft. high, it looks like a\nsentry box when seen from one of the hills of Athens. It had a\nbronze weather vane and in later times sundials on its eight sides,\nbut all these are gone and the tower itself is only a dilapidated\nruin. In making the drawing for this cut, from a photograph of the\ntower, I have sharpened the weathered and chipped corners of the\nstones so as to give a view nearly like the structure as originally\nbuilt; but nothing is added. Under the eaves it has eight allegorical\nsculptures, representing wind and weather. Artists state that\nthese sculptures are inferior as compared with Grecian art of an\nolder period. But the most interesting part is inside, and here\nwe find curious passages cut in solid stone, and sockets which\nlook as if they had contained metal bearings for moving machinery.\nCircumstantial evidence is strong that it contained a complicated\nwater clock which could have been kept running with tolerable\naccuracy by setting it daily to the dials on the outside. Probably\nduring a few days of cloudy weather the clock would \"get off quite a\nlittle,\" but business was not pressing in those days. Besides, the\ntimekeeper would swear by his little water wheel, anyway, and feel\nsafe, as there was no higher authority wearing an American watch.\n\nSome very interesting engravings of Japanese clocks and a general\nexplanation of them, as well as a presentation of the Japanese mental\nattitude towards \"hours\" and their strange method of numbering them\nmay be expected in the next chapter.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nJAPANESE CLOCKS\n\n Chinese and Japanese divisions of the day. -- Hours of varying\n length. -- Setting clocks to length of daylight. -- Curved line\n dials. -- Numbering hours backwards and strange reasons for\n same. -- Daily names for sixty day period. -- Japanese clock\n movements practically Dutch. -- Japanese astronomical clock. --\n Decimal numbers very old Chinese. -- Original vertical dials\n founded on \"bamboo stick\" of Chinese clepsydra. -- Mathematics\n and superstition. -- Mysterious disappearance of hours 1, 2, 3.\n -- Eastern mental attitude towards time. -- Japanese methods of\n striking hours and half hours.\n\n\nThe ancient methods of dividing day and night in China and Japan\nbecome more hazy as we go backwards and the complications grow. The\nthree circles in Fig. 1 (Chapter I) are all taken from Japanese\nclocks, but the interpretation has been obtained from Chinese and\nJapanese scholars. The Japanese obtained a great deal from the\nChinese, in fact nearly everything relating to the ancient methods of\ntime keeping and the compiling of calendars. I have not been able to\nfind any Chinese clocks constructed of wheels and pinions, but have a\nnumber of Japanese. These have a distinct resemblance to the earlier\nDutch movements, and while made in Japan, they are practically Dutch,\nso far as the \"works\" are concerned, but it is easy to see from the\nillustrations that they are very Japanese in style and ornamentation.\nThe Dutch were the leaders in opening Japan to the European nations\nand introduced modern mathematics and clocks from about 1590 A. D.\nThe ancient mathematics of Japan came largely from China through\nCorea. In Fig. 11 are given the Japanese figures beside ours, for the\nreader's use as a key. The complete day in Japan was divided into\ntwice six hours; that is, six for daylight and six for night, and\nthe clocks are set, as the days vary in length, so that six o'clock\nis sunrise and sunset. The hour numerals on Fig. 12 are on little\nplates which are movable, and are shown set for a long day and a\nshort night.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 11]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 12 Fig. 13.\n\nJapanese Dials Set for Long and Short Days]\n\nIn Fig. 13 they are set for short days and long nights. The narrow\nplates shown in solid black are the half-hour marks. In this type\nthe hand is stationary and always points straight upward. The dial\nrotates, as per arrow, once in a full day. This style of dial is\nshown on complete clocks, Fig. 14 being a weight clock and Fig. 15 a\nspring clock with chain and fusee. The hours are 9 to 4 and the dials\nrotate to make them read backwards. The six hours of daylight are 6,\n5, 4, 9, 8, 7, 6 and the same for night, so these hours average twice\nas long as ours. Note that nine is mid-day and mid-night, and as\nthese do not change by long and short days they are stationary on the\ndial, as you can easily see by comparing Figs. 12 and 13, which are\nthe same dial set for different seasons. Between these extremes the\ndial hours are set as often as the owner wishes; so if he happens to\ncorrespond with our \"time crank\" he will set them often and dispute\nwith his neighbors about the time. Figure 16 shows a clock with the\nhour numerals on a vertical series of movable plates and it is set\nfor uniform hours when day and night are equal at the equinox. The\nornamental pointer is fastened to the weight through the vertical\nslit, plainly visible in illustration, and indicates the time as it\ndescends. This clock is wound up at sunset, so the six on the top of\nthe dial is sunset the same as the six on the bottom. Figure 17 shows\nhow this type of dial is set for long and short days and explains\nitself, but will become plainer as we proceed. This dial is virtually\na continuation of the old method of marking time by the downward\nmotion of the water in the clepsydras and will be noticed later.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 14--Japanese Striking Clock with Weight and Short\nPendulum]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 15--Japanese Striking Clock with Spring, Fusee and\nBalance]\n\nFigure 18 represents a clock which is a work of art and shows great\nrefinement of design in providing for the varying lengths of days.\nThe bar lying across the dial is fastened to the weight through the\ntwo slits running the whole length of the dial. On this cross bar\nis a small pointer, which is movable by the fingers, and may be set\nto any one of the thirteen vertical lines. The numerous characters\non the top space of dial indicate the dates on which the pointer is\nto be set. This clock is wound up at sunset, and it is easy to see\nthat as the little pointer is set towards the right, the night hours\nat the top of the dial become shorter and the day hours longer on\nthe lower part. The left edge of the dial gives the hours, reading\ndownwards, and as the pointer touches any one of the curved lines the\nhour is read at the left-hand end. The curved lines formed of dots\nare the half-hours. The right-hand edge of the dial has the \"twelve\nhorary characters\" which will be explained later. For dividing the\nvarying days into six hours' sunshine it would be difficult to\nthink of a more artistic and beautiful invention than this. It is\na fine example of great ingenuity and constant trouble to operate\na system which is fundamentally wrong according to our method of\nuniform hours at all seasons. Clocks having these curved lines for\nthe varying lengths of days--and we shall find them on circular dials\nas we go on--must be made for a certain latitude, since the days vary\nmore and more as you go farther from the equator. This will become\nplain when you are reminded that a Japanese clock at the equator\nwould not need any adjustment of hour numerals, because the days and\nnights are equal there all the year. So after such infinite pains in\nforming these curved lines the clock is only good in the latitude\nfor which it was made and must not be carried north or south! Our\nclocks are correct from pole to pole, but all clocks must be set to\nlocal time if they are carried east or west. As this is a rather\nfascinating phase of the subject it might be worth pointing out that\nif you go north till you have the sun up for a month in the middle\nof summer--and there are people living as far up as that--the Japanese\nsystem would become absurd and break down; so there is no danger of\nany of our polar expeditions carrying Japanese clocks.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 16--Japanese Clock with Vertical Dial, Weight and\nBalance.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 17--Japanese Vertical Dials]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 18--Japanese Clock with Vertical Dial Having\nCurved Lines, Weight and Balance.]\n\nFigure 19 shows a very fine clock in which the dial is stationary and\nthe hand moves just as on our dials. This hour hand corresponds to\nthe single hand of the old Dutch clocks. When the Japanese reached\nthe point of considering the application of minute and second hands\nto their clocks they found that these refinements would not fit their\nold method and they were compelled to lay aside their clocks and\ntake ours. On this dial, Fig. 19, nine is noon, as usual, and is on\ntop side of dial. Hand points to three quarters past _seven_, that\nis, a quarter to _six_, near sunset. Between the bell and the top of\nthe clock body two horizontal balances, having small weights hung on\nthem, are plainly shown, and the clock has two verge escapements--one\nconnected with each balance, or \"foliot.\" Let us suppose a long\nday coming to a close at sunset, just as the hand indicates. The\nupper balance, which is the slow one, has been swinging backwards\nand forwards measuring the long hours of the day. When the clock\nstrikes six, at sunset, the top balance is thrown out of action and\nthe lower one, which is the fast one, is thrown into action and\nmeasures the short night hours. At sunrise this is thrown out and\nthe top one in again to measure the next day's long hours. As the\ndays vary in length, the balances, or foliots, can be made to swing\nfaster or slower by moving the weights inwards or outwards a notch\nor two. The balance with small weights for regulation is the oldest\nknown and was used in connection with the verge escapement, just\nas in this clock, by the Dutch about 1364. All the evidence I can\nfind indicates that the Japanese clocks are later than this date. In\ndesign, ornamentation and methods for marking varying days, however,\nthe Japanese have shown great artistic taste and inventiveness.\nIt is seen that this dial in addition to the usual six hours,\ntwice over, has on the outside circle of dial, the \"twelve horary\nbranches\" called by the Japanese the \"twelve honorary branches,\" thus\nindicating the whole day of twelve Japanese hours, six of them for\nday and six for night. By this means they avoided repeating the same\nhours for day and night. When it is pointed out that these \"twelve\nhorary branches\" are very old Chinese, we are not in a position to\nboast about our twenty-four hour system, because these branches\nindicate positively whether any given hour is day or night. When we\nprint a time table in the twenty-four hour system so as to get rid\nof our clumsy A. M. and P. M., we are thousands of years behind the\nChinese. More than that, for they got the matter right without any\nsuch pressure as our close running trains have brought to bear on\nus. These branches have one syllable names and the \"ten celestial\nstems\" have also one syllable names, all as shown on Fig. 20. Refer\nnow to Fig. 21 where two disks are shown, one having the \"twelve\nhorary branches\" and the other the \"ten celestial stems.\" These disks\nare usually put behind the dial so that one \"branch\" and one \"stem\"\ncan be seen at the same time through two openings. The clock moves\nthese disks one step each night, so that a new pair shows each day.\nRunning in this manner, step by step, you will find that it takes\nsixty moves, that is sixty days, to bring the same pair around again.\nEach has a single syllable name, as shown on Fig. 20, and we thus get\nsixty names of two syllables by reading them together to the left.\nThe two openings may be seen in the dials of Figs. 15 and 19. So the\nJapanese know exactly what day it is in a period of sixty which they\nused in their old calendars. These were used by the Chinese over four\nthousand years ago as the names of a cycle of sixty years, called the\n\"sexagenary.\" The present Chinese year 4606 is YU-KI which means the\nyear 46 of the 76th \"sexagenary.\" That is, 76\u00d760+46 = 4,606. In Fig.