{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_45883/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_45883","id":"gutenberg_45883","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45883","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Engineering & Technology","Category: History - Other","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Clocks and watches"],"text":"Produced by Chris Curnow, Mark Young and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This\nfile was produced from images generously made available\nby The Internet Archive)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n TIME AND TIME-TELLERS.\n\n\n+--------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Frontispiece] |\n+--------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\n\n TIME AND TIME-TELLERS.\n\n * * * * *\n\n BY\n\n JAMES W. BENSON.\n\n+--------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Sundial] |\n+--------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\n LONDON:\n ROBERT HARDWICKE, 192, PICCADILLY.\n 1875.\n\n\n JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS.\n\n\n INDEX TO THE ILLUSTRATIONS.\n\n\n PAGE\n\n 1 FRONTISPIECE\n\n 2 VIGNETTE\n\n 3 THE POCKET RING DIAL 14\n\n 4 SILVER POCKET DIAL AND COMPASS 16\n\n 5 THE CLEPSYDRA OR WATER CLOCK 19\n\n 6 THE BOOK-SHAPED WATCH 35\n\n 7 ANCIENT TABLE WATCH 36\n\n 8 ANCIENT WATCH WITH DIAL 39\n\n 9 OLD ENGLISH ROUND WATCH 40\n\n 10 OLD OVAL WATCH 41\n\n 11 ANCIENT ROUND ORNAMENTAL WATCH 42\n\n 12 OLD ENGLISH CALENDAR WATCH 43\n\n 13 MARY QUEEN O' SCOTS WATCH (DEATH'S HEAD) 44\n\n 14 ANCIENT WATCH CASE (SCRIPTURAL DESIGN) 45\n\n 15 DITTO TABLE WATCH (DITTO) 46\n\n 16 GRETTON'S WATCH 48\n\n 17 ANCIENT BOX WATCH 49\n\n 18 OLIVER CROMWELL'S WATCH 50\n\n 19 EARLY ORNAMENTAL ROUND WATCH CASE 51\n\n 20 JOHN MILTON'S WATCH 52\n\n 21 SMALL EARLY WATCH 54\n\n 22 ANCIENT WATCH WITH PENDULUM 55\n\n 23 ANCIENT BRASS WATCH WITH LID 56\n\n 24 IGNATIUS HUGGEFORD'S WATCH 59\n\n MODERN WATCHES.\n\n 25 HORIZONTAL 74\n\n 26 SKELETON LEVER 74\n\n 27 FULL PLATE LEVER 75\n\n 28 THREE-QUARTER PLATE LEVER 75\n\n 29 THE CHRONOGRAPH 92\n\n 30 PERPETUAL CALENDAR, KEYLESS 96\n\n 31 COMPLICATED DITTO AND INDEPENDENT SECONDS 97\n\n 32 THE MERIDIAN WATCH 99\n\n ESCAPEMENTS TO WATCHES.\n\n 33 THE VERGE ESCAPEMENT 78\n\n 34 THE HORIZONTAL DO. 79\n\n 35 THE DUPLEX DO. 80\n\n 36 THE LEVER DO. 81\n\n 37 THE CHRONOMETER DO. 83\n\n BALANCES, ETC.\n\n 38 COMPENSATION BALANCE 85\n\n 39 OLD BALANCE CLOCK 108\n\n 40 CLOCK SPRING 109\n\n 41 RACK STRIKING WORK 113\n\n 42 BACK OF FRENCH CLOCK 116\n\n 43 CARRIAGE CLOCK 118\n\n 45 ENGLISH ORMOLU CLOCKS 120-22\n\n 46 TELL-TALE CLOCK 123\n\n CLOCK ESCAPEMENTS.\n\n 47 CROWN WHEEL ESCAPEMENT 147\n\n 48 ANCHOR DO. 148\n\n 49 DEAD BEAT DO. 149\n\n 50 FRENCH SINGLE-PIN ESCAPEMENT 150\n\n 51 THREE LEGG'D GRAVITY DO. 151\n\n 52 DOUBLE DITTO DITTO 154\n\n TURRET CLOCKS.\n\n 53 WELLS CATHEDRAL CLOCK 135\n\n 54 OLD ST DUNSTAN'S DO. 137\n\n 55 ST JAMES'S PALACE DO. 138\n\n 56 ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL DO. 140\n\n 57 ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL DO. 141\n\n 58 MEMORIAL TURRET CLOCK DIAL 157\n\n 59 MODERN TURRET CLOCK MOVEMENT 164\n\n 60 \" \" HOUR WHEEL AND SNAIL 166\n\n 61 \" \" THE RACK 168\n\n 62 \" \" THE PENDULUM ROD 169\n\n 63 QUARTER OR CHIME CLOCK 171\n\n 64 GAS WHEEL FOR ILLUMINATED DIAL 172\n\n 65 NEST OF BEVELLED WHEELS CARRYING HANDS 173\n\n 66 HAMMER AND BELL 174\n\n 67 BENSON'S GREAT CLOCK. THE EXTERIOR 175\n\n 68 \" \" \" THE MOVEMENT 176\n\n 69 SUN-DIAL 180\n\n\n\n\nTIME AND TIME-TELLERS.\n\n\nTime cannot be thoroughly defined, nor even properly comprehended by\nmankind, for our personal acquaintance with it is so brief that our\nlongest term is compared to a span, and to 'the grass which in the\nmorning is green and groweth up, and in the evening is cut down and\nwithered.' The ordinary thinker can scarcely carry his idea of Time\nbeyond that small portion of it which he has known, under the name of\nlife-time. The metaphysician classes Time with those other\nmysteries,--Space, Matter, Motion, Force, Consciousness, which are the\nGordian knots of Mental Science. Time is naturally divided into three\nmost unequal parts,--whereof the Past includes all that has happened\nuntil now from that far-distant period when 'Heaven and Earth rose out\nof chaos;' the Present is but a moment, expended in a breath, to be\nagain like that breath momentarily renewed; the Future is, as the\nPast,--'a wide unbounded prospect,' an 'undiscovered country,' into\nwhich Prophecy itself penetrates but partially, and even then bears\nback to us but small information; for its language catches the\ncharacter of a grander clime, and the denizens of this lower earth are\nincapable of understanding its gorgeous metaphors; the brightness is\nas blinding as the darkness. We may attempt to pierce the Future by\nthe light which History throws from the Past, but History's record is\nimperfect; her chronicles are of the rudest and most unreliable\ncharacter; her most valued memorials serve but to make Past 'darkness\nvisible,' her most ancient registers reach back but a short distance\ncompared with those testimonies which geologists have discovered, and\ngiven us veritable 'sermons in stones' about. The Past is, indeed,\nscarcely less of a mystery than the Future; even the Present we only\nknow in part, but we do know that the brief term during which man\n'flits across the stage' of time ere he goes hence and is no more\nseen, is of inestimable value. Most of us soon make the discovery that\nthe world has much to teach which there is little time to learn and\nstill less time to apply to good purpose. _Ars longa, vita brevis\nest_, is the general expression of human experience. For every man\nthere are duties and labours for which time is all too short; just as\nhe begins to understand and to perform his work wisely and\nsuccessfully, the 'spirit of the destinies,' as Mr Carlyle would say,\n'calls him away;' but whither he goeth is as great a mystery as\nwhence he cometh. This, however, we do know, no wise man ever\ndisregarded Time, inasmuch as of this treasure there is no laying in a\nfresh store when life's supply has been exhausted; the wasters, the\n'killers' of Time, like the foolish virgins who neglected their lamps,\nare met invariably with the 'Not so,'--as the door of opportunity is\nshut in their faces. Like the dial with the inscription '_Nulla\nvestigia retrorsum_' each man's steps are taken never to be retraced,\nthe act once done can no more be recalled than the shadow on the dial\ncan go backward. What wonder then that the most thoughtful of men are\nparticularly careful of their time, regulating their use of it with\nthe utmost precision and weighing it out as scrupulously as a miser\nwould his gold? What wonder that they should sigh and grieve over a\nwasted day, and with bitter self-reproach should say to themselves as\nTitus did, 'Perdidi diem,'--I have lost a day? What wonder is it that\nsuch should teach themselves to wrestle with Time, even as Jacob\nwrestled with the angel, for a blessing; and to regard those reckless\nones, in whose butterfly existence are counted only the 'shining\nhours,'--as the bee might be supposed to regard the idle gnats which\nfrolic in the sunbeams heedless both of to-day and of to-morrow.\n\nThe poets are our best interpreters of Time, and they seem never tired\nof referring to it and symbolising it by every possible figure,\nemblem, and trope.[1] Celerity of motion and brevity of duration are\ndiscovered to be its chief characteristics. Time is therefore depicted\nas flying,--fast, noiselessly, and uninterruptedly. It is a river,\nspeeding on with imperceptible but resistless pace to the ocean of\neternity. It is a stern vigorous old man--Time is already old--rushing\nby us with never-slackening strides, bearing blessings for each and\nall, but we must be upon the alert to strive with him for his\ngifts--'to seize Time by the forelock'--or he will forget to bestow\nthem.\n\nWe too often charge upon Time the evil which is the result of our own\nlack of energy, and thus it happens that although in kindly moments\nour poets seem to delight in exalting and glorifying him for all\nmanner of enjoyments, at others they can find no word too coarse or\nuncivil to apply to him. 'Time,' says Shakespeare, 'is a very\nbankrupt,' adding,\n\n 'Nay, he's a thief too; have you not heard men say\n That time comes stealing on by night and day?'\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| FOOTNOTE: |\n| |\n| [1] Poebus Apollo in Ovid's Metamorphoses claims that he is Time's |\n| special exponent:-- |\n| |\n| ----'Per me, quod eritque, fuitque, |\n| Estque, patet; per me concordant carmina nervis.' |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nTime is, in proverbial philosophy, the most churlish and\nunaccommodating of acquaintances,--'Time and tide tarry for no man.'\nTime is always liable to be chided, as we have said, when one feels\nlike Hamlet, 'The times are out of joint;' although our next door\nneighbour may, with as much or more reason, be blessing the self-same\nhour we are condemning. Time is indeed all things to all men, and\n'travels divers paces with divers persons.' Sweet Rosalind described\nlong ago 'who Time ambles withal, who Time trots withal, and who he\nstands still withal.' 'I prithee,' asks Orlando, 'who doth he trot\nwithal?' and no matter how often we overhear her reply, we shall\nlisten with delight to the quaint language of the pretty\nrejoinder,--'Marry, he trots hard with a young maid between the\ncontract of her marriage and the day it is solemnized; if the interim\nbe but a se'nnight, Time's pace is so hard that it seems the length of\nseven years.' 'And who ambles Time withal?' 'With a priest that lacks\nLatin and a rich man that hath not the gout; for the one sleeps easily\nbecause he cannot study; and the other lives merrily because he feels\nno pain; the one lacking the burthen of lean and wasteful learning,\nthe other knowing no burthen of heavy tedious penury. These ambles\nTime withal.' 'Who doth he gallop withal?' 'With a thief to the\ngallows; for though he go as softly as foot can fall, he thinks\nhimself too soon there.' 'Who stays Time still withal?' 'With lawyers\nin the vacation; for they sleep between term and term, and then they\nperceive not how Time wags.'\n\nIf Roger Bacon's Brazen-head could have repeated and continued his\noracular utterances at fixed intervals he would have been a very\nsensational performer over some prominent public time-piece of the\npresent day. If only once in twelve months, say at midnight, when the\nyear ends, he could have pronounced his three important speeches,\n'Time is;--Time was;--Time's past!' he might have rivalled some of our\nbest actors or orators in attracting the multitude; unfortunately,\nhowever, our mechanical clockwork performers have never risen to the\ndignity of speech, and the secret of Friar Bacon's magic died with the\ninventor of gunpowder,--which last it is a pity, perhaps, did not also\nslip out of use and memory along with it. 'Time is, time was, time's\npast' seems to comprise a whole world of hopes, fears, and lost\nopportunities, and sounds like a little condensed history of all that\never has happened or ever can happen. Herein we may imagine we can\nobserve the wonder-working qualities of Time, solving all mysteries,\nbringing everything whether of good or evil to fruition, testing\nfriendship and love, solacing troubled and wounded hearts, and healing\nall manner of griefs; but then we also remark that he is the abaser of\nthe proud as well as the uplifter of the humble. If he builds, he as\nsurely destroys, being, indeed, the Great Spoiler, _edax rerum_,\nbefore whose breath myriads of living things through all generations\nhave faded away, in regular sequence, and towns and cities and the\nseveral civilizations of the world have one after another decayed and\nperished with all their wondrous works, and glories, and aspirations.\n\n 'Who shall contend with Time--unvanquished Time,\n The conqueror of conquerors, and lord\n Of desolation?'\n\nTime's chronicle is of itself proof of his character, for the very\nrecord of his deeds he does not permit to be of long endurance. Time\nwas, before the earliest historian began to take note of him, before\nthe 'twilight of fable,' and before the most primitive symbol. Time\nhimself were too brief to tell of his various experiences, the full\nvalue and purport of which we shall never know, until we have bridged\nthe abyss which separates the present from the future. Time and the\nworld, we are told, commenced life simultaneously, and their twin\nbirth was greeted triumphantly 'with the music of the spheres,' the\nmorning stars sang together rejoicingly; and it is also said that\ntheir courses shall be simultaneously determined when the edict shall\nbe promulgated that 'Time shall be no more.' When will that great\nevent take place? is a question which has occupied the attention of\nmany theologians and others, who temporarily forget that 'of that day\nand hour knoweth no man.' As of the end so of the beginning of Time,\nthere is to us no landmark, though geologists are endeavouring to\nprove that they have traced some of his earliest footprints in this\nworld of ours. Professor Tyndall tells us that 'not for six thousand,\nnor for sixty thousand, nor for six thousand thousand, but for \u00e6ons,\nembracing untold millions of years, this earth has been the theatre of\nlife and death. The riddle of the rocks has been read by the geologist\nand pal\u00e6ontologist, from subcambrian depths to the deposits thickening\nover the sea-bottoms of to-day. And upon the leaves of that stone book\nare stamped the characters, plainer and surer than those formed by the\nink of history, which carry the mind back into abysses of past time\ncompared with which six thousand years cease to have a visual angle.'\n\nAlthough Time is so vast in his operations and so truly marvellous in\nhis many features, it has, nevertheless, been found possible to\nmeasure his shorter intervals with the greatest accuracy,--even to but\na few seconds in a year. It took some centuries to accomplish this\nfeat, but it is now surely and systematically done. The stages of\nhorological science are some of them remote, but they are well worth\nstudying. The earliest divisions of time were doubtless those made by\nthe operations of Nature, producing day and night,--the sun and moon\nwere the earliest chronometers, and, marked by them, 'the evening and\nthe morning were the first day.' It is even now by noting the\nrecurrence of certain celestial phenomena that we are enabled to\ncertify to ourselves the accuracy of our time-pieces, but although\nthe motion of the heavenly bodies is the standard of computation for\nlengthened periods, it is found more convenient to reckon short terms,\nsuch as seconds, minutes, and hours, by machinery set in motion by a\nspring or by weights mathematically adjusted, and this in a word has\ngiven birth to the science called Horology.\n\nWe can readily comprehend the division of time into days and nights,\nfor these, as we have said, are the natural divisions. Let us trace\nthe origin of more arbitrary periods, such as hours, and weeks, and\nmonths, and years. First, then, as to days, let it be remembered that\nthe beginning and ending of an ordinary English day differs in several\nrespects from those of other nations. The Jews reckon their day, as do\nalso the Greeks and Italians, from sunset to sunset; the Persians from\nsunrise to sunrise. The astronomical and nautical day is computed from\nnoon to noon, and is reckoned by 24 hours, not by twice 12,--as, for\ninstance, instead of writing half-past four in the morning of, we will\nsay, Jan. 2, the astronomer would write Jan. 1. 16 h. 30 m. Our\nordinary English day is reckoned from 12 to 12 at midnight, after the\nfashion set by Ptolemy, which has this advantage over the method of\nreckoning from sunrise or sunset, that the latter periods are\ncontinually varying with the seasons of the year. The grouping of\nseven days into a week is shown in Genesis, but the seventh day is\nthere alone specially named. The Sabbath is still kept by the Jews on\nthe seventh day, but Christians keep the first day of the week in\nhonour of Christ's resurrection, and call it the Lord's Day. After the\nolder planetary method, Sunday was named in honour of the Sun, Monday\nof the Moon, Tuesday of Tuesco, or Mars, Wednesday of Woden or\nMercury, Thursday of Thor, Friday of Friga, Venus, Saturday of Saturn.\nThe Month, named after the Moon in consequence of a month being nearly\nequal to the time occupied by the Moon in going through all her\nchanges, is again classed under the names lunar or calendar; the lunar\nmonth is rather more than 29-1/2 days, but as the solar month is\nnearly a day longer it would require more than twelve lunar months to\nmake a year, arbitrary additions have been therefore made to each\nmonth, some consisting of 30, some of 31 days; and months so arranged\nto form the calendar are called calendar months, twelve of which make\na year of about 365-1/4 days. Until the time of Julius C\u00e6sar the year\nwas reckoned as of 365 days only, a number which after many centuries\nrequired the addition of ninety days to rectify, he therefore ordered\none of the years to consist of 444 days, and that subsequently every\nfourth year should contain 366 days. Even this very summary imperial\nmethod was attended with its drawbacks and difficulties, for the\nearth's revolution round the Sun is made in eleven minutes eleven\nseconds, less than 365-1/4 days, which minutes in the course of about\n1600 years required to be taken into consideration, and in 1582 Pope\nGregory XIII. took off ten days by making the 5th of October the 15th;\nbut the Gregorian time was not introduced into England till 1752 when\nthe error amounted to about eleven, so eleven days were subtracted\nfrom 1752 leaving it only 354 days,--much to the indignation of the\nilliterate people of that time, who clamoured, assembled in great mobs\nto testify to their sense of the great injury inflicted upon them,\n'Give us back our Eleven days,'--one of Hogarth's prints of the\n'Election' exhibits a paper containing this very inscription. The fury\nof the populace at being robbed of its precious time availed not; the\nday after the 2nd of September, 1752, was made the 14th of September,\nand from that time dated the New Style, since which the year has been\nalmost exactly correct. Up to 1752 the legal year began in England on\nthe 25th of March, and it was usual up to that day to employ two\ndates, as 1750-1; but since the change of style the year has commenced\nwith the first of January,--nearly midwinter. As there is one day more\nthan fifty-two weeks in a year every year begins one day later in the\nweek than the preceding year; and after leap-year two days later. The\nonly country in Europe which still retains the Old Style is Russia,\n--the difference between the styles, now twelve days, is usually\nindicated by O.S. and N.S., or as in one or two of our watch\nillustrations by 'Russian' and 'Gregorian.' As regards the smaller\ndivisions of time, it should be noted that the minute and the hour are\nthus reckoned,--the Earth divided into 360 degrees, turning upon its\naxis once every twenty-four hours, brings fifteen degrees under the\nsun each hour, and makes those fifteen degrees of longitude equivalent\nto one hour of time,--fifteen geographical miles being equivalent to\none minute of time.\n\nThe earliest horologe or hour measurer of which history makes mention\nis that called the _Polos_, and the _Gnomon_. Herodotus (lib. II.)\nascribes their invention to the Babylonians, but Phavorinus claims it\nfor Anaximander, and Pliny for Anaximenes. The _Gnomon_, which was the\nmore simple and probably the more ancient instrument, consisted simply\nof a staff or pillar fixed perpendicularly in a sunny place, the\nshadow of which was measured by feet upon the place where it\nfell,--the flight of time being computed thereby. In later times the\nword _Gnomon_ was the title of the sun-dial, and it is the name still\nin use for the style or finger which throws the shadow on the dial and\nthus indicates the hour. The _Polos_ or _Heliotropion_ was no doubt a\nsuperior instrument to the earliest _Gnomon_, but, from its being so\nseldom mentioned, we may suppose it not to have been so generally\nused. The _Polos_ consisted of a basin, in the middle of which the\nperpendicular staff or finger was erected, and marked by lines the\ntwelve portions of the day. The _Dial_ was but another form of\n_Polos_; its name indicates a Roman origin,--namely, from _Dies_, a\nday, but there was a Greek sun-dial called _Sciathericum_, from\n_skia_, a shadow. The invention is said to have been derived by the\nJews from the Babylonians, to whom, as we have seen, Herodotus\nascribed it, and there is mention made in the xxxviii. of Isaiah of\nthe dial of Ahaz,--a king who began to reign 741 B.C. The form of the\nDial of Ahaz has not been ascertained; but there is reason to believe\nthat the ancient Jews and the Brahmins were acquainted with the uses\nof the dial and applied it to astronomical purposes. Dials were, it is\nsaid, not known in Rome before 293 B.C., when one was set up by\nPapirius Cursor the Roman General, near the Temple of Quirinus. At\nAthens there is an octagonal temple of the Winds still standing, which\nshows on each side the lines of a vertical dial and the centres where\nthe _Gnomons_ were placed. At one time the art of Dialling was most\nassiduously studied; its rudiments may be described as follows:\n\nThe plane of every dial represents the plane of some great circle on\nthe earth, and the _Gnomon_ the earth's axis; the vertex of a right\n_Gnomon_, the centre of the earth or visible heavens. The earth\nitself, compared with its distance from the sun, is considered as a\npoint, and therefore if a small sphere of glass be placed upon any\npart of the earth's surface so that its axis be parallel to the axis\nof the earth, and the sphere have such lines upon it, and such plans\nwithin it, as above described, it will show the hour of the day as\ntruly as if it were placed at the earth's centre, and the shell of the\nearth were as transparent as glass. The diversity of the titles of\nsun-dials arises from the different situation of the planes, and the\ndifferent figure of the surfaces whereon they are described, whence\nthey are denominated equinoctial, horizontal, vertical, polar, erect,\ndirect, declining, inclining, reclining, cylindrical, &c.\n\n+--------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: The Pocket Ring Dial.] |\n+--------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nAll the before-mentioned time-measurers were up to a certain period\nnon-portable, and in addition to the drawback of being unserviceable\nexcepting when the weather was clear and the days bright were as\nuseless for private purposes, as they were unadapted for the\nwinter-time or for night. The next step was therefore a portable dial,\nbut this was probably not invented until after a very long interval.\nThe Dial of which the above is an illustration, was probably one of\nthe earliest of portable time-keepers, the time being shown by means\nof a hole through which the light fell on the inside, which had an\ninner ring adaptable to the day and the month. Ring-dials of this\ndescription were in common use within the last century in this\ncountry, and were manufactured in large numbers at Sheffield when\nwatches were too expensive to be generally attainable. Some of these\nRing-dials were of superior construction, and were made by means of\nmore than one ring to serve for different latitudes. As an example of\na still greater advance in the manufacture of pocket dials, see the\nillustration on the next page.