\n20, we read TSU-KIAH, or the first year. If you will make two disks\nlike Fig. 21 and commence with TSU-KIAH and move the two together\nyou will come to YU-KI on the 46th move. But there is another way\nwhich you might like better, thus: Write the twelve \"branches,\"\nor syllables, straight downwards, continuously five times; close\nto the right, write the ten \"stems\" six times. Now you have sixty\nwords of two syllables and the 46th, counting downwards, will be\nYU-KI. Besides, this method gives you the whole sixty names of the\n\"sexagenary\" at one view. Always read _left_, that is, pronounce the\n\"stem\" syllable first.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 19--Japanese Striking Clock with Two Balances and\nTwo Escapements; Dial Stationary, Hand Moves]\n\nCalendars constitute a most interesting and bewildering part of time\nmeasuring. We feel that we have settled the matter by determining\nthe length of the year to within a second of time, and keeping the\ndates correctly to the nearest day by a leap year every fourth and\nevery fourth century, established by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, and\nknown as the \"Gregorian Calendar.\" In simple words, our \"almanac\" is\nthe \"Gregorian.\" We are in the habit of saying glibly that any year\ndivisible by four is a leap year, but this is far from correct. Any\nyear leaving out the _even hundreds_, which is divisible by four\nis a leap year. _Even hundreds_ are leap when divisible by four.\nThis explains why 1900 was a common year, because _19 hundreds_ is\nnot divisible by four; 2000 will be a leap because _20 hundreds_\nis divisible by four; therefore 2100, 2200 and 2300 will be common\nyears and 2400 a leap, etc., to 4000 which must be made common, to\nkeep things straight, in spite of the fact that it is divisible by\nfour both in its hundreds and thousands. But for practical purposes,\nduring more than two thousand years to come, we may simplify the\nrule to: _Years_ and _even hundreds_ divisible by four are leaps.\nBut great confusion still exists as a result of several countries\nholding to their own old methods. The present Chinese year has 384\ndays, 13 months and 13 full moons. Compared with our 1909 it begins\non January 21st and will end on February 8, 1910. Last year the\nChina-Japan calendar had 12 months, or moons, but as that is too\nshort they must put in an extra every thirtieth month. We only allow\nthe error to reach one day and correct it with our leap years, but\nthey are not so particular and let the error grow till they require\nanother \"moon.\" The Old Testament is full of moons, and even with all\nour \"modernity\" our \"feasts\" and holy days are often \"variable\" on\naccount of being mixed up with moons. In Japan the present year is\nthe 42nd of Meiji, that is, the 42nd of the present Emperor's reign.\nThe present is the Jewish 5669. These and others of varying lengths\noverlap our year in different degrees, so that in trade matters great\nconfusion exists. The Chinese and Japanese publish a trade almanac\nin parallel columns with ours to avoid this. It is easy to say that\nwe ought to have a uniform calendar all over the world, but the same\nremark applies just as much to money, weights, measures, and even to\nlanguage itself. Finally, the difficulty consists in the facts that\nthere are not an even number of days in a year--or in a moon--or moons\nin a year. \"These many moons\" is a survival in our daily speech of\nthis old method of measuring by moons. Just a little hint as to the\namount of superstition still connected with \"new moon\" will be enough\nto make clear the fact that we are not yet quite so \"enlightened\" as\nwe say we are. While our calendar, or almanac, may be considered as\nfinal, we must remember that custom and religion are so mixed up with\nthe matter in the older countries of the East that they will change\nvery slowly. Strictly, our \"era\" is arbitrary and Christian; so we\nmust not expect nations which had some astronomical knowledge and a\nworking calendar, thousands of years before us, to change suddenly to\nour \"upstart\" methods.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 20--Key to \"12 Horary Branches\" and \"10 Celestial\nStems\"]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 21--\"12 Horary Branches\" and \"10 Celestial Stems\"\nas Used in Clocks]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 22--Dial of Japanese Astronomical Clock]\n\nIn Fig. 22 we have the dial of a very complicated astronomical\nclock. This old engraved brass dial did not photograph well, so I\nmade a copy by hand to get clean lines. Commencing at the centre,\nthere is a small disk, B, numbered from 1 to 30, giving days of the\nmoon's age. The moon rises at A and sets at AA, later each day, of\ncourse. Her age is shown by the number she touches on disk B, as\nthis disk advances on the moon one number each day. Her phases are\nshown by the motion of a black disk over her face; so we have here\nthree motions for the moon, so differentiated as to show _phase_,\n_ascension_ and _age_. Still further, as she is represented on the\ndial when below the horizon, it can be seen when she will rise, and\n\"moonlight\" parties may be planned. Just outside the moon's course\nis an annulus having Japanese numbers 1 to 12, indicating months.\nNote the recurring character dividing the months in halves, which\nmeans \"middle,\" and is much used. If you will carefully read these\nnumbers you will find a character where _one_ would come; this means\n\"beginning\" or \"primary\" and is often used instead of one. The clock\nhand is the heavy arrow and sweeps the dial once in a whole day, same\ndirection as our clocks. This circle of the months moves along with\nthe hand, but a little faster, so as to gain one number in a month.\nAs shown on the figure it is about one week into the sixth month.\nNext outward is the broad band having twelve curved lines for the\nhours ending outwardly in a ring divided into 100 parts, marked off\nin tens by dots. These curved lines are numbered with the Japanese\nnumerals for hours which you must now be able to read easily. These\nhour lines, and the dotted lines for half hours, are really the same\nas the similar lines on Fig. 18 which you now understand. As the\nhand sweeps the dial daily it automatically moves outward a little\neach day, so it shortens the nights and lengthens the days, just as\npreviously explained for Fig. 18. But there is one difference, for\nyou will notice that the last night hour, on which the arrow hand\nnow stands, is longer than the other night hours before it, and that\nit is divided into _three_ by the dotted lines. The last day hour,\non the left of dial, is also long and divided into _three_. That is,\nwhile all the dials previously described have equal hours for any\ngiven day, or night, this dial has a _last long hour_ in each case,\ndivided into three instead of the usual half-hours. This is a curious\nand interesting point having its origin long before clocks. In the\nearly days of the clepsydra in China, a certain time was allowed\nto dip up the water from the lowest jar, each morning and evening\nabout five o'clock of our time, see Fig. 8 (Chapter 1). During this\noperation the clepsydra was not marking time, and the oriental\nmind evidently considered it in some sense outside of the regular\nhours, and like many other things was retained till it appeared\nabsurdly on the earlier clocks. This wonderful feat of putting an\ninterval between two consecutive hours has always been impossible to\nmodern science; yet President Roosevelt performed it easily in his\n\"constructive\" interregnum! Referring to the Canton clepsydra, Fig.\n8, we find that the float, or \"bamboo stick,\" was divided into 100\nparts. At one season 60 parts for the day and 40 parts for the night,\ngradually being changed to the opposite for short days. The day hours\nwere beaten on a drum and the night hours blown on a trumpet.\n\nLater the hour numerals were made movable on the \"bamboo stick.\"\nThis is virtually a vertical dial with movable hour plates, so their\nidea of time measuring at that date, was of something moving up or\ndown. This was put on the first clocks by the Japanese; so that the\ndial of Fig. 16 is substantially the float of the Chinese clepsydra.\nFurther, in this \"bamboo stick\" of 100 parts, we have our present\nsystem of decimal numbers, so we can afford to be a little modest\nhere too. Before leaving Fig. 22 note the band, or annulus, of stars\nwhich moves with the month circle. I cannot make these stars match\nour twelve signs of the Zodiac, but as I have copied them carefully\nthe reader can try and make order out of them. The extreme outer edge\nof the dial is divided into 360 parts, the tens being emphasized, as\nin our decimal scales.\n\nAs we are getting a little tired of these complicated descriptions,\nlet us branch off for a few remarks on some curiosities of Eastern\ntime keeping. They evidently think of an hour as a _period of time_\nmore specifically than we do. When we say \"6 o'clock\" we mean a\npoint of time marked by the striking of the clock. We have no names\nfor the hour periods. We must say \"from 5 to 6\" or \"between 5 and\n6\" for an hour period. The \"twelfth hour\" of the New Testament, I\nunderstand to mean a whole hour ending at sunset; so we are dealing\nwith an oriental attitude of mind towards time. I think we get that\nconception nearly correct when we read of the \"middle watch\"\nand understand it to mean _during_ the middle third of the night.\nSecondly, why do the Japanese use no 1, 2, 3 on their dials? These\nnumbers were sacred in the temples and must not be profaned by use on\nclocks, and they mentally deducted these from the clock hours, but\nultimately became accustomed to 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4. Thirdly, why this\nreading of the hours backwards? Let us suppose a toiler commencing\nat sunrise, or six. When he toiled one hour he felt that there was\none less to come and he called it five. This looks quite logical, for\nthe diminishing numbers indicated to him how much of his day's toil\nwas to come. Another explanation which is probably the foundation\nof \"secondly\" and \"thirdly\" above, is the fact that mathematics and\nsuperstition were closely allied in the old days of Japan. If you\ntake the numbers 1 to 6, Fig. 23, and multiply them each into the\nuncanny \"yeng number,\" or nine, you will find that the last digits,\nreading downwards, give 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4. Stated in other words:\nWhen 1 to 6 are multiplied into \"three times three\" the last figures\nare 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, and _1, 2, 3, have disappeared_; so the common\npeople were filled with fear and awe. Some of the educated, even now,\nare mystified by the strange results produced by using three and nine\nas factors, and scientific journals often give space to the matter.\nWe know that these results are produced by the simple fact that nine\nis one less than the \"radix\" of our decimal scale of numbers. Nine is\nsometimes called the \"indestructible number,\" since adding the digits\nof any of its powers gives an even number of nines. But in those days\nit was a mystery and the common people feared the mathematicians, and\nI have no doubt the shrewd old fellows took full advantage of their\npower over the plebeians. In Japan, mathematics was not cleared of\nthis rubbish till about 700 A. D.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 23--Use of \"Yeng Number\" and Animal Names of\nHours]\n\nOn the right-hand side of Fig. 23 are given the animal names of\nthe hours, so the day and night hours could not be mistaken. In\nselecting the _rat_ for night and the _horse_ for day they showed\ngood taste. Their forenoon was \"before horse\" and their afternoon\n\"after horse.\" Japanese clocks are remarkable for variety. It looks\nas if they were always made to order and that the makers, probably\nurged by their patrons, made extreme efforts to get in wonderful\nmotions and symbols relating to astronomy and astrology. Anyone\nexamining about fifty of them would be likely to conclude that it was\nalmost hopeless to understand them all. Remember, this is the old\nJapanese method. Nearly all the clocks and watches I saw in Japan\nwere American. It will now be necessary to close this chapter with a\nfew points on the curious striking of Japanese clocks.\n\nIn those like Figs. 14, 15, 19, the bell and hammer can be seen. In\nthe type of Fig. 16, the whole striking mechanism is in the weight.