\n\nThe Dial consists of a thin silver plate properly divided and marked,\nand having a compass with glass cover sunk at one end of it. The\n_Gnomon_ or style moves upon a hinge so as to allow of its lying flat\nupon the Dial while in the pocket, and thus rendering the instrument\nconveniently portable. The _Gnomon_ itself is also susceptible of\nelevation or depression and the beak of the bird carved on a thin slip\nof silver at its side marks the exact extent of the _Gnomon's_\nelevation. This Dial is indubitably of French manufacture.\n\nOne would imagine that it was such a dial as this that Shakspeare had\nin his mind's eye when he wrote the well-known passage which he put\ninto the mouth of Jaques, wherein that philosophic satirist describes\nhis meeting with a fool in the forest.\n\n+--------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Silver Pocket Dial (in the collection of the Honble |\n| Company of Clockmakers, London).] |\n+--------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\n 'Good morrow, fool, quoth I. \"No sir,\" quoth he,\n \"Call me not fool till heaven hath sent me fortune;\n And then he drew _a dial from his poke_,\n And looking on it with lack-lustre eye,\n Says, very wisely, \"It is ten o'clock:\n Thus we may see,\" quoth he, \"how the world wags:\n 'Tis but an hour ago since it was nine,\n And after one hour more 'twill be eleven.\n And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe,\n And then from hour to hour we rot and rot.\n And thereby hangs a tale.\" When I did hear\n The motley fool thus moral on the time,\n My lungs began to crow like Chanticleer,\n That fools should be so deep contemplative;\n And I did laugh, sans intermission,\n _An hour by his dial_.'\n\nWhat the fool's dial was, has given rise to many conjectures, but\nthere is no better authority perhaps on the subject than Mr Halliwell,\nfrom whose magnificent and elaborate folio we will make the following\nvery interesting extract.\n\n'The term dial appears to have been applied in Shakspeare's time to\nanything for measuring time in which the hours were marked, so that\nthe allusion here may be either to a watch, or to a portable journey\nring, or small dial. The expression \"it is ten o'clock\" is not\ndecisive, as it may be considered to be used merely in the sense of\nthe hour thus named. * * * A watch even is sometimes called a clock, *\n* * and it seems by no means unlikely that the common ring dial which\nhas been in use for several centuries up to a comparatively recent\nperiod, should be the dial referred to in the text.'\n\nWhatever may have been the shape of the dial which Jaques saw drawn\nfrom the fool's 'poke,' it is an undoubted fact that portable dials\ndid serve the part of time-keepers, and were in their way valuable as\nsuch to those who had learnt how to use them. But the dial would not\ndo the work of the watch in an age when people no longer travel by the\nwaggon-load or with pack-horse, but are whirled fifty or sixty miles\nin that time and have to reckon their engagements not by the day, but\nby the minute. The world no longer 'wags' in jog-trot style, but\nspeeds at steam-pressure and sends its messages by lightning-conductor;\nit consequently values its time more highly and measures it more\ncarefully.\n\nThe Horologe which possibly next succeeded in date the invention of\nthe Dial, was the Clepsydra or Water-Clock, the precise antiquity of\nwhich is however unknown.\n\n+--------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: The Clepsydra, or Water-Clock of the Greeks.] |\n+--------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nThe CLEPSYDRA is so named because the water escapes from it as it were\nby stealth, but in a regulated flow so as to permit of the lapse of\ntime being computed thereby, even as by sand running through\nsand-glasses. The Clepsydra appears to have been at first used to\nlimit the time during which persons were allowed to speak in the\nAthenian Courts of Justice; 'the first water,' says \u00c6schines, 'being\ngiven to the accuser, the second to the accused, and the third to the\njudges,'--a special officer being appointed in the courts for the\npurpose of watching the Clepsydra and stopping it when any documents\nwere read whereby the speaker was interrupted. The time, and\nconsequently the water allowed, depended upon the importance of the\ncase. This custom, says Phavorinus, was to prevent babbling, that such\nas spake should be brief in their speeches. Ctesibius of Alexandria,\nwho lived about 245, invented a much improved water-clock, mentioned\nby Vitruvius and Athen\u00e6us. Another kind of Clepsydra consisted of a\nvessel of water having a hole in it through which the fluid gradually\nescaped; a miniature boat floated upon the water and descended as the\nwater decreased, whilst an oar placed in the boat indicated the hour\nby pointing to certain line-marks on the side of the vessel. The hole\nthrough which the water dropped was made, we are told, through a\npearl, because it was supposed that the action of the water upon the\npearl would not, as upon other substances, enlarge the aperture, nor\nwould the pearl, it was imagined, be choked by the adhesion of any\nother material. The chief fault of the Clepsydra as a chronometer\narose from the inequality of the flow of water, it being found to\nescape more rapidly when the vessel was full than when it was becoming\nempty, and also more speedily in hot weather than in cold. The\nEgyptians are however said to have measured by this machine the course\nof the sun; by it Tycho-Brahe computed the motion of the stars; and by\nit Dudley made his maritime observations. Plato furnished the original\nidea of the hydraulic organ by inventing a Clepsydra, or water-clock,\nwhich played upon flutes the hours of the night when darkness\nprecluded their being shown by the index. Clepsydr\u00e6 are still used in\nIndia.\n\nThe SAND-GLASS, as we have said, is an instrument of the same\ncharacter as the Clepsydra,--the one measuring time by the fall of\nwater and the other by the running of sand. Sand-glasses are known to\nhave been used 200 B.C. The best hour-glasses, it is said, were those\nin which powdered egg-shells well dried in the oven were used instead\nof sand, such powder being less affected by changes in the atmosphere\nthan sand would be. Sand-glasses are now seldom used except on board\nship, and by domestics to compute the time for the boiling of eggs.\n\nKing Alfred's invention for measuring time by the burning of candles,\nwhich were marked by circular lines to show the progress of the hours,\nwas another effort of rude skill, which however could have been but\npartially successful even in the opinion of its inventor, for the\naccuracy of candle-horologes is interfered with by many different\ninfluences, prominent among which must of course have been the varying\nqualities of the materials used in their manufacture, and the more or\nless care with which they were guarded from the wind, so as to prevent\ntheir guttering.\n\nWe now come to consider the date of the next grand step in the\nprogress of Horology,--namely, that of the invention of the _clock_.\nThe name itself may be derived either from the French, _la cloche_, a\nbell, or from the German, _die gloke_, or _die kloke_. There is no\ndoubt that the word _cloche_ was meant to distinguish the instrument\nwhich marked the hours by sounding a bell, from the _montre_ or watch,\nwhich (derived from the Latin _monstro_, to show) merely shows the\ntime by its hands. In ancient books the word _cloche_ simply stands\nfor a bell,--the monks being accustomed to ring a bell at certain\nperiods marked for them by their sun-dials or hour-glasses, and\n'What's o'clock?' in old writers is often merely equivalent to the\ninquiry, 'What hour was last struck by bell?' The word horologe or\nhour-measurer of course equally applied to the sun-dial, the\nclepsydra, and the clock, and this convertibility of terms makes it\nall the more difficult to trace the point at which the newer invention\nbegan. Beckmann, in an ingenious analysis of various statements as to\nthe first inventors of clocks made to go by weights and wheels,\nascribes the invention to the eleventh century, but he does not\nattempt to name the first clockmaker. His authority for the date is\nthe life of William Abbot of Hirshan, wherein there is mention made of\na machine used by the monks for measuring time, which cannot in\nBeckmann's opinion have been a clepsydra. Beckmann does not believe\nthat clocks were of European origin, but that they were derived from\nthe Saracens. He founds his opinion upon a horologe described by\nTrithenius which was presented by the Sultan of Egypt in 1232, to the\nEmperor Frederic II. of Germany. 'In the same year,' says he, 'the\nSaladin of Egypt sent by his ambassadors, as a gift to Frederic II., a\nvaluable machine of wonderful construction, worth more than 5000\nducats. For it appeared to resemble internally a celestial globe in\nwhich figures of the sun, moon, and other planets, formed with the\ngreatest skill, moved, being impelled by weights and wheels, so that\nperforming their course in certain and fixed intervals, they pointed\nout the hour, night and day, with infallible certainty; also the\ntwelve signs of the Zodiac with appropriate characters, moved with the\nfirmament, contained within themselves the course of the planet.'\n\nTo whom the high honour belongs of inventing the clock is, to use a\nnot unknown phrase, 'lost in the mists of antiquity.' All the ancients\nwho were reported as skilful in mechanics seem to have obtained a\nmodicum of credit as clock-inventors. Archimedes and Posidonius\nbefore, the Christian era, Bo\u00ebthius in the 5th century, Pacificus\nabout the middle of the 9th, Gerbert at the end of the 10th,\nWallingford near the beginning of the 14th, and Dondi at the end of\nthe 14th, have each in their turn been asserted to be the inventors of\nthe clock.\n\nThe sphere of Archimedes, made 200 B.C., as mentioned by Claudian, was\nevidently an instrument with a maintaining power but without a\nregulator, and therefore would not measure time in any other manner\nthan as a planetarium, turned by a handle, measures, or rather\nexhibits, the respective velocities of the heavenly bodies; and the\nsame may be said of the sphere of Posidonius, as mentioned by Cicero\n('De natur\u00e2 Deorum'). The clock of Bo\u00ebthius was a clepsydra, as was\nalso that of Pacificus, according to some, for Bailly in his History\nof Modern Astronomy asserts that Pacificus was the inventor of a clock\ngoing by means of a weight and a balance, and if so the invention must\nbe ascribed to Pacificus; but Bailly gives no authority for his\nassertion. Gerbert's horologe is said to have been merely a sun-dial,\nand Wallingford's horologe, called the Albion, must have as much\nresembled a planetarium as a clock, for the motions of all the\nheavenly bodies appear to have been conducted by the maintaining\npower, whatever that was, without controlling mechanism. This\ninstrument, made in 1326, is also described as having shown the ebb\nand flow of the sea, the hours, and the minutes.\n\nThere are, however, still earlier data as to clocks in England than\nthis of Wallingford's, for we find that in 1288 a stone clock-tower\nwas erected opposite Westminster Hall with a clock which cost 800\nmarks, the proceeds of a fine imposed upon Ralph de Hengham, Chief\nJustice of the Queen's Bench. The tower mentioned was still standing\nin 1715, and in it was a clock which struck the great bell known as\nTom of Westminster so as to be heard by the people in all the law\ncourts. In Queen Elizabeth's time the clock was changed for a dial\nupon the clock tower, which, however, bore upon its face the same\nVirgilian motto, 'Discite justitiam moniti,'--referring to the fine\ninflicted upon the Chief Justice for making an alteration in a record\nby which a poor dependent was made to pay 13_s._ 4_d._ instead of\n6_s_. 