\nIn fact, the striking part of the clock is the weight. On each of the\nplates, having the hour numerals, Fig. 16, a pin projects inwards and\nas the weight containing the striking mechanism, descends, a little\nlever touches these and lets off the striking just when the pointer\nis on the hour numeral. Keeping this in mind, it is easy to see that\nthe clock will strike correctly when the hour is indicated by the\npointer, no matter how the hour plates are set for long or short\ndays. Similar pins project inwards from movable plates on Figs. 12,\n13, 14, 15, so they strike correctly as each hour plate comes to the\ntop just under the point of the fixed hand. In Fig. 19, the striking\nis let off by a star wheel just as in old Dutch clocks. Clocks\nlike Figs. 18-22 do not strike. In all cases the hours are struck\nbackwards, but the half-hours add another strange feature. The _odd_\nnumbered hours, 9, 7, 5, are followed by one blow at the half hour;\nand the _even_ hours, 8, 6, 4 by two blows, or stated altogether--\n\n 9_{1} 8_{2} 7_{1} 6_{2} 5_{1} 4_{2}.\n\nHere the large figures are the hours and the small ones the\nhalf-hours. Only one bell is used, because there being no one and\ntwo among the hours, the half-hours cannot be mistaken. This is not\nall, for you can tell what half hour it is within two hours. For\nexample, suppose you know approximately that it is somewhere between\n9 and 7 and you hear the clock strike 2, then you know it is half\npast 8. See the large and small figures above. This is far superior\nto our method of one at each half-hour.\n\nBy our method the clock strikes _one_ three times consecutively,\nbetween 12 and 2 o'clock and thus mixes up the half hours with one\no'clock. Some interesting methods of striking will be explained in\nthe third chapter when we deal with modern time keeping.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nMODERN CLOCKS\n\n DeVick's clock of 1364. -- Original \"verge\" escapement. --\n \"Anchor\" and \"dead beat\" escapements. -- \"Remontoir\" clock.\n -- The pendulum. -- Jeweling pallets. -- Antique clock with\n earliest application of pendulum. -- Turkish watches. -- Correct\n designs for public clock faces. -- Art work on old watches. --\n Twenty-four hour watch. -- Syrian and Hebrew hour numerals. --\n Correct method of striking hours and quarters. -- Design for\n twenty-four hour dial and hands. -- Curious clocks. -- Inventions\n of the old clockmakers.\n\n[Illustration: Public Dial by James Arthur Dial of Philadelphia City\nHall Clock\n\nFig. 24]\n\n\nModern clocks commence with De Vick's of 1364 which is the first\nunquestioned clock consisting of toothed wheels and containing the\nfundamental features of our present clocks. References are often\nquoted back to about 1000 A. D., but the words translated \"clocks\"\nwere used for bells and dials at that date; so we are forced to\nconsider the De Vick clock as the first till more evidence is\nobtained. It has been pointed out, however, that this clock could\nhardly have been invented all at once; and therefore it is probable\nthat many inventions leading up to it have been lost to history. The\npart of a clock which does the ticking is called the \"escapement\"\nand the oldest form known is the \"verge,\" Fig. 25, the date of which\nis unknown, but safely 300 years before De Vick. The \"foliot\" is on\nthe vertical verge, or spindle, which has the pallets A B. As the\nfoliot swings horizontally, from rest to rest, we hear one tick, but\nit requires two of these single swings, or two ticks, to liberate\none tooth of the escape wheel; so there are twice as many ticks\nin one turn of the escape wheel as it has teeth. We thus see that\nan escapement is a device in which something moves back and forth\nand allows the teeth of an \"escape wheel\" to escape. While this\nescapement is, in some respects, the simplest one, it has always\nbeen difficult to make it plain in a drawing, so I have made an\neffort to explain it by making the side of the wheel and its pallet\nB, which is nearest the eye, solid black, and farther side and its\npallet A, shaded as in the figure. The wheel moves in the direction\nof the arrow, and tooth D is very near escaping from pallet B. The\ntooth C on the farther side of wheel is moving left, so it will fall\non pallet A, to be in its turn liberated as the pallets and foliot\nswing back and forth. It is easy to see that each tooth of the wheel\nwill give a little push to the pallet as it escapes, and thus keep\nthe balance swinging. This escapement is a very poor time-keeper,\nbut it was one of the great inventions and held the field for about\n600 years, that is, from the days when it regulated bells up to the\n\"onion\" watches of our grandfathers. Scattered references in old\nwritings make it reasonably certain that from about 1,000 to 1,300\nbells were struck by machines regulated with this verge escapement,\nthus showing that the striking part of a clock is older than the\nclock itself. It seems strange to us to say that many of the earlier\nclocks were strikers, only, and had no dials or hands, just as if\nyou turned the face of your clock to the wall and depended on the\nstriking for the time. Keeping this action of the verge escapement\nin mind we can easily understand its application, as made by De\nVick, in Fig. 26, where I have marked the same pallets A B. A tooth\nis just escaping from pallet B and then one on the other side of\nthe wheel will fall on pallet A. Foliot, verge and pallets form one\nsolid piece which is suspended by a cord, so as to enable it to\nswing with little friction. For the purpose of making the motions\nvery plain I have left out the dial and framework from the drawing.\nThe wheel marked \"twelve hours,\" and the pinion which drives it, are\nboth outside the frame, just under the dial, and are drawn in dash\nand dot. The axle of this twelve-hour wheel goes through the dial\nand carries the hand, which marks hours only. The winding pinion and\nwheel, in dotted lines, are inside the frame. Now follow the \"great\nwheel\"--\"intermediate\"--\"escape wheel\" and the two pinions, all in\nsolid lines, and you have the \"train\" which is the principal part\nof all clocks. This clock has an escapement, wheels, pinions, dial,\nhand, weight, and winding square. We have only added the pendulum,\na better escapement, the minute and second hands in over 500 years!\nThe \"anchor\" escapement, Fig. 27, came about 1680 and is attributed\nto Dr. Hooke, an Englishman. It gets its name from the resemblance of\nthe pallets to the flukes of an anchor. This anchor is connected to\nthe pendulum and as it swings right and left, the teeth of the escape\nwheel are liberated, one tooth for each two swings from rest to rest,\nthe little push on the pallets A B, as the teeth escape, keeping the\npendulum going. It is astonishing how many, even among the educated,\nthink that the pendulum drives the clock! The pendulum must always be\ndriven by some power.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 25--Verge Escapement]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 26--De Vick's Clock of 1364]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 27--Anchor Escapement]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 28--American Anchor Escapement]\n\nThis escapement will be found in nearly all the grandfather clocks in\nconnection with a seconds pendulum. It is a good time-keeper, runs\nwell, wears well, stands some rough handling and will keep going\neven when pretty well covered with dust and cobwebs; so it is used\nmore than all the numerous types ever invented. Figure 28 gives the\ngeneral American form of the \"anchor\" which is made by bending a\nstrip of steel; but it is not the best form, as the acting surfaces\nof the pallets are straight. It is, therefore, inferior to Fig. 27\nwhere the acting surfaces are curved, since these curves give an\neasier \"recoil.\" This recoil is the slight motion _backwards_ which\nthe escape wheel makes at each tick. The \"dead beat\" escapement is\nshown in Fig. 29, and is used in clocks of a high grade, generally\nwith a seconds pendulum. It has no recoil as you can easily see that\nthe surfaces O O on which the teeth fall, are portions of a circle\naround the center P. The beveled ends of these pallets are called the\nimpulse surfaces, and a tooth is just giving the little push on the\nright-hand pallet. It is found in good railroad clocks, watch-makers'\nregulators and in many astronomical clocks. These terms are merely\ncomparative, a \"regulator\" being a good clock and an \"astronomical,\"\nan extra good one. Figure 30 gives the movement of a \"remontoir\"\nclock in which the dead beat shown is used. The upper one of the\nthree dials indicates seconds, and the lever which crosses its center\ncarries the large wheel on the left.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 29--Dead Beat Escapement]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 31--Remontoir Clock by James Arthur]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 30--Remontoir Clock Movement]\n\nThis wheel makes the left end of the lever heavier than the right,\nand in sinking it drives the clock for one minute, but at the\nsixtieth second it \"remounts\" by the action of the clock weight;\nhence the name, \"remontoir.\" Note here that the big weight does\nnot directly drive the clock; it only rewinds it every minute. The\nminutes are shown on the dial to the right and its hand jumps forward\none minute at each sixtieth second as the lever remounts; so if you\nwish to set your watch to this clock the proper way is to set it to\nthe even minute \"on the jump.\" The hour hand is on the dial to the\nleft. By this remounting, or rewinding, the clock receives the same\namount of driving force each minute. The complete clock is shown\nin Fig. 31, the large weight which does the rewinding each minute\nbeing plainly visible. The pendulum is compensated with steel and\naluminum, so that the rate of the clock may not be influenced by hot\nand cold weather. Was built in 1901 and is the only one I can find\nroom for here. It is fully described in \"Machinery,\" New York, for\nNov., 1901. I have built a considerable number, all for experimental\npurposes, several of them much more complicated than this one, but\nall differing from clocks for commercial purposes. Pallets like O\nO in Fig. 29 are often made of jewels; in one clock I used agates\nand in another, running thirteen months with one winding, I used\npallets jeweled with diamonds. This is done to avoid friction and\nwear. Those interested in the improvement of clocks are constantly\nstriving after light action and small driving weights. Conversely,\nthe inferior clock has a heavy weight and ticks loud. The \"gravity\nescapement\" and others giving a \"free\" pendulum action would require\ntoo much space here, so we must be satisfied with the few successful\nones shown out of hundreds of inventions, dozens of them patented.\nThe pendulum stands at the top as a time measurer and was known to\nthe ancients for measuring short periods of time just as musicians\nnow use the metronome to get regular beats. Galileo is credited with\nnoticing its regular beats, but did not apply it to clocks, although\nhis son made a partially successful attempt. The first mathematical\ninvestigation of the pendulum was made by Huyghens about 1670, and\nhe is generally credited with applying it to clocks, so there is a\n\"Huyghens\" clock with a pendulum instead of the foliot of De Vick's.\nMathematically, the longer and heavier the pendulum the better is\nthe time-keeping, but nature does not permit us to carry anything to\nthe extreme; so the difficulty of finding a tower high enough and\nsteady enough, the cumbersomeness of weight, the elasticity of the\nrod, and many other difficulties render very long and heavy pendulums\nimpracticable beyond about 13 ft. which beats once in two seconds.\n\"Big Ben\" of Westminster, London, has one of this length weighing 700\nlb. and measuring, over all, 15 ft.\n\nIt runs with an error under one second a week. This is surpassed\nonly by some of the astronomical clocks which run sometimes two\nmonths within a second. This wonderful timekeeping is done with\nseconds pendulums of about 39 in., so the theoretical advantage of\nlong pendulums is lost in the difficulties of constructing them.