8_d_. A dial with this motto was still to be seen in Palace\nYard, Westminster, within the last dozen years, but was removed with\nthe houses which were then demolished to make way for the gilded\npalings which have since been erected between Palace Yard and Bridge\nStreet, Westminster.\n\nIn 1292 a clock was placed in Canterbury Cathedral, which, according\nto a statement in a Cottonian MS., cost \u00a330, a large sum at that time.\n\nDante, who died in 1321, aged 57, makes the earliest mention of an\n_orologio_ which struck the hour:\n\n 'Indi come orologio che _ne chiami_\n Nel hora che la sposa, d'Idio surge\n Amattinar lo sposo, perche l'ami.'\n\n _Il Paradiso._--C.X.\n\nIn 1344 James Dondi constructed at Padua, by the command of Hubert,\nprince of Carrara, a clock similar to Wallingford's, and thus obtained\nfor himself the title of _Horologius_; which, it is said, is still\nborne by his descendants in Florence. In 1364 Henry de Wyck, a\nGerman, made a clock for Charles V. of France, which was erected in\nthe tower of his palace. This clock was regulated by a balance, the\nteeth of the crown-wheel acted upon two small levers called pallets\nwhich projected from, and formed part of, an upright spindle or staff,\non which was fixed the balance, and the clock was regulated by\nshifting the weights placed at each end of the balance.\n\nIn 1368 Edward granted protection against 'injuriam, molestiam,\nviolentiam, damnum, aut gravamen' to three Dutch horologers, John and\nWilliam Uneman and John Lietuyt, who had been invited to this country\nfrom Delft.\n\nChaucer, who died in 1400, speaks of a cock crowing with such\nregularity as to rival a clock:\n\n 'Full sikerer (surer) was his crowing in his loge\n As is a clok, or any abbey orloge.'\n\nWhether the abbey horologe referred to was really a clock in our sense\nof the term, or merely the bell rung by the monks at a certain hour\nindicated by the clepsydra, is matter of conjecture, but the\nprobability is, that clockmaking had advanced sufficiently about this\ntime to have given rise to Chaucer's simile. Froissart speaks of a\nfamous clock which struck the hours, and was remarkable for its\nmechanism, and which was removed in 1332 by Philip the Hardy, duke of\nBurgundy, from Courtrai to his capital at Dijon.\n\nAfter this date frequent mention is made of clocks in various\nhistories, some of which instruments remain even to the present day.\nDr Heylin thus describes a famous clock and dial in the Cathedral of\nLunden in Denmark. 'In the dial are to be seen distinctly the year,\nmonth, week, day, and every hour of the day throughout the year, with\nthe feasts, both those which are movable and fixed, together with the\nmotions of the sun and moon, and their passage through each degree of\nthe zodiac. Then for the clock, it is so framed by artificial engines\nthat whensoever it is to strike, two horsemen encounter one another,\ngiving as many blows apiece as the bell sounds hours, and on the\nopening of a door there appeareth a theatre, the Virgin Mary on a\nthrone with Christ in her arms, and the three kings or Magi (with\ntheir several trains) marching in order, doing humble reverence, and\npresenting severally their gifts,--two trumpeters sounding all the\nwhile, to adorn the pomp of the procession.'\n\nThe clock at Hampton Court is one of the most ancient in England, but\nall that remains of the original structure is the dial and work\nconnected with it, facing the east, in the second court of the old\npart of the building erected by Wolsey. Of the ancient body or works\nthere is no record, and its maker is unknown, but it bears the\ninitials N.O. and the date 1540.\n\nThere is a celebrated antique clock at Strasburg which is described as\nstriking the quarter-hours by four figures, symbols of the ages of\nman;--the first being struck by a child with an apple, the second by a\nyouth with an arrow, the third by a man with a staff, and the fourth\nby an old man with a crutch, then came Death, who struck the hour, and\nthus reminded the observer that his last hour would eventually arrive.\n\nFrom the evidence adduced respecting the origin and inventors of the\nclock it is not unreasonable to conclude with Ferdinand Berthoud (a\nFrenchman who wrote much and was a great authority upon the subject)\nthat such a clock as that which was constructed by Henry de Wyck for\nCharles the Wise of France, was not the invention of one man, but was\nthe result of a series of inventions made at different times by\nvarious persons, each of which is worthy to be considered a separate\ninvention. It was the simple employment of the natural force of\ngravity as to the fall of bodies in free space, that paved the way to\nthe extreme accuracy and constancy of rate which belong to the clocks\nof modern times, and the conclusion to which Mons. Berthoud arrived\nrespecting the progression of the essential improvements is thus\nstated:--\n\n1. Toothed wheel-work was known in ancient times, and particularly to\nArchimedes, whose instrument was provided with a maintaining power,\nbut had no regulator or controlling mechanism.\n\n2. The weight applied as a maintainer at first had a fly, most\nprobably similar to that of a kitchen-jack.\n\n3. The ratchet-wheel and click for winding up the weight, without\ndetaching the teeth of the great wheel.\n\n4. The regulation of the fly depending upon the state of the air, it\nwas abandoned, and a balance substituted.\n\n5. An escapement next became indispensable, as constituting with the\nbalance a more regular check than a fly upon the tendency which a\nfalling weight has to accelerate its velocity.\n\n6. The application of a dial-plate and hand to indicate the hours was\na consequence of the regularity introduced into the going part.\n\n7. The striking portion, to proclaim at a distance, without the aid of\na watcher, the hour that was indicated: and this was followed by the\nalarum.\n\n8. The reduction and accommodation of all this bulky machinery to a\nportable and compact size, as in watches.\n\nSuch a succession of ingenious contrivances, introduced by different\nmen to improve upon the first rude instrument, is perfectly analogous\nto the successive improvements which have been made in the modern\nclock, since that of Henry de Wyck's was constructed. Large iron\nwheels, continually exposed to the oxidizing influence of the air, in\nwhich unequal and ill-shapen teeth were cut with the inaccuracy of a\nmanual operation, were by no means calculated to transmit the\nmaintaining power with perfect regularity to the balance, supposing it\nto have been a good regulator; but when it is further remembered that\nthe alternate direct pushes of the escape-wheel against the pallets\nmust have produced jerks, and destroyed, or greatly disturbed, the\nregularity of this most essential part of the mechanism, great\naccuracy was not to be expected; even minutes were deemed too small\nportions of time to be shown by such a machine. The clock was set\ndaily by some person specially appointed to the office, and even then\nwas not to be depended upon, for forty minutes' variation in\ntwenty-four hours was not thought to be an ill performance.\n\nThe most ancient clocks had no pendulum such as we now see, but had\ninstead a balance vibrating on the top of the clock, as seen in\nillustration, p. 108, which is an example of ancient clockwork.\n\nUpon the invention of springs, in lieu of weights, as the maintaining\nor motive power in clocks, which was made towards the close of the\nfifteenth century, it became obvious that time-pieces might be\nrendered portable, and that the new motive power, a coiled spring,\ncould act independently of position. This discovery was of great\nimportance, and yet to whom we are indebted for it is unknown; the\nvalue of the invention became still more apparent when the fusee, or\nmechanism for equalizing the variable power of a coiled spring, was\napplied. Berthoud says, 'It was soon perceived that the action of the\nspring being much greater at the height of its tension than at the\nend, great variations in the watch resulted therefrom. This was\nremedied by a mechanism called _stack-freed_, that is, a kind of\ncurve, by means of which the great spring of the barrel acted on a\nstraight spring, which opposed itself to its action, and when this\nspring was nearly down, acted more feebly.' The word _stack-freed_ was\nstated to be German, and therefore gave rise to a supposition that the\ninvention was of German origin, but the word is not to be found in a\nGerman dictionary, and, if ever German, it was probably strictly\ntechnical, and soon became obsolete. Berthoud has given a drawing and\ndescription of a portable clock, probably by Jourdain, without a\nfusee, and some of the modern continental watch-makers have, perhaps,\nderived their idea from it of making a watch keep time without a\nfusee. Up to the close of the 15th century the motive power in clocks\nwas always obtained by means of weights; the invention of the coiled\nspring rendered them portable.\n\nWhatever be the date or origin of the watch or portable clock, certain\nit is that there was mention made of such an instrument as far back as\n1494, by Gaspar Visconti, an Italian poet, who in a sonnet describes\n'Certain small and portable clocks made with a little ingenuity, and\nwhich are continually going, showing the hours, many courses of the\nplanets, the festivals, and striking when the time requires it.' The\nsonnet is, as it were, composed by a person in love, who compares\nhimself to one of these clocks. One of the earliest places of watch\nmanufacture was Nuremberg, and foremost among its horologers was Peter\nHele, who was thus described by Doppelmayer in his 'History of the\nMathematicians and Artists of Nuremberg.'\n\n'Peter Hele, a clockmaker, was everywhere esteemed a great artist on\naccount of the pocket-clocks, which, soon after the year 1500, he first\nmade in Nuremberg, with small wheels of steel. The invention, which with\ngreat justice may be ascribed to him, being something new, was praised\nby almost every one, even by the mathematicians of the time, with great\nadmiration. He died 1540. On this subject Johannes Coccl\u00e6us, in his\nCommentary on the Cosmographia of Pomponius Mela, published in Nuremberg\nin 1511, makes the following announcement:--\"Inveniuntur in dies\nsubtiliora, etenim Petrus Hele, juvenis adhuc admodum, opera fecit, qu\u00e6\ndoctissimi admirantur mathematici, nam ex ferro parva fabricat\nhorologia, plurimis digesta rotulis, qu\u00e6, quocunque vertuntur, absque\nullo pondere, et monstrant et pulsant XL. horas. Etiamsi in sinu,\nmarsupiove contineantur.\"' This quotation from Coccl\u00e6us may be thus\ntranslated:--Ingenious things are just now being invented, for Peter\nHele, as yet but a young man, hath made works which even the most\nlearned mathematicians admire, for he fabricates small horologes of iron\nfitted with many wheels, which, whithersoever they are turned, and\nwithout any weight, both show and strike forty hours,--whether they be\ncarried in the bosom or the pocket.\n\nDoppelmayer in continuation says: 'This, already so written by\nCoccl\u00e6us in 1511, shows in the clearest way, that pocket-clocks were\nmade at Nuremberg many years ago, and he has fairly attributed the\ninvention of them to this artist, since it was the most deserving of\nadmiration, and the newest of his time, and which will be considered\nas a Nuremberg invention; whence also clocks of this kind were for a\nlong time called Nuremberg living eggs, because they at first used to\nmake them in the form of small eggs, which name is to be found in the\nGerman translation in chapter 26 of a strange book which F. Rabelais\nhas left behind him. Hence it is evident how erroneous it is to\nascribe, as many do, the invention of small striking-clocks, as of\nthese pocket-clocks, to Isaac Habrecht, a well-known mathematician who\nlived about the beginning of the last century, and dwelt at Strasburg,\nwhereas our Peter Hele had made them in Nuremberg 100 years before.'