\nFractions are left out of these lengths as they would only confuse\nthe explanations. At the Naval observatory in Washington, D. C.,\nthe standard clocks have seconds pendulums, the rods of which are\nnickel steel, called \"Invar,\" which is little influenced by changes\nof temperature. These clocks are kept in a special basement, so\nthey stand on the solid earth. The clock room is kept at a nearly\nuniform temperature and each clock is in a glass cylinder exhausted\nto about half an atmosphere. They are electric remontoirs, so no\nwinding is necessary and they can be kept sealed up tight in their\nglass cylinders. Nor is any adjustment of their pendulums necessary,\nor setting of the hands, as the correction of their small variations\nis effected by slight changes in the air pressure within the glass\ncylinders. When a clock runs fast they let a little air into its\ncylinder to raise the resistance to the pendulum and slow it down,\nand the reverse for slow. Don't forget that we are now considering\nvariations of less than a second a week.\n\nThe clock room has double doors, so the outer one can be shut before\nthe inner one is opened, to avoid air currents. Visitors are not\npermitted to see these clocks because the less the doors are opened\nthe better; but the Commander will sometimes issue a special permit\nand detail a responsible assistant to show them, so if you wish\nto see them you must prove to him that you have a head above your\nshoulders and are worthy of such a great favor.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 32--Antique Clock, Entirely Hand-Made]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 33--Antique Clock, Entirely Hand-Made]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 34--Triple-Case Turkish Watches]\n\nThe best thing the young student could do at this point would be\nto grasp the remarkable fact that the clock is not an old machine,\nsince it covers only the comparatively short period from 1364 to the\npresent day. Compared with the period of man's history and inventions\nit is of yesterday. Strictly speaking, as we use the word clock, its\nage from De Vick to the modern astronomical is only about 540 years.\nIf we take the year 1660, we find that it represents the center of\nmodern improvements in clocks, a few years before and after that date\nincludes the pendulum, the anchor and dead beat escapements, the\nminute and second hands, the circular balance and the hair spring,\nalong with minor improvements. Since the end of that period, which\nwe may make 1700, no fundamental invention has been added to clocks\nand watches. This becomes impressive when we remember that the last\n200 years have produced more inventions than all previous known\nhistory--but only minor improvements in clocks! The application\nof electricity for winding, driving, or regulating clocks is not\nfundamental, for the timekeeping is done by the master clock with\nits pendulum and wheels, just as by any grandfather's clock 200\nyears old. This broad survey of time measuring does not permit us to\ngo into minute mechanical details. Those wishing to follow up the\nsubject would require a large \"horological library\"--and Dr. Eliot's\nfive-foot shelf would be altogether too short to hold the books.\n\nA good idea of the old church clocks may be obtained from Fig.\n32 which is one of my valued antiques. Tradition has followed it\ndown as the \"English Blacksmith's Clock.\" It has the very earliest\napplication of the pendulum. The pendulum, which I have marked by a\nstar to enable the reader to find it, is less than 3 in. long and\nis hung on the verge, or pallet axle, and beats 222 per minute.\nThis clock may be safely put at 250 years old, and contains nothing\ninvented since that date. Wheels are cast brass and all teeth\nlaboriously filed out by hand. Pinions are solid with the axles, or\n\"staffs,\" and also filed out by hand. It is put together, generally\nby mortise, tenon and cotter, but it has four original screws all\nmade by hand with the file. How did he thread the holes for these\nscrews? Probably made a tap by hand as he made the screws. But the\nmost remarkable feature is the fact that no lathe was used in forming\nany part--all staffs, pinions and pivots being filed by hand. This is\nsimply extraordinary when it is pointed out that a little dead center\nlathe is the simplest machine in the world, and he could have made\none in less than a day and saved himself weeks of hard labor. It is\nprobable that he had great skill in hand work and that learning to\nuse a lathe would have been a great and tedious effort for him. So we\nhave a complete striking clock made by a man so poor that he had only\nhis anvil, hammer and file. The weights are hung on cords as thick\nas an ordinary lead pencil and pass over pulleys having spikes set\naround them to prevent the cords from slipping. The weights descend\n7 ft. in 12 hours, so they must be pulled up--not wound up--twice a\nday. The single hour hand is a work of art and is cut through like\nlace. Public clocks may still be seen in Europe with only one hand.\nMany have been puzzled by finding that old, rudely made clocks often\nhave fine dials, but this is not remarkable when we state that art\nand engraving had reached a high level before the days of clocks.\nIt is worthy of note that clocks in the early days were generally\nbuilt in the form of a church tower with the bell under the dome\nand Figs. 32, 33 show a good example. It is highly probable that the\nmaker of this clock had access to some old church clock--a wonderful\nmachine in those days--and that he laboriously copied it. It strikes\nthe hours, only, by the old \"count wheel\" or \"locking plate\" method.\nBetween this and our modern clocks appeared a type showing quarter\nhours on a small dial under the hour dial. No doubt this was at that\ntime a great advance and looked like cutting time up pretty fine. As\nthe hand on the quarter dial made the circuit in an hour the next\nstep was easy, by simply dividing the circle of quarters into sixty\nminutes. The old fellows who thought in hours must have given it up\nat this point, so the seconds and fifths seconds came easily.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 35--Triple-Case Turkish Watch]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 36--Double-Case Watch of Repouss\u00e9 Work]\n\nThe first watches, about 1500, had the foliot and verge escapement,\nand in some early attempts to govern the foliot a hog's bristle was\nused as a spring. By putting a ring around the ends of the foliot\nand adding the hair spring of Dr. Hooke, about 1640, we have the\nverge watches of our grandfathers. This balance wheel and hair spring\nstand today, but the \"lever\" escapement has taken the place of the\nverge. It is a modification of the dead beat, Fig. 29, by adding\na lever to the anchor, and this lever is acted on by the balance,\nhence the name \"lever watch.\" All this you can see by opening your\nwatch, so no detailed explanation is necessary. Figure 34 shows two\ntriple-cased Turkish watches with verge escapements, the one to the\nleft being shown partly opened in Fig. 35. The watch with its inner\ncase, including the glass, is shown to the right. This inner case\nis complete with two hinges and has a winding hole in the back. The\nupper case, of \"chased\" work, goes on next, and then the third, or\nouter case, covered with tortoise shell fastened with silver rivets,\ngoes on outside the other two. When all three cases are opened and\nlaid on the table, they look like a heap of oyster shells, but they\ngo easily together, forming the grand and dignified watch shown to\nthe left in Fig. 34. Oliver Cromwell wore an immense triple-case\nwatch of this kind, and the poor plebeians who were permitted to\nexamine such a magnificent instrument were favored!\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 37--Watches Showing Art Work]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 38--Watch Showing Dutch Art Work]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 39--Antique Watch Cock]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 40--\"Chinese\" Watch]\n\nOur boys' watches costing one dollar keep much better time than this\ntype of watch. Comparing the Syrian dial, Fig. 42, with that on\nFig. 35, it is evident that the strange hour numerals on both are a\nvariation of the same characters. These, so-called, \"Turkish watches\"\nwere made in Europe for the Eastern trade. First-class samples of\nthis triple-case type are getting scarce, but I have found four, two\nof them in Constantinople. Figure 36 shows the double-case style,\ncalled \"pair cases,\" the outer case thin silver, the figures and\nornaments being hammered and punched up from the inside and called\n\"repouss\u00e9.\" Before we leave the old watches, the question of art work\ndeserves notice, for it looks as if ornamentation and time-keeping\nvaried inversely in those days--the more art the worse the watch. I\npresume, as they could not make a good time-keeper at that date, the\nwatch-maker decided to give the buyer something of great size and\nstyle for his money. In Fig. 37 four old movements are shown, and\nthere is no doubt about the art, since the work is purely individual\nand no dies or templates used. In examining a large number of these\nwatches, I have never found the art work on any two of them alike.\nNote the grotesque faces in these, and in Fig. 39 which is a fine\nexample of pierced, engraved work. Figure 38 is a fine example of\npierced work with animals and flowers carved in relief. Figure 40\nis a \"Chinese\" watch but made in Europe for the Chinese market. In\nFig. 41 we have what remains of a quarter repeater with musical\nattachment. Each of the 24 straight gongs, commencing with the\nlongest one, goes a little nearer the center of the large wheel,\nso a circle of pins is set in the wheel for each gong, or note,\nand there is plenty of room for several tunes which the wearer can\nset off at pleasure. Figure 43 is a modern watch with Hebrew hour\nnumerals. Figure 44 is a modern 24-hour watch used on some railroads\nand steamship lines. I have a pretty clean-cut recollection of one\nevent in connection with the 24-hour system, as I left Messina\nbetween 18 and 19 o'clock on the night of the earthquake! Dials and\nhands constitute an important branch of the subject. The general\nfault of hands is that they are too much alike; in many instances\nthey are the same, excepting that the minute hand is a little longer\nthan the hour. The dial shown on the left of Fig. 24 was designed by\nme for a public clock and can be read twice as far away as the usual\ndial. Just why we should make the worst dials and hands for public\nclocks in the United States is more than I can find out, for there\nis no possible excuse, since the \"spade and pointer\" hands have been\nknown for generations. Figure 45 is offered as a properly designed\ndial for watches and domestic clocks, having flat-faced Gothic\nfigures of moderate height, leaving a clear center in the dial, and\nthe heavy \"spade\" hour hand reaching only to the inner edges of the\nfigures. For public clocks the Arabic numerals are the worst, for at\na distance they look like twelve thumb marks on the dial; while the\nflat-faced Roman remain distinct as twelve clear marks.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 41--Musical Watch, Repeating Hours and Quarters]\n\nDo you know that you do not read a public clock by the figures, but\nby the position of the hands? This was discovered long ago. Lord\nGrimthorp had one with twelve solid marks on the dial and also speaks\nof one at the Athen\u00e6um Club, both before 1860. The Philadelphia City\nHall clock has dials of this kind as shown on right side of Fig. 24.\nIt has also good hands and can be read at a great distance. Very few\npersons, even in Philadelphia, know that it has no hour numerals on\nits dials. Still further, there is no clock in the tower, the great\nhands being moved every minute by air pressure which is regulated by\na master clock set in a clock room down below where the walls are 10\nft. thick. Call and see this clock and you will find that the City\nHall officials sustain the good name of Philadelphia for politeness.\nGenerally, we give no attention to the hour numerals, even of our\nwatches, as the following proves. When you have taken out your watch\nand looked at the time, for yourself, and put it back in your pocket,\nand when a friend asks the time you take it out again to find the\ntime for him! Why? Because, for yourself, you did not read hours and\nminutes, but only got a mental impression from the position of the\nhands; so we only read hours and minutes when we are called on to\nproclaim the time.