\n\nThe art of watch-making soon extended itself over Europe, for we find\nthat in France, in 1544, Francis I. enacted a statute in favour of the\ncorporation of master clockmakers at Paris, to the effect that no one\nshould be permitted to make horologes unless he should have been\npreviously admitted into that society. Of the most antique watches\nthere are some very interesting collections at the South Kensington\nMuseum and other places,--originally brought together by private\npersons whose antiquarian knowledge has lit up the subject with\nwonderful interest. It would be impossible to furnish in a volume such\nas this, a regular series of such productions, showing the development\nof artistic skill in the embellishment and design of watches; we leave\nthat duty to some future writer who shall prepare an _edition de\nluxe_, and show therein, in splendid colour-printing, all the beauties\nof enamelling on the precious metals, all the elegance, as well as\nperhaps the oddity, of design, which are to be observed in these\nhighly-interesting works of art. We will, for the nonce, be content\nwith interspersing our pages with a few examples, not perhaps of the\nhighest quality in point of design, but yet worthy of notice, either\nas showing variety of form or as being made valuable by historical\nassociations. One of the earliest specimens of very small watches\nwhich are now extant is the one given on the next page.\n\n+--------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Ancient Watch, in form of a Book.] |\n+--------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nThis little time-piece dates from the period when blacksmiths were\nwatch-makers, or at all events when watch-makers were blacksmiths. The\nworks are all of iron; the case was made, probably, before glass was\nused for such instruments, and it is not unlikely that this watch is\nof as old a shape as even the Nuremberg eggs. A more ornamental\ntime-piece, of perhaps a somewhat later date, is the curious little\ninstrument which is portrayed in our next illustration; the works of\nwhich are also of iron. It possesses the advantage of serving either\nas a clock or a watch, or as both, being of a portable size, and yet\nwhen set on a stand would serve as a pretty ornament to a drawing-room\ntable. The bell at the top is so arranged that when the hand touches a\ntrigger the hour is struck upon it, but the bell itself may be\ndetached without any interference with the movement by which the time\nis kept.\n\n+--------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Ancient Table Watch, with Bell for striking (Temp |\n| _circa_ 1525).] |\n+--------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nA clock was purchased by Queen Victoria at Strawberry Hill sale and is\nnow at Windsor, which was a present from Henry VIII. to Anne Boleyn,\nand since from Lady Elizabeth Germains to Horace Walpole. It is\ndescribed by Walpole as a clock of silver gilt, richly chased,\nengraved and ornamented with fleurs-de-lys, little heads, &c. On the\ntop sits a lion holding the arms of England, which are also on the\nsides. On the weights are the initial letters of Henry and Anne within\ntrue lover's knots, at the top 'Dieu et mon droit,' at the bottom 'the\nmost happy.'\n\nThe emperor Charles V. (Henry's contemporary) was so much pleased\nwith observing the movements of time-pieces, that it is related of\nhim, that he frequently sat after his dinner with a number of them\nupon the table before him, and that even after his retirement to the\nmonastery of St Just he still continued his interest in them. He\nendeavoured to adjust their movements and keep them in order, but,\nupon finding it impossible to make any two watches agree with each\nother in keeping time, he was induced to reflect how much more absurd\nit must be for a man to attempt to regulate the more varied and hidden\nemotions of nations in consonance with those in his own breast.\nAncient watches used to strike the time, and we read of Charles V. and\nLouis XI. that, watches having been stolen from them in certain\ncrowds, the thief was detected by their striking the hour.\n\nIn 1577 Moestlin had a clock so constructed as to make just 2528 beats\nin an hour, 146 of which were counted during the sun's passage over a\nmeridian, and thus determined its diameter. The alarum or alarm is one\nof the earliest additions to the mechanism of the clock, and is still\nused in Dutch clocks. This contrivance took its origin from the\ncircumstance of prayers being read at stated periods in monasteries by\nnight as well as by day, such an invention being of course of much\nservice in arousing the priest to perform his duties.\n\nIn 1631 the Company of Clockmakers was incorporated in England by\nCharles I., who granted them a charter prohibiting the importation of\nclocks, watches, and alarms. So that at this period Englishmen were\nsufficiently skilled in the production of horological instruments to\nconsider their importation in the light of an intrusion. The Company\nconsisted of a Master, three Wardens, and ten or more Assistants who\nhad power to make by-laws for the government of all persons using the\ntrade in or within ten miles of London. They were authorized to enter,\nwith a constable or other officer, any ships, vessels, warehouses,\nshops, or other places, _where they shall suspect bad and deceitful\nworks to be made or kept_, and if such were found they seized them in\nthe King's name, and having proved their unworthiness, the\nobjectionable works were broken up and destroyed. There are many\ninstances mentioned of such 'searches' upon the Books of the Company,\nand although the practice has long become obsolete, for in these times\nof free trade no such restrictions would be tolerated, yet it would\nperhaps be found that some testing by a modern 'searcher' or tester\nwould be of some protection to the public now-a-days, when thousands\nof watches are sold which, like Peter Pindar's razors, are intended\nrather for the market than for use. The following are illustrations of\nsome time-keepers of the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the\nseventeenth century.\n\n+--------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Ancient Watch with Dial, 1580.] |\n+--------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nThis is a very curious but not uncommon combination of the watch with\nthe dial,--the latter being marked inside the watch-case and having a\ngnomon moving on a hinge so as to allow of its lying flat and being\nenclosed within the case when not in use.\n\nOur next illustration is of one of the earliest examples of a round\nwatch made in England, the date being 1593. It contains not only a\ndial showing the hour, but a sort of general calendar in miniature.\n\n+--------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: English Round Watch, 1593.] |\n+--------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nOf much about the same date is the following example in silver and\nbrass. It is of the same style of time-keeper, and shows how our\nforefathers liked to know not only the time of day but the period of\nthe month; and how they watched the moon's changes, and in a word\nmade an almanac of their watches.\n\n+--------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Oval Watch, 1593.] |\n+--------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nIt was not an unusual thing for religious persons who used rosaries at\ntheir devotions, to add to their beads a miniature skull, with a view\nit may be to remind themselves of the frailty of life by way of\nstimulus to the preparation for the future state. When watches were\ninvented the Memento Mori death's head was made into a watch-case, as\nin the illustration on page 44.\n\n+--------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Ancient Ornamental Watch.] |\n+--------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nThe Lauder family, of Grange and Fountain Hall, possess the _Memento\nMori_ Watch there engraved, they having inherited it from their\nancestors, the Setoun family. It was given by Queen Mary to Mary\nSetoun, of the house of Wintoun, one of the four Marys, maids of\nhonour to the Scottish Queen. This very curious relic must have been\nintended to be placed on a _prie-dieu_, or small altar, in a private\noratory; for it is too heavy to have been carried in any way attached\nto the person. The watch is of the form of a skull: on the forehead is\nthe figure of Death, standing between a palace and a cottage; around\nis this legend from Horace: '_Pallida mors \u00e6quo pulsat pede pauperum\ntabernas Regumque turres_.' On the hind part of the skull is a figure\nof Time, with another legend from Horace: '_Tempus edax rerum tuque\ninvidiosa vetustas_.' The upper part of the skull bears\nrepresentations of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, and of the\nCrucifixion, each with Latin legends; and between these scenes is\nopen-work, to let out the sound when the watch strikes the hours upon\na small silver bell, which fills the hollow of the skull, and\nreceives the works within it when the watch is shut.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Old English Calendar Watch.] |\n| |\n|[Illustration: 'Memento Mori' Watch belonging to Mary Queen of Scots.]|\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nNor about this time was the opportunity omitted of inculcating by\nmeans of pictorial watch illustrations, that Scriptural knowledge\nwhich was in the less educated times not so much taught by books as by\npictures. The watch case given on the following page is of about 1600.\nIt is obviously of English workmanship, and is a fair specimen of the\nperiod,--it may be, indeed, that, looking at it, one may well doubt\nwhether art has much advanced in watch-ornamentation during the last\n270 years or so.\n\nWe give our next illustration as another example of an ancient Table\nWatch. This watch has a revolving dial at the top, by means of which\nand the fixed point or hand the time is indicated (page 46).\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Watch-case (_circa_ 1600).] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nSuch was the state of clockwork when Galileo, the great astronomer,\nthen a medical student at Pisa, happened to discover, while gazing up\nat the roof of the cathedral when he should, perhaps, have been\ndevotionally occupied, that the lamps suspended therefrom by chains\nof equal lengths, swung, and made their vibrations in long or short\narcs, in almost the same space of time,--a fact, the truth of which he\nascertained by the beats of his pulse.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Table-Watch, _circa_ 1630.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nThis isochronal property, as it was called, was described in a\ntreatise which he published at Paris in 1639, entitled 'L'Usage du\nCadron ou de l'Horloge physique universelle.' The first application\nwhich Galileo made of his discovery was the professional one of\ntesting the rate and variations of the pulse, and it is even denied\nthat he did more than suggest its applicability to clockwork.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Ancient Silver Dial and Gold-cased Watch. One hand.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nThe honours of the invention of the pendulum-clock have been contested\nby Vincentio Galilei, son of the great astronomer, who is said to have\nmade a pendulum-clock at Venice in 1649, and Christian Huygens, a\nnoted Dutch mathematician, who (in his excellent treatise, 'De\nHorologio Oscillatorio,' which was the foundation of most of the\nsubsequent improvements in horometrical machines) clearly shows that\nhe had constructed a pendulum-clock previous to 1658. His reputation\nwill be somewhat obscured, however, if we yield to the claims of an\nEnglishman named Richard Harris, an ordinary workman, who, it is said,\ninvented the pendulum-clock which was fixed in the turret of St\nPaul's, Covent Garden, in 1642, and which is generally believed to\nhave been the first pendulum-clock in Europe. The pendulum when first\napplied to clocks was suspended by a silken cord, and the arc\ndescribed by the bob or weight at its end was a segment of a circle,\nbut it being found that this was in opposition to scientific\nknowledge, and that the curve described by it should properly be part\nof a cycloid or oval; Huygens tried to remedy the error by causing the\nsilk cord in its motion to side or strike against a curved piece of\nbrass, but he thereby caused a greater error than he corrected. Dr\nHooke afterwards suspended the pendulum by a thin flexible piece of\nsteel, the bending of which, as the pendulum swings from side to side,\nproduces the required cycloidal motion. In 1658 Dr Hooke invented the\nAnchor Escapement which is still in use together with the flexible\nspring to the pendulum above described. Before, however, we proceed\nfurther with our historical summary of the progress of watch and\nclock making, it may be well to introduce here two illustrations of\nthe watches worn by two of the most eminent Englishmen of about this\nperiod.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Ancient Box Watch.] |\n| |\n| [Illustration: The Watch of Oliver Cromwell.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nThe following watch was made about 1625 by Jonn Midwall in Fleet\nStreet, who was Warden of the Clockmakers' Co. in 1635, and died about\n1638. It is one of the early examples of a fob-watch. The case is of\nplain silver, fitted with glass over the face, and the chain of the\nsame metal. The family crest of Cromwell was a demi-lion holding a\nring in its paw, but the Protector substituted for the ring the handle\nof a tilting spear, as engraved on the chain; the Cromwell arms on\nthe reverse, and the initials O.C., certify to its genuineness. The\narms as engraved and the crest are identical with those on the banner\nused at the Protector's funeral. The silver seals which were at one\ntime attached to this chain are now absent, but they were a few years\nback in the possession of some descendants of the Cromwellian family,\nwho allowed Sir Charles Fellows to take impressions of them. The\nwatch, as it is here engraved, remained for upwards of a century in\nHolland, was there purchased by an English nobleman who presented it\nto his godson, and by him given to Sir C. Fellows, who believed that\nit was probably worn by Cromwell from 1625 until his death in 1658. In\nshape it reminds one of the Nuremberg egg watch. The following is an\nexcellent example of an early watch-case of the round shape still in\nuse.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Early Ornamental Round Watch-case.] |\n| |\n| [Illustration: John Milton's Watch, made by William Bunting, London, |\n| 1631.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nThe history of this watch is somewhat singular. From inscriptions\nwhich appear upon it, it seems to have been made by William Bunting,\n(whose name is entered upon the books of the Clockmakers' Co. as\nelected to their court in 1645, he being then resident in Pope's Head\nAlley, Cornhill,) in 1631, and presented to John Milton in the same\nyear, which was the date of the poet's leaving Christ's College,\nCambridge, and taking up his residence with his father in Horton,\nBuckinghamshire, he being then about 23 years of age. From that time\ndown to the early part of the present century we have no record of\nthe watch or its possessors, but that in 1819 it was bequeathed by the\nlast surviving member of an old family in Baltimore in the United\nStates, who had treasured it for some generations, to some old ladies\nresiding near London, the bequest including also a number of coins of\nthe reigns of Charles the 1st and 2nd, some medals of Fairfax and\nothers, as well as a few rings, but nothing of a later date. The chest\nwhich contained all these relics safely arrived in London, and not\nlong after was, with its contents, offered for sale to an eminent\nchronometer-maker. The coins and medals being in an excellent state of\npreservation were soon disposed of at high prices, but the watch being\nonly silver gilt, and steel-faced, was considered to be of little\nvalue, and a few shillings only were allowed as a fair price for it.\nIt was put into a drawer in its discoloured state and there remained\nuntil 1828, when for the first time the inscription on the face of it\nwas discovered upon its being accidentally cleaned up, and it was then\npresented to Sir Charles Fellows, well known for his connoisseurship\nin such matters, and as a collector of ancient time-pieces. The\nmaker's name upon the inside of this watch is thus given: 'Gulielmus\nBunting, London, 1631.' Sir Charles Fellows died in 1860 and\nbequeathed this one watch only to the nation; but his relict, Lady\nFellows, who died in 1874, left the whole of the celebrated collection\nof ancient watches which her husband had brought together, to the\nBritish Museum.\n\nIn 1675 Tompion, under Hooke's direction, made a watch with a spiral\nbalance for Charles II. Up to this period watches had but one hand and\nonly pointed the hours, but the spiral pendulum spring having been\napplied to the balance, it regulated the oscillations with some\nnicety, and the minute wheel and hand were soon after added.\n\nA watch was found upon Guido Fawkes when he was arrested for the\nGunpowder Plot, which had been purchased by Percy and himself the day\nbefore 'to try conclusions' for the long and short burning of the\ntouchwood with which he had prepared to set fire to the train of\npowder.\n\nThe following is one of the earliest examples we have met with of an\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Early Watch, with double case.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nIt is apparently of French make, date of 1660, and is a remarkably\nneat and small specimen of the watches of that time.\n\nThe annexed illustration is a curious example of a watch of the date\nof 1580, to which a pendulum was added in 1670, and which is still\ncapable of keeping time.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Ancient Watch with Pendulum.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nOur next illustration is another specimen of antique design and\nornamentation.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Ancient Brass Watch-case with lid protecting Dial.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nIn 1676 Barlow, a London clockmaker, invented some mechanism whereby a\nperson at night might ascertain, in the dark, the hour last struck, by\npulling a certain part of it, and this contrivance gave the name of\n_repeater_ to all time-pieces in which it was used. For this invention\nBarlow tried to obtain a patent, but he was opposed by Daniel Quare\nand the Clockmakers' Company, who said that Quare was the original\ninventor. The question was tried by James II., and the decision given\nin favour of Quare. The following memorandum was entered upon the\nbooks of the Company with reference thereto. '1688, Sep. 29.--Be it\nremembered that in pursuance of the order of the Court of the 8th day\nof February, 1687-8, and according to the order of the Court of the\n5th March, 1687-8, the patent endeavoured to be obtained by one Mr\nEdward Barlow, a priest, and to be granted to him by the king's\nmajesty for his sole making and managing of all pulling repeating\npocket-clocks and watches, he pretending to be the true and first\ninventor of that art and invention, was by diligence and endeavour of\nthe Master, Wardens, and Assistants of this Company, with great charge\nand expense, which was borne by and out of the stock of the Company,\nvery successfully prevented, and upon the 2nd March, 1687-8,\nordered by the king in Council not to be granted.'\n\nIn 1695 Tompion invented the cylinder escapement with horizontal\nwheel, but this was not brought into general use until some time\nafter, when it was much modified. It was, however, a very valuable\ninvention, and exercised considerable influence upon the shape of\nsubsequent watches, inasmuch as it dispensed with the vertical crown\nwheel, and permitted them to be made more flat and therefore more\nconveniently portable.\n\nWe now come to the time when the use of jewels was first invented and\napplied; and as these, by being so hard and uninfluenced by friction\nas to allow the pivots to play without wearing away,--as metal would\ndo by constant action,--afterwards gained for the English peculiar\nfame as manufacturers of watches, we shall be excused for enlarging\nupon this point. About the year 1700 Nicolas Facio, a native of\nGeneva, having invented the use of jewels in watches, and failed in\nhis attempt to persuade the Parisian watch-makers into the adoption of\nhis notions, came to London. In May, 1705, he and two other\nwatch-makers, Peter Debaufree and Jacob Debaufree, obtained a patent\nfor his invention to extend over fourteen years. In December, 1705, he\npetitioned, as we shall presently see, to be granted a more extended\nterm, and then the Clockmakers' Company opposed the application upon\nthe ground of the invention not being a novel one, and in proof of\ntheir statement produced the watch, of which we give an illustration,\nas made by Ignatius Huggeford, a member of their own Company, some\ntime before the application of the pendulum-spring. As this watch had\na large amethyst mounted upon the cock or pivot of the balance-wheel,\nthe Committee of the House of Commons were induced to decide against\nFacio's petition and to throw out his Bill.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Ignatius Huggeford's Original Jewelled Watch.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nThis watch has since then obtained an extensive historical reputation,\nand it is preserved in the archives of the Clockmakers' Company as one\nof their most valuable treasures, for it is the earliest known English\njewelled watch, and is the identical instrument produced before the\nHouse of Commons Committee, as evidence to upset, and which did upset,\npoor Facio's claim for an extension of patent. Alas, for ancient\nreputations, it has been but recently discovered that Huggeford's watch\nwas but a fraud, and that the jewel on the cock which deceived the\nParliamentary Committee into supposing that Ignatius Huggeford, an\nEnglishman, had applied jewels to watches long before Facio had been\nheard of, _has nothing to do with the working_ of the watch. The jewel\nhas been merely stuck on, just in the place where a jewel should be;\nbut as it is only fixed to the surface of the brass and no pivot plays\nin the jewel, it may be averred that the amethyst has no more to do with\nthe movement of the watch than the silver ornaments on the watch-case.