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 42--Syrian Dial]\n\nWe must find a little space for striking clocks. The simplest is one\nblow at each hour just to draw attention to the clock. Striking the\nhours and also one blow at each half hour as well as the quarter\ndouble blow, called \"ting tong\" quarters, are too well known to need\ndescription. The next stage after this is \"chiming quarters\" with\nthree or more musical gongs, or bells. One of the best strikers I\nhave has three trains, three weights and four bells. It strikes\nthe hour on a large bell and two minutes after the hour it strikes\nit again, so as to give you another chance to count correctly. At\nthe first quarter it repeats the last hour followed by a musical\nchord of three bells, which we will call _one triple blow_: at the\nsecond quarter the hour again and two triple blows and at the third\nquarter, the hour again and three triple blows. Suppose a sample\nhour's striking from four o'clock, this is what you hear, and there\ncan be no mistake. \"Four\" and in two minutes \"four\"--\"four and one\nquarter\"--\"four and two quarters\"--\"four and three quarters,\" and the\nsame for all other hours. This is definite, for the clock proclaims\nthe hour, or the hour and so much past. It can be set silent, but\nthat only stops it from striking automatically, and whether so set\nor not, it will repeat by pulling a cord. You awake in the night\nand pull the cord, and then in mellow musical tones, almost as if\nthe clock were speaking, you hear--\"four and two quarters.\" This I\nconsider a perfect striking clock. It is a large movement of fine\nworkmanship and was made in the department of the Jura, France.\nWhen a clock or watch only repeats, I consider the old \"five-minute\nrepeater\" the best. I used this method in a clock which, on pulling\nthe cord, strikes the hour on a large bell and if that is all it\nstrikes, then it is less than five minutes past. If more than five\nminutes past it follows the hour by one blow on a small bell for\nevery five minutes. This gives the time within five minutes. It is\nfully described and illustrated in \"Machinery,\" New York, for March,\n1905. Just one more. An old Dutch clock which I restored strikes the\nhour on a large bell; at the first quarter it strikes one blow on a\nsmall bell; at the half hour it strikes the last hour over again on\nthe small bell; at the third quarter it strikes one blow on the large\nbell. But this in spite of its great ingenuity, only gives definite\ninformation at the hour and half hour.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 43--Hebrew Numerals]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 44--24-Hour Watch]\n\nOf curious clocks there is no end, so I shall just refer to one\ninvented by William Congreve, an Englishman, over one hundred years\nago, and often coming up since as something new. A plate about 8 in.\nlong and 4 in. wide has a long zigzag groove crosswise. This plate\nis pivoted at its center so either end can be tipped up a little.\nA ball smaller than a boy's marble will roll back and forth across\nthis plate till it reaches the lower end, at which point it strikes\na click and the mainspring of the clock tips the plate the other way\nand the ball comes slowly back again till it strikes the disk at the\nother end of the plate, etc. Every time the plate tips, the hands\nare moved a little just like the remontoir clock already described.\nClocks of this kind are often used for deceptive purposes and those\nignorant of mechanics are deceived into the belief that they see\nperpetual motion. The extent to which modern machine builders are\nindebted to the inventions of the ancient clock-maker, I think, has\nnever been appreciated.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 45--Domestic Dial by James Arthur]\n\nIn its earlier stages the clock was almost the only machine\ncontaining toothed gearing, and the \"clock tooth\" is still necessary\nin our delicate machines. It is entirely different from our standard\ngear tooth as used in heavy machines. The clock-makers led for a\nlong time in working steel for tools, springs and wearing surfaces.\nThey also made investigations in friction, bearings, oils, etc.,\netc. Any one restoring old clocks for amusement and pleasure will\nbe astonished at the high-class mechanics displayed in them--nearly\nalways by unknown inventors. Here is an example: The old clock-maker\nfound that when he wished to drill a hole in a piece of thick wire\nso as to make a short tube of it, he could only get the hole central\nand straight by rotating the piece and holding the drill stationary.\nBy this method the drill tends to follow the center line of\nrotation; and our great guns as well as our small rifles are bored\njust that way to get bores which will shoot straight. The fourth and\nlast chapter will deal with the astronomical motions on which our\ntime-keeping is founded, our present hour zones of time, and close\nwith suggestions for a universal time system over the whole world.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nASTRONOMICAL FOUNDATION OF TIME\n\n Astronomical motions on which our time is founded. -- Reasons\n for selecting the sidereal day as a basis for our 24-hour\n day. -- Year of the seasons shorter than the zodiacal year. --\n Precession of the equinoxes. -- Earth's rotation most uniform\n motion known to us. -- Time Stars and Transits. -- Local time.\n -- The date line. -- Standard time. -- Beginning and ending of\n a day. -- Proposed universal time. -- Clock dial for universal\n time and its application to business. -- Next great improvement\n in clocks and watches indicated. -- Automatic recording of\n the earth's rotation. -- Year of the seasons as a unit for\n astronomers. -- General conclusions.\n\n\nThe mystery of time encloses all things in its folds, and our grasp\nof its infinite bearings is measured by our limitations. As there\nare no isolated facts in the Universe, we can never get to the end\nof our subject; so we know only what we have capacity to absorb.\nIn considering the foundation on which all our time measuring\nis based, we are led into the fringe of that Elysian field of\nscience--astronomy. A science more poetical than poetry--more charming\nthan the optimistic phantasies of youth. That science which leaves\nour imagination helpless; for its facts are more wonderful than our\nextremest mental flights. The science of vastness and interminable\ndistances which our puny figures fail to express. \"The stars sang\ntogether for joy,\" might almost be placed in the category of facts;\nwhile the music of the spheres may now be considered a mathematical\nreality. Our time keeping is inevitably associated with these\nmotions, and we must select one which has periods not too long. That\nis, no _continuous_ motion could be used, unless it passed some\nspecies of milestones which we could observe. Consequently, our\nclocks do not--in the strict sense--measure time; but are adjusted\nto _divide_ periods which they do not determine. We are constantly\ncorrecting their errors and never entirely succeed in getting them\nto run accurately to _periods of time_ which exist entirely outside\nof such little things as men and clocks. So a clock is better as it\napproximates or bears a regular _relation_ to some motion in nature.\nThe sidereal clock of the astronomer _does_ run to a regular motion;\nbut our 24-hour clocks _do not_, as we shall see later. Now consider\nthe year, or the sun's apparent motion in the Zodiac, from any given\nstar around to the same one again. This is altogether too long to be\ndivided by clocks, as we cannot make a clock which could be depended\non for anywhere near a year. The next shorter period is that of a\n\"moon.\" This is also a little too long, is not easily observed, and\nrequires all sorts of corrections. Observations of the moon at sea\nare so difficult and subject to error that mariners use them only\nas a last resort. If a little freedom of language is permissible, I\nwould say that the moon has a bad character all around, largely on\naccount of her long association with superstition, false theology\nand heathen feasts. She has not purged herself even to this day!\nThe ancients were probably right when they called erratic and\nill-balanced persons \"luny.\" Now we come to the day and find that it\nis about the right practical length--but what kind of a day? As there\nare five kinds we ought to be able to select one good enough. They\nare:--\n\n 1st. The solar day, or noon to noon by the sun.\n\n 2nd. An imaginary sun moving uniformly in the ecliptic.\n\n 3rd. A second imaginary sun moving uniformly parallel to the\n equator at all seasons of the year.\n\n 4th. One absolute rotation of the earth.\n\n 5th. One rotation of the earth measured from the node, or\n point, of the spring equinox.\n\nThe difference between 1st and 2nd is that part of the sun's error\ndue to the elliptical orbit of the earth.\n\nThe other part of the sun's error--and the larger--between 2nd and 3rd\nis that due to the obliquity of the ecliptic to the equator.\n\nThe whole error between 1st and 3rd is the \"equation of time\" as\nshown for even minutes in the first chapter under the heading, \"Sun\non Noon Mark 1909.\"\n\nStated simply, for our present purpose, 1st is sundial time, and 3rd\nour 24-hour clock time.\n\nThis 2nd day is therefore a refinement of the astronomers to\nseparate the two principal causes of the sun's error, and I think we\nought to handle it cautiously, or my friend, Professor Todd, might\nrap us over the knuckles for being presumptuous.\n\nThis 5th day is the sidereal day of the astronomers and is the basis\nof our time, so it is entitled to a little attention. I shall confine\n\"sidereal day\" to this 5th to avoid confusion with 4th. If you will\nextend the plane of the equator into the star sphere, you have the\ncelestial equator. When the center of the sun passes through this\nplane on his journey north, in the Spring, we say, \"the sun has\ncrossed the line.\" This is a distant point in the Zodiac which can\nbe determined for any given year by reference to the fixed stars. To\navoid technicalities as much as possible we will call it the point\nof the Spring equinox. This is really the point which determines\nthe common year, or year of the seasons. Using popular language,\nthe seasons are marked by four points,--Spring equinox--longest day--;\nAutumnal equinox--shortest day. This would be very simple if the\nequinoctial points would stay in the same places in the star sphere;\nbut we find that they creep westward each year to the extent of 50\nseconds of arc in the great celestial circle of the Zodiac. This is\ncalled the precession of the equinoxes. The year is measured from\nSpring equinox to Spring equinox again; but each year it comes 50\nseconds of arc less than a full revolution of the earth around the\nsun. Therefore _if we measured our year by a full revolution_ we\nwould displace the months with reference to the seasons till the\nhot weather would come in January and the cold weather in July in\nabout 13,000 years; or a complete revolution of the seasons back to\nwhere we are, in 26,000 years. Leaving out fractions to make the\nillustration plain, we have:--\n\n (1) 360 degrees of Zodiac                  }\n     ---------------------   = 26,000 years }\n       50 seconds of arc                    }\n                                            }\n (2) 1 day of time                          }\n     -------------           = 26,000 years }\n     3-1/3 seconds                          }     All\n                                            } Approximate\n (3) 1 year of time                         }\n     --------------          = 26,000 years }\n     20-1/3 minutes                         }\n                                            }\n (4) 3-1/3 seconds                          }\n     -------------       = 1/110 of a second}\n     days in a year                         }\n\nIn (1) we see that a \"precession\" of 50 seconds of arc will bring the\nSpring equinox around in 26,000 years.\n\nIn (2) we see, as 50 seconds of arc represents the distance the earth\nwill rotate in 3-1/3 seconds, a difference of one day will result\nin 26,000 years. That is since the clock regulated by the stars, or\nabsolute rotations of the earth, would get behind 3-1/3 seconds per\nyear, it would be behind a day in 26,000 years, as compared with a\nsidereal clock regulated by the Spring equinoctial point.\n\nIn (3) we see that as 50 seconds of arc is traversed by the earth, in\nits annual revolution, in 20-1/3 minutes, a complete circle of the\nZodiac will be made in 26,000 years.