\nIt is clear by the words in Facio's petition that his application of\njewelling to watches was not merely done with the idea of ornamenting\nthem,--in that there would have been no novelty,--and it seems probable\nthat the amethyst would have been placed upon the face of the watch if\nthe object of inserting it anywhere had simply been ornamentation; to\nspeak plainly, none other than a fraudulent purpose could be served by\nits being placed where it is. It is, we fear, not impossible that the\njewel was placed there at the insistence of some of the members of the\nClockmakers' Company, who, being perhaps jealous of the foreign\ninvention, and fearful of its effects upon their own private trade, were\nstill unable to prevent the grant of a patent, in May, 1703, for\nfourteen years to the inventor. But by December of that year, when\napplication was made for the extension of the patent, they had had time\nto consider affairs and to prepare their opposition. We may believe this\nwatch to have been Ignatius Huggeford's, and to have been all that it\nwas sworn to be by the members of that Company, but, when we remark that\nneither is any mention whatever made by them, nor, as far as it appears,\nany question asked of them before the Parliamentary Committee as to the\njewel being upon the cock during the whole of the time of its being in\ntheir possession, we cannot but arrive at the conclusion that the jewel\nwas placed upon Huggeford's old watch--the date of which could be\nshown--at the order of some of the members of the Clockmakers' Company\nwith the purpose of defeating the patent, and that the Committee of the\nHouse of Commons were not as careful as they ought to have been in\ninspecting the jewel, for if they had, they must have seen the want of\nconnexion between the amethyst and the pivot, which, it was pretended,\nwas working in it. The probability is that at this time our English\nwatch-makers scarcely knew how to apply a jewel, or otherwise they would\nhave inserted the pivot in a proper manner. The story is anyhow a very\nextraordinary one, for, supposing the Clockmakers' Company to be\ninnocent of conspiracy on the subject, it must have been a miraculously\ncurious whim which possessed old Huggeford to insert a jewel as an\nornament in a place where it would not be seen, and still more wonderful\nthat it should, sham as it was, be placed exactly where it should suit\nthe purpose of after-litigation. Of course there can be no imputation\narising out of this incident to affect the members of the Clockmakers'\nCompany of the present time, for they are no more answerable for what\nwas done above a century and a half ago than the Parliament of to-day is\nto be blamed for allowing the execution of Charles I., or for enacting\nthe laws which led to the loss of our American colonies.\n\nAfter the invention of jewels for watches came a still more important\ndiscovery.\n\nSince 1530, when Gemma Frisius first proposed to ascertain the\nrelative longitude of any place or ship at sea, by means of an\nhorological machine for indicating the time of the first meridian, the\nsubject had excited the attention of most of our philosophers, but\nunavailingly, as there was then no chronometrical instrument, upon\nwhich reliance might safely be placed. Huygens, in 1664, had contrived\na time-piece actuated by a spring and regulated by a pendulum, but the\npendulum was affected by the tossing of the ship, and by a change of\ntemperature, as well as being subject, as was afterwards discovered,\nto a variation in weight depending on the parallel of latitude. The\nAcademy of Sciences at Paris proposed, in 1720, a reward for the best\npaper in reply to the question:--'What is the most perfect method of\npreserving on the sea the equable motion of a pendulum?' The reward\nwas given to a Dutchman named Massy, but his plan was not carried out.\nAn English watch-maker named Henry Sully happened to be about this\ntime in Paris directing a large manufactory of chronometers, and he\npresented the French Academy with a marine time-keeper of superior\nconstruction to the time-pieces of that period, and accompanied his\ngift by a memoir describing it. Whilst still engaged in the study of\nhis art, Sully, who was a clever man, unfortunately died, and the\nopportunity of advance seemed to have passed away.\n\nAbout this time Graham invented the Mercurial Compensation pendulum,\nwhich consisted of a glass or iron jar filled with quicksilver and\nfixed to the end of the pendulum rod, which, when heat lengthened the\nrod, expanded simultaneously the quicksilver, and made the centre of\noscillation to continue at the same distance from the point of\nsuspension. He afterwards conceived a notion, which John Harrison\nsubsequently worked out, of making a compensation pendulum (or a\npendulum that should in itself contain the power of equalizing its own\naction, whatever the change of temperature), forming it of various\nmetals. In 1726 Harrison invented what is called the gridiron\npendulum, composed of nine rods, five of steel and four of brass,\nwhich are so arranged that those which expand most are counteracted\nupon by those of less expansion. These two compensation pendulums, the\ngridiron and mercurial, are still in use, and with slight improvements\nare found to keep to time very accurately.\n\nThe period had now arrived for the making of marine time-keepers\nsufficiently accurate for nautical use, and styled chronometers\nbecause they are most accurate time-measurers. Their value to\nnavigators, and the immense impetus which would by such instruments\nbe given to the science of navigation, had long been foreseen, but\nthere were many great difficulties in the way of obtaining a perfect\nchronometer. The sailor, before the invention of this instrument,\ncould ascertain the latitude of his ship at sea, by observation of the\nfixed stars. Supposing these stars to have first appeared to him in\nthe zenith, and at his next observation to be one, two, or three\ndegrees south of the zenith, he would know that he had sailed just so\nmany degrees north of the place in which he first observed them. It\nwas not, however, so easy for him to compute longitudes, because the\ndiurnal revolution of the earth causes each meridian to pass\nsuccessively under the same stars. It was necessary to have an\naccurate time-keeper, and to set it carefully to the solar time of\nsome port in the kingdom, whose longitude was well known. The\ntime-piece might then be carried out in a vessel sailing abroad, and\nthe computations made by means of it would prove most wonderfully\nexact and important. By simply observing the moment at which the sun\nreached his meridian, when of course it would be 12 o'clock at noon,\nsolar time, and then noting the difference between the solar time thus\nascertained and the time of the chronometer, the mariner would be able\nby calculating 15 degrees to one hour of time, or 15 geographical\nmiles to one minute, to make out his longitude. For example, if the\ntime-piece had been set to time at the meridian of Greenwich\nobservatory, and if it be one o'clock by the time-piece when it is\nmid-day, or meridian by the sun, then the place in which the longitude\nis taken must be in long. 15 degrees east of the meridian of\nGreenwich, and if it be eleven o'clock by the chronometer when the sun\nattains his meridian, then the place must be in long. 15 degrees west\nof the meridian of Greenwich. It is not indispensably necessary, that\nevery chronometer used for maritime purposes should keep time exactly\nwith that of the Greenwich observatory, or of any other instrument of\nknown excellence, provided always that its _rate_ as seamen call it,\nor the daily loss or gain of the chronometer, is well ascertained, and\nso may be computed in the calculations to be made. The indispensable\nrequisite of a chronometer, however, is that the daily loss or gain\nshall not vary materially from itself at different periods, or under\nthe changes of temperature of different climates, and these qualities\nbeing found in an instrument of any shape or make, constitute a marine\nchronometer.\n\nIt will be generally obvious of what immense and universal importance\nit was for men who 'go down to the sea in ships and do their business\non the great waters' to be provided with a chronometer, and so be\nenabled to calculate with a great degree of nicety,--almost as a\ntraveller by land learns his distances by milestones and\nfinger-posts,--the precise position on the wide ocean of the vessel\nthey are engaged in navigating. So impressed was the British\nParliament with the value of such an invention, that as early as 1714,\nin the reign of Queen Anne, a reward of \u00a310,000 was offered, for any\nmethod for determining the longitude within the accuracy of one\ndegree; of \u00a315,000 within the limit of 40 geographical miles; and of\n\u00a320,000 within the limit of 30 geographical miles, or half a degree,\nprovided such method should extend 80 miles from the coast. In 1736\nJohn Harrison invented the first chronometer, for which, after having\nadded many improvements, he received the gold medal of the Royal\nSociety in 1749. He still continued to persevere in improvements in\nhis instrument, and at last applied to be allowed to test its powers\nin such a voyage as might permit of proof of its value. After some\ntime his application was granted, and his son, William Harrison,\nembarked at Portsmouth, Nov. 18, 1761, for Jamaica. After eighteen\ndays sailing the vessel was computed to be 13\u00b0 50\u00b4 west of Portsmouth,\nwhen the distance calculated by the watch was 15\u00b0 19\u00b4. When the vessel\narrived at Madeira, on the 9th of December, it was found that the\nreckoning was corrected by the time of the piece, about a degree and a\nhalf. From Madeira to Jamaica the reckoning was amended 3\u00b0; and at the\nseveral islands where the ship touched the known longitudes agreed\nvery closely with those indicated by the chronometer. Upon having\nreturned again to England after a very stormy voyage, the instrument\nunderwent examination, and its entire error amounted to 1^m. 53^s. 5.\nHarrison, on this report being made, obtained from Parliament a reward\nof \u00a35000. A second experiment was afterwards made in 1764, in March of\nwhich year Harrison left Portsmouth with his instrument on board the\nTartar for Barbadoes. He had previously conveyed to the Lords of the\nAdmiralty his statement of the rates at which his chronometer went,\nand the extent to which it was affected by change of temperature. On\nMay 13th the vessel arrived at Barbadoes, and it was found that the\namount of the daily deviations from mean time was only 43^s. in\nexcess. He returned to England after an entire voyage of 156 days, and\nfound that, allowing the gain of one second per day as stated by him\nin his sealed 'rate,' the whole gain was only 54^s. Harrison then was\nexamined by a committee appointed for the purpose, and, having\nexplained satisfactorily to them the principles of his instrument, he\nreceived another \u00a35000. A trial was then made by another person with a\nchronometer made upon Harrison's plan, and this experiment also\nterminating favourably, the remaining parliamentary reward was paid\nover to Harrison, amounting in all to \u00a320,000, a sum which was still\nfurther increased by gratuities from the Board of Longitude and the\nEast India Company.\n\nHarrison's improvements in time-measuring were of considerable\nimportance, as any one may readily conceive, but he was sufficiently\ncandid to acknowledge that the balance, balance-spring, and\ncompensation curb, as then used, were not simultaneously affected by\nchanges of temperature, that small pieces were more readily affected\nthan large ones, and pieces in motion sooner than pieces at rest,\nwhence he concluded that if the provision for heat and cold could\nproperly be arranged in the balance itself, as in his gridiron\npendulum-clocks, the time might be better kept.\n\nHarrison's suggestion of a compensation balance in lieu of a\ncompensating curb, incited Peter le Roy, a native of France, to the\nconsideration of the question, and ultimately to the invention of a\nbalance acted upon by mercury and alcohol. The compensation was\neffected by the balance itself, which, carrying the two thermometers,\nadjusted the mercury nearer or farther from the centre of the balance,\naccording to the state of the atmosphere.\n\nAbout this period there was considerable emulation exhibited, both\nhere and on the continent, upon the subject of time-measuring. Sully\nhad aided largely in the advancement of the art of watch-making in\nLondon and Paris. Berthoud, Julien, and Pierre le Roy made many\ningenious propositions, and amongst others the invention of the\ndetached escapement is attributed to the last-named.\n\nIn England we find the names of Arnold, Earnshaw, and Mudge associated\nabout this date with the greatest improvements in chronometry, and as\nbeing those to whom prizes were at different times awarded by the\nBoard of Longitude. In fact, few great inventions have since been made\nin the art, and our present high position as chronometer-makers is\nmainly due to the skill, energy, and perseverance then exhibited.