\n\nIn (4) we see that as the difference between the year of the seasons\nand the Zodiacal year is 3-1/3 seconds of the earth's rotation, it\nfollows that if this is divided by the number of days in a year\nwe have the amount which a sidereal day is less than 4th, or an\nabsolute rotation of the earth. That is, any meridian passes the\nSpring equinoctial point 1/110 of a second sooner than the time of\none absolute rotation. These four equations are all founded on the\nprecession of the equinoxes, and are simply different methods of\nstating it. Absolutely and finally, our time is regulated by the\nearth's rotation; but strange as it may appear, we do not take one\nrotation as a unit. As shown above, we take a rotation to a _movable\npoint_ which creeps the 1/110 of a second daily. But after all, it is\nthe _uniform_ rotation which governs. This is the one \"dependable\"\nmotion which has not been found variable, and is the most easily\nobserved. When we remember that the earth is not far from being as\nheavy as a ball of iron, and that its surface velocity at the equator\nis about 17 miles per minute, it is easy to form a conception of its\nuniform motion. Against this, however, we may place the friction\nof the tides, forcing up of mountain ranges, as well as mining and\nbuilding skyscrapers--all tending to slow it. Mathematicians moving in\nthe ethereal regions of astronomy lead us to conclude that it _must_\nbecome gradually slower, and that _it is_ slowing; but the amount may\nbe considered a vanishing quantity even compared with the smallest\nerrors of our finest clocks; so for uncounted generations past--and to\ncome--we may consider the earth's rotation uniform. Having now found\na uniform motion easily observed and of convenient period, why not\nadopt it as our time unit? The answer has been partially given above\nin the fact that we are compelled to use a year, measured from the\nSpring equinoctial point, so as to keep our seasons in order; and\ntherefore as we must have some point where the sidereal clocks and\nthe meantime clocks coincide, we take the same point, and that point\nis the Spring equinox. Now we have three days:--\n\n 1st. A sidereal day 1/110 of a second less than one rotation of\n the earth.\n\n 2nd. One rotation of the earth in 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4\n seconds, nearly, of clock time.\n\n 3rd. One mean time clock day of 24 hours, which has been explained\n previously.\n\nNow, isn't it remarkable that our 24-hour day is purely artificial,\nand that nothing in nature corresponds to it? Our real day of 24\nhours is a _theoretical_ day. Still more remarkable, this theoretical\nday is the unit by which we express motions in the solar system. A\nlunar month is days--hours--minutes--and seconds of this theoretical\nday, and so for planetary motions. And still more remarkable, the\nearth's rotation which is _itself_ the foundation is expressed in\nthis imaginary time! This looks like involution involved, yet our\n24-hour day is as real as reality; and the man has not yet spoken who\ncan tell whether a mathematical conception, sustained in practical\nlife, is less real than a physical fact. Our legal day of practical\nlife is therefore deduced from the day of a fraction _less_ than one\nearth rotation. In practice, however, the small difference between\nthis and a rotation is often ignored, because as the tenth of a\nsecond is about as near as observations can be made it is evident\nthat for single observations 1/110 of a second does not count, but\nfor a whole year it does, and amounts to 3-1/3 seconds. Now as to\nthe setting of our clocks. While the time measured by the point of\nthe Spring equinox is what we must find it is found by noting the\ntransits of fixed stars, because _the relation_ of star time to\nequinoctial time is known and tabulated. Remember we cannot take\na transit of the equinoctial point, because there is nothing to\nsee, and that _nothing_ is moving! But it can be observed yearly\nand astronomers can tell where it is, at any time of the year, by\ncalculation. The stars which are preferred for observation are\ncalled \"time stars\" and are selected as near the celestial equator\nas possible. The earth's axis has a little wabbling motion called\n\"nutation\" which influences the _apparent_ motion of the stars near\nthe pole; but this motion almost disappears as they come near the\nequator, because nutation gives the plane of the equator only a\nlittle \"swashplate\" motion. The positions of a number of \"time stars\"\nwith reference to the equinoctial point, are known, and these are\nobserved and the observations averaged. The distance of any time\nstar from the equinoctial point, _in time_, is called its \"right\nascension.\" Astronomers claim an accuracy to the twentieth part of\na second when such transits are carefully taken, but over a long\nperiod, greater exactness is obtained. Really, the time at which any\ngiven star passes the meridian is taken, _in practical life_, from\nastronomical tables in the Nautical Almanacs. Those tables are the\nresult of the labors of generations of mathematicians, are constantly\nsubject to correction, and cannot be made simple. Remember, the\nEarth's rotation is the only uniform motion, all the others being\nsubject to variations and even compound variations. This very subject\nis the best example of the broad fact that science is a constant\nseries of approximations; therefore, nothing is exact, and nothing\nis permanent but change. But you say that mathematics is an exact\nscience. Yes, but it is a _logical abstraction_, and is therefore\nonly the universal solvent in physical science.\n\nWith our imaginary--but real--time unit of 24 hours we are now ready\nto consider \"local time.\" Keeping the above explanation in mind, we\nmay use the usual language and speak of the earth rotating in 24\nhours clock time; and since motion is relative, it is permissible to\nspeak of the motion of the sun. In the matter of the sun's apparent\nmotion we are compelled to speak of his \"rising,\" \"setting,\" etc.,\nbecause language to express the motion in terms of the earth's\nrotation has not been invented yet. For these reasons we will assume\nthat in Fig. 47 the sun is moving as per large arrow and also that\nthe annulus, half black and half white, giving the 24 hours, is\nfastened to the sun by a rigid bar, as shown, and moves around the\nearth along with him. In such illustrations the sun must always be\nmade small in proportion, but this rather tends to plainness. For\nsimplicity, we assume that the illustration represents an equinox\nwhen the sun is on the celestial equator. Imagine your eye in the\ncenter of the sun's face at A, and you would be looking on the\nmeridian of Greenwich at 12 noon; then in one hour you would be\nlooking on 15\u00b0 west at 12 noon; but this would bring 13 o'clock to\nGreenwich. Continue till you look down on New York at 12 noon, then\nit is 17 o'clock at Greenwich (leaving out fractions for simplicity)\netc. If you will make a simple drawing like Fig. 47 and cut the\nearth separate, just around the inside of the annulus, and stick a\npin at the North Pole for a center, you may rotate the earth as per\nsmall arrow and get the actual motion, but the result will be just\nthe same as if you went by the big arrow. We thus see that every\ninstant of the 24 hours is represented, at some point, on the earth.\nThat is, the earth has an infinity of local times; so it has every\nconceivable instant of the 24 hours at some place on the circle.\nSuppose we set up 1,410 clocks at uniform distances on the equator,\nthen they would be about 17 miles apart and differ by minutes. Now\nmake it 86,400 clocks, they would be 1,500 feet apart and differ by\nseconds. With 864,000 clocks they would be 150 feet apart and vary\nby tenths of seconds. It is useless to extend this, since you could\nalways imagine more clocks in the circle; thus establishing the\nfact that there are an infinity of times at an infinity of places\nalways on the earth. It is necessary to ask a little patience here\nas I shall use this local time and its failure later in our talk.\nStrictly, local time has never been used, because it has been found\nimpracticable in the affairs of life. This will be plain when we draw\nattention to the uniform time of London, which is Greenwich time; yet\nthe British Museum is 30 seconds slow of Greenwich, and other places\nin London even more. This is railroad time for Great Britain; but\nit is 20 minutes too fast for the west of England. This led to no\nend of confusion and clocks were often seen with two minute hands,\none to local and the other to railroad time. This mixed up method\nwas followed by \"standard time,\" with which we are all pretty well\nacquainted. Simply, standard time consists in a uniform time for each\n15\u00b0 of longitude, but this is theoretical to the extreme, and is not\neven approached in practice. The first zone commences at Greenwich\nand as that is near the eastern edge of the British Islands, their\nsingle zone time is fast at nearly all places, especially the west\ncoast of Ireland. When we follow these zones over to the United\nStates we find an attempt to make the middle of each zone correct to\nlocal time, so at the hour jumping points, we pass from half an hour\nslow to half an hour fast, or the reverse. We thus see that towns\nabout the middle of these four United States zones have sunrise and\nsunset and their local day correct, but those at the eastern and\nwestern edges average half an hour wrong. As a consequence of this\ndisturbance of the working hours depending on the light of the day,\nmany places keep two sets of clocks and great confusion results. Even\nthis is comprehensible; but it is a mere fraction of the trouble\nand complication, because the hour zones are not separated by\nmeridians in practice, but by zig-zag lines of great irregularity.\nLook at a time map of the United States and you will see the zones\ndivided by lines of the wildest irregularity. Now question one of\nthe brightest \"scientific chaps\" you can find in one of the great\nrailroad offices whose lines touch, or enter, Canada and Mexico.\nPlease do not tell me what he said to you! So great is the confusion\nthat no man understands it all. The amount of wealth destroyed in\nprinting time tables, _and failing to explain them_, is immense. The\namount of human life destroyed by premature death, as a result of\nwear and tear of brain cells is too sad to contemplate. And all by\nattempting the impossible; for local time, _even if it was reduced to\nhourly periods_ is not compatible with any continental system of time\nand matters can only get worse while the attempt continues. For the\npresent, banish this zone system from your mind and let us consider\nthe beginning and ending of a day, using strictly local time.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 47--Local Time--Standard Time--Beginning and\nEnding of the Day]\n\nA civil, or legal, day ends at the instant of 24 o'clock, midnight,\nand the next day commences. The time is continuous, the last instant\nof a day touching the first instant of the next. This is true for\nall parts of the earth; but something _in addition_ to this happens\nat a certain meridian called the \"date line.\" Refer again to Fig. 47\nwhich is drawn with 24 meridians representing hours. As we are taking\nGreenwich for our time, the meridians are numbered from 0\u00b0, on which\nthe observatory of Greenwich stands. When you visit Greenwich you\ncan have the pleasure of putting your foot on \"the first meridian,\"\nas it is cut plainly across the pavement. Degrees of longitude are\nnumbered east and west, meeting just opposite at 180\u00b0, which is\nthe \"date line.\" Our day begins at this line, so far as _dates_ are\nconcerned; but the _local day_ begins everywhere at midnight. Let\nus start to go around the world from the date line, westward. When\nwe arrive at 90\u00b0 we are one quarter around and it takes the sun 6\nhours longer to reach us. At 0\u00b0 (Greenwich) we are half around and\n12 hours ahead of the sun motion. At 90\u00b0 west, three quarters, or 18\nhours, and when back to 180\u00b0 we have _added_ to the length of all\ndays of our journey enough to make one day; therefore our date must\nbe one day behind. Try this example to change the wording:--Let us\nstart from an island B, just west of the date line. These islanders\nhave their 24-hour days, commencing at midnight, like all other\nplaces. As we move westward our day commences later and later than\ntheirs, as shown above. Suppose we arrive at the eastern edge of\nthe 180\u00b0 line on Saturday at 12 o'clock, but before we cross it we\ncall over to the islanders,--what day is it? We would get answer,\n\"Sunday;\" because all our days have been longer, totalling one day in\nthe circuit of the globe. So if we step over the line at 12 o clock\nSaturday, presto, it is 12 o'clock Sunday. It looks like throwing out\n24 hours, but this is not so, since we have lived exactly the same\nnumber of hours and seconds as the islanders. In this supposition\nwe have all the _dates_, however, but have jumped half of Saturday\nand half of Sunday, which equals one day. In practice this would not\nhave been the method, for if the ship was to call at the island, the\ncaptain would have changed date on Friday night and thrown Saturday\nout, all in one piece, and would have arrived on their Sunday; so\nhis log for that week would have contained only 6 days. It is not\nnecessary to go over the same ground for a circuit of the globe\neastward, but if you do so you will find that you _shorten_ your days\nand on arriving at the date line would have a day too much; so in\nthis case you would _double_ a date and have 8 days in that week. In\nboth cases this is caused by compounding your motion with that of the\nsun; going with him westward and lengthening your days, or eastward\nmeeting him and shortening them. Figure 47 shows Greenwich noon, we\nwill say on Monday, and at that instant, Monday only, exists from 0\nto 24 o'clock on the earth; but the next instant, Tuesday begins at\n180\u00b0 B. In one hour it is noon of Monday at 15\u00b0 West, and midnight\nat 165\u00b0 East; so Tuesday is one hour old and there is left 23 hours\nof Monday. Monday steadily declines to 0 as Tuesday steadily grows\nto 24 hours; so that, except at the instant of Greenwich noon, there\nare always two days on the world at once. If we said that there are\n_always_ two days on the world at once, we could not be contradicted;\nsince there is no conceivable time between Monday and Tuesday; it\nis an instantaneous change. As we cannot conceive of _no time_,\nthe statement that there is only one day on the earth at Greenwich\nnoon is not strictly permissible. Since there are always two days\non the world at once let us suppose that these two are December\n31st and January 1st; then we have _two years_ on the world at once\nfor a period of 24 hours. Nine years ago we had the 19th and 20th\ncenturies on the world at once, etc. As a mental exercise, you may\ncarry this as far as you please. Suppose there was an impassable sea\nwall built on the 180\u00b0 meridian, then there would be two days on the\nworld, just as explained above; but, _practically_, there would be\nno date line, since in sailing west to this wall we would \"lengthen\nour days,\" and then shorten them the same amount coming around east\nto the other side of the wall, but would never jump or double a date.\nThis explanation is founded, as it ought to be, on uniform local\ntime, and is the simplest I can give. The date line is fundamentally\nsimple, but is difficult to explain. When it is complicated by the\nstandard time--or jumping hour system--and also with the fact that\nsome islands count their dates from the wrong side of the line for\ntheir longitudes, scientific paradoxes arise, such as having three\ndates on the world at once, etc.; but as these things are of no more\nvalue than wasting time solving Chinese puzzles, they are left out.\nShips change date on the nearest night to the date line; but if they\nare to call at some island port in the Pacific, they may change\neither sooner or later to correspond with its date. Here is a little\nIrish date line wit printed for the first time,--I was telling my\nbright friend about turning in on Saturday night and getting up for\nbreakfast on Monday morning. \"Oh,\" said he, \"I have known gentlemen\nto do as good as that without leaving New York City!\"\n\nAs what is to follow relates to the growing difficulties of local\ntime and a proposed method of overcoming them, let us recapitulate:--\n\n 1st. Local time has never been kept, and the difficulties of\n using it have increased as man advanced, reaching a climax of\n absurdity on the advent of the railroad; so it broke down and\n became impractical.\n\n 2nd. To make the irregular disorder of local time an orderly\n confusion, the \"standard time\"--jumping by hours--has helped a\n little, but only because we can tell how much it is wrong at\n any given place. This is its only advantage over the first\n method, where we had no means of knowing what to expect on\n entering any new territory. That is, we have improved things by\n throwing out local time to the extent of an hour.\n\nMy proposal is to throw local time out _totally_ and establish one,\ninvariable, _universal time_. Greenwich time being most in use now,\nand meridians numbered from it, may be taken in preference to any\nother. Still another reason is that the most important timekeepers in\nmodern life--ship's chronometers--are set to Greenwich time. Universal\ntime--no local time--only local day and night. Our 24-hour system is\nall right, so do not disturb it, as it gets rid of A.M. and P.M. and\nmakes the day our unit of time. Our railroad time now throws out\nlocal time to the extent of one hour; but I propose to throw it out\nentirely and never change the clock hands from Greenwich time. The\nchronometers do that now, so let us conduct all business to that time.\n\nNow refer to Fig. 46, in which Greenwich is taken as universal time.\nThe annulus, half white and half black, indicates the average day and\nnight, and is a separate ring in the dial which can be set so that\n\"noon\" is on the meridian of the place, as shown for four places in\nthe illustration. It is the same dial in all four cases set to local\nday and night. Strictly, the local time conception is dropped and the\nlocal day left for regulating working and sleeping time. All business\nwould have the same time. In traveling east we would not have the\nshort hours; or west, the long hours. All clocks and watches would\nshow the same time as ship's chronometers do now. The only change\nwould be the names of the hours for the parts of the local day.\nThis is just the difficulty, for we are so accustomed to _associate_\na certain number, as seven, with the morning and breakfast time.\nSuppose breakfast time in London is 7 o'clock, then according to the\nlocal day it would be 12 o'clock breakfast time in New York; but in\nboth cases it would be the same time with reference to the _local\ndaylight_. Let it be distinctly understood that our association of\n_12 o'clock_ with _noon_ is not necessary. The Japanese called it\n\"horse\" and \"nine\"--the ancient Romans, the New Testament writers,\nand the Turks called it the \"sixth hour\"--the astronomers now call it\n24 o'clock, and the Chinese represent it by several characters; but,\nin all cases, it is simply the middle of the day at any place. By\nthe proposed universal time, morning, noon, and evening would be--_at\nany given place_--the same hours. There would be no necessity of\nestablishing legal noon with exactness to the meridian, because that\nwould only regulate labor, meals, etc., and would not touch universal\ntime. This is an important part of the proposal and is worth\nelaborating a little. Sections in manufacturing districts could make\ntheir working hours correspond at pleasure and no confusion would\nresult. That is, local working hours to convenience but by the same\nuniversal time. Note how perfectly this would work in traveling,--you\narrive in Chicago from the effete east and your watch corresponds\nall along with the railroad clocks. As you leave the station you\nglance up at the clock and see that Chicago noon is 17.30, so you\nset the day and night ring of your watch to match the same ring on\nthe clock, but no disturbance of the hands. As you register at the\nhotel you ask,--dinner? and get answer, 24.30--then breakfast, 12.30.\nThese questions are necessary now, so I do not add complication\nhere. When you arrive in a strange city you must ask about meals,\nbusiness hours, theater hours, \"doors open\" hours, etc., etc.; so\nall this remains the same. Let us put the matter forcibly,--while we\ncount days, or _dates_, _something_ must vary with east and west;\nI propose the fixing of hours for business and sleep to suit each\nlocality, but an invariable time. Get rid of the idea that a certain\nnumber, as 7 o'clock, represents the age of the day _at all places_.\nSee how this would wipe out the silly proposal to \"save daylight\"\nby setting the clock back and forward. Suppose workmen commenced at\n12.30 in New York; for the long summer days make it 11.30, but no\nchange in universal time. As this is the only difference from our\npresent time system, keep the central conception, firmly,--universal\ntime--local day and night.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 46--Universal Time Dial Set for Four Places]\n\nSuppose Chicago decided that \"early to bed and early to rise\" was\ndesirable; then it could establish its legal noon as 17.30, which\nwould be about 20 minutes early for its meridian. You could do\nbusiness with Chicago for a lifetime and not find this out, unless\nyou looked up the meridian of Chicago and found that it was 17.50\no'clock. None of the railroads or steamship lines of the city would\nneed to know this, except as a matter of scientific curiosity,\nfor the time tables would all be printed in universal time. For\nhiring labor, receiving and delivering goods, etc., they would\nonly need to know Chicago _business hours_. To state the matter in\ndifferent words,--Chicago would only need to decide what portion of\nthe universal 24 hours would suit it best for its day and which\nfor its night, and if it decided, as supposed above, to place its\nworking day forward a little to give some daylight after labor,\nnothing would be disturbed and only the scientific would ever\nknow. Certainly, \"save daylight,\" but do not make a fool of the\nclock! Having shown the great liberty which localities could take\nwithout touching the working of the system, the same remarks apply\nto ultra-scientific localities. A city might establish its noon to\nthe instant; so it is possible--even if a little improbable--that\nthe brilliant and scientific aldermen of New York might appoint\na commission with proper campfollowers and instrument bearers to\ndetermine the longitude of the city to the Nth of a second and tell\nus where we \"are at.\" The glory of this achievement--and especially\nits total cost--would be all our own and incorruptible time would be\nuntouched! We thus see that great local freedom and great accuracy\nare alike possible. With our present system, accuracy in local time\nis impracticable and has never even been attempted, and is confusion\nconfused since we added the railroad hour jumps. Why did we nurse\nthis confusion till it has become almost intolerable? Because man\nhas always been a slave to _mental associations, and habits_.\nPrimitive man divided the local day into parts and gave them names\nand this mental attitude sticks to us after it has served its day.\nThe advantages of universal time could hardly be enumerated, yet we\ncan have them all by dropping our childish association of 7 o'clock\nwith breakfast time! Another example,--you visit a friend for a few\ndays and on retiring the first night you ask \"what is your breakfast\nhour\"--\"8 o'clock.\" You have to ask this question and recollect the\nanswer. Now tell me what difference it would make if the answer had\nbeen 13 o'clock? None whatever, unless, perhaps, that is, you do not\nlike thirteen! You ask, how about ships? Ships now carry universal\ntime and only change the clock on deck to please the simple minded\npassengers. How about the date line? No change whatever, so long\nas we use _dates_ which means numbering local days. It is useless\nmultiplying examples; all difficulties disappear, as if by magic, the\nmoment we can free our minds of local time and the association of\nthe _same hour_ with the _same portion_ of the day at _all places_.\nThe great interest at present manifested in the attempts to reach\nthe North Pole calls for some consideration of universal time in\nthe extreme north. Commencing at the equator, it is easy to see\nthat the day and night ring, Fig. 46, would represent the days and\nnights of 12 hours at all seasons. As we go north, however, this\nring represents the _average_ day and night. When we reach the Polar\nCircle, still going north, the _daily_ rising and setting of the sun\ngradually ceases till we reach the great one-year day at the Pole,\nconsisting of six months darkness and six months light. Let us now\nassume that an astronomical observatory is established here and the\ngreat equatorial placed precisely on the pole. At this point, _local\ntime_, _day and night_, and _the date line_, almost cease to have\na meaning. For this very reason universal time would be the only\npractical method; therefore, it _more_ than stands the test of being\ncarried to the extreme. Universal time would regulate working and\nsleeping here the same as at all other places. Strictly local time in\nthis observatory would be an absurdity, because in walking around the\ntelescope (pole) you would be in all instants of the 24 hours within\nfive seconds! At the pole the day would commence at the same instant\nas at some assumed place, and the day and night ring would represent\nworking and sleeping as at that place. Suppose this observatory to\nbe in telegraphic communication with New York, then it would be\nbest for the attendants to set their day and night to New York, so\nas to correspond with its business hours. Many curious suppositions\nmight be made about this polar observatory with its \"great night\"\nand equally \"great day.\" It is evident that to keep count of itself\nit would be compelled to note _dates_ and 24-hour _days_ to keep in\ntouch with us; so it would be forced to adopt the local day of some\nplace like New York. This choice would be free, because a polar\nobservatory would stand on all the meridians of the earth at once.\n\nWe are now in a position to consider the next possible--and even\nprobable--improvement in our clocks and watches. To minimize the\nnext step it might be well to see what we can do now. Clocks are\noften regulated by electric impulses over wires. Electricians inform\nme that they can do this by wireless; but that owing to the rapid\nattenuation of the impulses it cannot be done commercially, over\ngreat distances. In the history of invention the first step was _to\ndo something_ and then find a way of doing it cheaply enough for\ngeneral use. So far as I know, the watch in the wearer's pocket has\nnot yet been regulated by wireless; but I am willing to risk the\nstatement that the editor of Popular Mechanics can name more than one\nelectrician who can do this. A watch to take these impulses might be\nlarger than our present watches, but it would not stay larger and\nwould ultimately become much smaller. You know what has happened\nsince the days of the big \"onions\" described in the third chapter.\nFig. 34; so get your electric watch and make it smaller at your\nleisure. We have made many things commercially practicable, which\nlooked more revolutionary than this. Now throw out the mainspring,\nwheels, pinions, etc., of our watches and reduce the machinery part\nto little more than dial and hands and do the driving by wireless,\nsay, once every minute. I feel certain that I am restraining the\nscientific imagination in saying that the man lives among us who can\ndo this. I repeat, that we now possess the elementary knowledge--which\nif collated and applied--would produce such a watch.\n\nNow I have a big question to ask--the central note of interrogation\nin this little scientific conversation with you,--does the man\nlive who can make the earth automatically record its rotation?\nDo not be alarmed, for I am prepared to make a guess as to this\npossibility. A _direct_ mechanical record of the earth's rotation\nseems hopeless, but let us see what can be done. You are aware\nthat some of the fixed stars have a distinct spectrum. It is not\nunreasonable to suppose that an instrument could be made to record\nthe passage of such a star over the meridian. Ah, but you say, there\nis no mechanical force in this. Do not hurry, for we have long been\nacquainted with the fact that things which, apparently, have no\nforce can be made to liberate something which manifests mechanical\nforce. We could now start or stop the greatest steam engine by a\ngleam of sunlight, and some day we might be able to do as much by the\nlately discovered pressure of light. That is, we can now liberate\nthe greatest forces by the most infinitesimal, by steps; the little\nforce liberating one greater than itself, and that one another still\ngreater. A good example is the stopping of an electric train, from a\ndistance, by wireless. The standard clock in Philadelphia, previously\nreferred to, is a delicate instrument and its most delicate part,\nhaving the least force, moves a little valve every minute, and by\nseveral steps liberates the air pressure, 200 feet higher in the\ntower, to move the four sets of great hands. I am not traveling\nbeyond the record when I say that the invisible actinic rays could be\nused to liberate a great force; therefore what is there unreasonable\nin the supposition that the displacement of the sodium line in the\nspectrum of a star might be made to record the earth's rotation? So\nI say to the electrician--the optician--the photographer--the chemist\nand the mechanic.--get together and produce this watch. Permit me,\nwith conventional and intentional modesty, to name the new timepiece\n_Chroncosmic_. For pocket use, it would be _Cosmic watch_. In the\nfirst chapter I allowed to the year 2,000 for the production of this\nwatch, but it is likely we will not need to wait so long.\n\nHaving stated my proposal for universal time as fully as space will\npermit and given my guess as to the coming cosmic watch, let us in\nthis closing paragraph indulge in a little mental exercise. Suppose\nwe copy the old time lecturer on astronomy and \"allow our minds to\npenetrate into space.\" Blessed be his memory, he was a doer of good.\nHow impressive as he repeatedly dropped his wooden pointer, and lo!\nIt always moved straight to the floor; thus triumphantly vindicating\nuniversal gravitation!!!\n\nWe can think of a time system which would discard months, weeks and\ndays. What is the meaning of the financial almanac in which the\ndays are numbered from 1 to 365 or 366? Simply a step in the right\ndirection, _away from the months and weeks_, so that the distance\nbetween any two dates may be seen at a glance. We would really be\nbetter without months and weeks. Now let us consider the year of\nthe seasons as a unit--long since proposed by the astronomers--and\ndivide it into 3,000 chrons. Clocks regulated by star transits, as\nat present, would divide this decimally, the fourth place being near\nenough to make the new pendulums of convenient length. This would\nthrow out months, weeks and days, local time and the date line.\nEach of these chrons would represent the same time in the year,\npermanently. For example, 464.6731 would mark to a _dixmilliemechron_\n(a little more than one second) the point reached in the year; while\nthe date does not, as I have shown in the first chapter. But you\nstill object that this is a great number of figures to use in fixing\na point in the year. Let us see what it takes to fix a point in the\nyear now, _August 24th, 11-16-32 P. M., New York standard time_. A\npretty long story, but it does not fix the point of the year even\nthen; for it would require the assistance of an astronomer to fix\nsuch a point in _any given_ year, say 1909. But 464.6731 would be\neternally right in _absolute time_ of the seasons, and has only one\nmeaning, with no qualifications for any year whatever. I believe\nthe astronomers should use a method something like this. Ah, but\nthere is a difficulty in applying this to the affairs of daily life\nwhich looks insurmountable. This is caused by the fact that the\n_day_ and _year_ are incommeasurable. One of them cannot be exactly\nexpressed in terms of the other. They are like the diagonal and side\nof a square. The day is now the unit and therefore the year has an\ninterminable fraction; conversely, if we make the year the unit, then\nthe day becomes an endless fraction. This brings us face to face with\nthe local day which we ignored in our scientific year unit. We _must_\nregulate our labors, in this world, to day and night and, with the\nyear unit, the chrons would bear no fixed relation to day and night,\neven for two days in succession. So the year unit and absolute time\nmust be left to the astronomers; but the _day unit_ and the uniform\nworld day of _universal time_ as explained in connection with Fig. 46\nI offer as a practical system.\n\nI am satisfied that all attempts to measure the year and the day\nby the same _time yard stick_ must fail and keep us in our present\nconfusion. Therefore separate them once for all time. Brought down to\nits lowest terms my final proposal is:--\n\n 1st. An equinoctial year unit for the astronomers, divided\n somewhat as suggested, but no attempt to make the divisions\n even approximate to days and hours. This would fix all\n astronomical events, absolutely. A variation in the length of\n the year would not disturb this system, since the year _itself_\n would be the unit. In translating this astronomical, or year\n unit time, into clock time, no difficulties would be added, as\n compared with our present translation of sidereal time into\n clock time. Deal with the _year unit_ and _day unit_ separately\n and convert them mutually when necessary.\n\n 2nd. A universal mean time day of 24 hours, as now kept at\n Greenwich, all human business being regulated by this time.\n Dates and the date line as well as leap years all being\n retained as at present.\n\n 3rd. Weight and spring clocks and watches to be superseded by\n the cosmic clocks and watches regulated by wireless impulses\n from central time stations, all impulses giving the same\n invariable time for all places.\n\n 4th. Automatic recording of the earth's rotations to determine\n this time.\n\nTo avoid any possibility of misunderstanding, I would advise never\ncounting a unit till it is completed. We do this correctly with our\nhours, as we understand 24 o'clock to be the same as 0 o'clock. But\nwe do not carry this out logically, for we say 24.30. How can this\nbe so, since there is nothing more than 24 o'clock? It ought to be\nsimply 30 minutes, or 0 hour 30 minutes. How can there be any _hour_\nwhen a new day is only 30 minutes old? This brings up the acrimonious\ncontroversy, of some years ago, as to whether there was any \"year\none.\" One side insisted that till one year was completed there could\nonly be months and days. The other side argued that the \"year one\"\ncommenced at 0 and that the month and date showed how much of it had\npassed. Test yourself,--is this the year 1909, of which only 8 months\nhave passed; or is it 1909 and 8 months more? Regarding the centuries\nthere appears to be no difference of opinion that 1900 is completed,\nand that we are in the 20th century. But can you tell whether we are\n8 years and 8 months into the 20th century or 9 years and 8 months?\nIt ought to be, logically 1909 years _complete_ and 8 months of the\nnext year, which we must not count till it is completed. Take a\ncarpenter's rule, we say 1/4 in.--1/2 in.--3/4 in., but do not count\nan inch till we complete it. When the ancients are quoted,--\"about\nthe middle of the third hour\" there is no mistake, because that means\n2-1/2 hours since sunrise. If we said the 1909th year that would be\ndefinite too, and mean some distance into that year. Popular language\nstates that Greenwich is on the \"first meridian\"; strictly, it is on\nthe zero meridian, or 0\u00b0. These matters are largely academic and I do\nnot look on them as serious subjects of discussion; but they are good\nthought producers. Bidding you good-bye, for the present, it might\nbe permissible to state that this conversational article on Time was\nintended to be readable and somewhat instructive; but especially to\nindicate the infinity of the subject, that thought and investigation\nmight be encouraged.\n\n\n\n\n      *      *      *      *      *      *\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's note:\n\nOriginal spelling and grammar have mostly been retained. However, on\npage 31, \"clepsydral\" was changed to \"clepsydra\".\n\nFigures were moved from within paragraphs to between paragraphs. In\naddition, some figures were originally out of numerical sequence;\nthey are now in sequence.","title":"Time and Its Measurement","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":22282}