\n\nIt would be superfluous to give any detailed description of the many\nvaluable advantages derived from the science of horology, to which\nindeed all arts, sciences, trades, and callings are considerably\nindebted, and will probably be still more so in proportion to the\nincrease of the use of steam-power and electricity. As by means of\nthese recently-discovered powers mankind are enabled to compress into\na day what would previously have required weeks and even months to\naccomplish, so must they regard with higher esteem, as these\nimprovements are extended, the science by means of which they may\ndivide and subdivide the precious minutes which are sufficient to\nperform so much. It will be worth while by way of illustration to\npoint to the assistance given by horology to astronomical and nautical\nscience. It is by means of carefully-made and exact chronometers that\nwe calculate the distance and relations of the various heavenly bodies\nto ourselves and to one another. Having ascertained, by comparison,\nthe rapidity of light and sound, and that the former travels at the\nrate of 192,000 miles per second, we discover that the light of the\nsun requires eight minutes to reach the earth, and thus compute the\nsun's actual distance from us. So also observing the number of seconds\nwhich elapse between the flash of lightning and the roll of thunder,\nor between the flash and report of a cannon, and remembering that in\nmild weather sound travels at the rate of 1123 feet, and in frosty\nweather 1080 feet in a second, we shall be able, on making allowances\nfor the state of the atmosphere, to arrive at a tolerably correct\nconclusion as to distances. It is by means of a chronometer, though it\nbe but a sand-glass, that the sailor uses his log-line at sea and\nfinds the rate of his vessel's speed. His lead, enclosed in the log,\nor wood, is attached to the log-line, which has certain lengths called\nknots marked upon it for nautical miles, and according to the knots\npaid out in the half-minute of the sand-glass, so is the ship's rate\nof sailing, _i. e._, if ten knots are passed in half a minute the\nvessel's speed is at the rate of ten miles an hour.\n\nIt would be both impossible and unnecessary to describe the various\nexperiments in which it is of great consequence to measure time into\nminute proportions,--the number of these increases with advancing\nscience; it will suffice if we have made the subject sufficiently\ninteresting to the general reader to induce him to inquire further\ninto the details. It is only by such investigations that he will be\nenabled to give anything like a proper answer to the question 'What is\nTime?'\n\n\n\n\nMODERN WATCHES:\n\nTHEIR VARIETIES AND MODES OF MANUFACTURE.\n\n 'He that would wear a watch two things must do,--\n Pocket his watch and watch his pocket too.'--_Old Maxim._\n\n\nThe first possession of a watch by young persons of either sex is\nperhaps one of the most vividly retained of all their early memories.\nThe sense of responsibility, of importance, which such a wonderful\nlittle piece of mechanism gives to them, the alacrity with which they\nthenceforth note the flight of time and compare the working of all\nother time-pieces, is remarkable. One of the first things usually done\nby the juvenile with his or her watch is, curiously enough, to\nchallenge thereby the performance of the old-established time-pieces\nin the house,--even the infallible old Hall Clock, a very Nestor among\nclocks, does not escape scrutiny. Woe be to his ancient reputation if,\nwhen 'weighed by the new balances'--compensation or otherwise,--he be\n'found wanting.' The yet unfledged urchin will, upon the evidence of\nhis own newly-acquired chronometer, unhesitatingly expose and\ndenounce the slightest delinquency of the antique time-piece, and\npride and plume himself accordingly. At this time of day, when watches\nof a sound and durable kind may be had for a comparatively small sum,\nand when education commences so early, it may be supposed that youths\nattain earlier to years of discretion, and so rise to the dignity of\nwatch-wearers sooner than their predecessors did. Anyhow, the value of\ntime can scarcely be inculcated at too juvenile an age, nor can it be\nbrought home to the mind of the pupil without providing him with the\nmeans of studying the operations of his own personal time-keeper. From\nthe hour when such a gift comes into his possession until the latest\nday of his life a watch remains his indispensable mentor, and,\nliterally, his bosom-friend. There are few, perhaps none, who can look\nupon the face of an old watch, their day and night companion for many\nyears, without associating it with the bygone times when it reckoned\noff for them their moments of pain or anxiety, their joys and sorrows.\nThere is perhaps scarcely any memento of a friend or relative so\nsuggestive as that semi-living object which has been his constant\nfriend for so long, the chief valuable of all his 'portable property.'\n\nOur Old English popular rhymes and songs have frequently been pointed\nwith witticisms directed at the care with which watches have been\nguarded, or the dexterity with which they have been filched away. Who\ncan overlook the evergreen old dramatic joke, of which the point\nconsisted in connecting the time-teller with the name of the ancient\nstreet-guardian; _e.g._:--\n\n 'I knocked him down, then snatched it from his fob.\n \"Watch, watch!\" cried he, when I had done the job;\n \"My watch is gone!\" said he: said I, \"Just so,\n Stop where you are, watches were made to go.\"'\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: The Horizontal Watch.] |\n| |\n| [Illustration: The Skeleton Lever Watch.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nWho can forget Dickens's description of the watch of the wonderful\nCaptain Cuttle, which, if you set so far forward at night and so far\nbackward in the morning, was asserted to be 'a watch that would do\nanybody credit;' or again, how can we omit mention of that earlier\nDickensian figure, mentioned by Sam Weller, wearing his enormous watch\nwith so much happy fearlessness, his seals dangling from his fob, the\ncontinual temptation and despair of eager pick-pockets, whose\nineffectual efforts to abstract the watch from such a tightly-protuberant\nstomach, were the never ceasing delight of its jolly proprietor? Who\nshall narrate the characteristics of the various fashions in watches,\nand the trinkets that were worn along with them, the manners of the\nfine gentlemen who carried two at a time soon after swords were exchanged\nfor walking-canes, and when pantaloons anticipated the easier but less\ngraceful trowsers? Snuff-boxes, bag-wigs, pig-tails, high cravats,\nshoe-buckles, have all gone more or less out of fashion, but the watch\nis a perennial, which may indeed change its outer-casing and its\ndecorations, like man himself, but knows no period of absolute\ndisuse since first it started into being.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: The Full Plate Patent English Lever.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Three-Quarter Plate English Lever.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nFrom the time when the first Nuremberg egg-watch was produced, there\nhas always been noticeable an endeavour to make pocket time-pieces\nmore and more small and portable so far as they could be made so\nconsistently with their durability. Sometimes the love of very minute\nworkmanship has been carried to an extreme, but toy-watches of\neccentric shapes and patterns are but the few exceptions to the\ngeneral rule, which has settled that usefulness and convenience are\nbest provided for within certain moderate sizes, and that of all\nshapes the round and flat are the most easily carried. The great\nobject of the watch-maker's ambition is to produce a time-keeper\nminutely accurate, and yet not so delicately constructed that it\ncannot withstand the rough usage to which even moderately careful\nwearers subject it.\n\nIt has been estimated that the manufacture of and trade in watches\nannually in England, France, Switzerland, and America, amount to over\n\u00a35,000,000 per ann.; and that in Switzerland alone there are 38,000\npersons, one-third of whom are women, engaged in the manufacture. It\nis probable that even the immense number of new watches thus annually\nproduced barely exceeds the growing requirements of the people, who,\nas they increase in intelligence and receive higher wages, soon learn\nthe advantage of personally possessing a pocket time-keeper, and make\nit accordingly their first ambition to purchase one. The Watch Clubs\nwhich are formed in the various towns and rural districts throughout\nthe kingdom enable this desire to be gratified at but small pecuniary\ninconvenience, inasmuch as payment is thus made in small instalments\nat fixed intervals, and the watch is bought with sums which might have\nbeen spent thoughtlessly and to no permanent benefit. This first\nlesson in thrift having been well learnt, and the result being so\npalpably beneficial to those who exercise it, has often laid the basis\nof a regular habit of economy.\n\nThe motive power in the watch is derived, not as in the clock from\nweights, but from a spiral spring called THE MAINSPRING, set in a\ndrum or barrel, and any inequality in the pressure of the spring is\nfatal to regular time-keeping. A highly tempered and finished spring\nis a primary requisite in watch-making; in order to provide for the\nuniform transmission of motive power from the barrel throughout the\ntrain to the escapement, the fusee and chain are used, the fusee being\na hollow-sided cone, and the chain round it. When the spring is wound\nup its force is of course greatest, for the chain is then acting on\nthe smallest end of the fusee. The proportions of the barrel to the\ncentre wheel, and the size of the teeth in that wheel, have all to be\ncarefully planned, and adjusted to one another, and these all again to\nthe moving of the hands upon the dial.\n\nThe ESCAPEMENT is one of the most important parts of the mechanism of\na watch. It may be one of either of the following.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Verge Escapement.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nThe _Verge_ escapement, as applied to Watches, will be seen annexed,\nA, part of the balance; _b_, the verge body; C, C, the pallets; D, the\nescape-wheel; E, escape-wheel pinion. The verge or arbor B of the\nbalance has two pallets, C, C, which stand out at right angles, so as\nto be acted on alternately by the sloping teeth in the opposite sides\nof the crown or escapement-wheel, C.\n\nThe _Horizontal_ escapement, on the following page, so called because\nof the escape-wheel acting horizontally to the axis of the balance.\nThis invention was perfected by Graham, after the death of the\ninventor, his master and friend, Thomas Tompion. _a_, the\nescape-wheel, having pins or stems rising from it, on the tops of\nwhich are teeth of a wedgelike form, of such a length as to permit\nlittle freedom within and without the cylinder _b_, which is firmly\nfixed to the balance _c_. Although _b_ is one piece, the two edges of\nthe hollow part serve as distinct pallets, inasmuch as they receive\nalternately, during each vibration of the balance, an impulse from the\ncurved outer edge of each tooth in succession; and as the wedge-shaped\ntooth passes from the pallet, the coming tooth falls on to the\ncircular part of the cylinder, and there remains until the return of\nthe balance, when that tooth which had previously rested on the\ncircular portion of the cylinder, comes upon the edge or pallet, gives\nimpulsion to the balance _c_, and falls upon the concave portion of\nthe cylinder, and there remains until the balance again returns, when\nanother impulse takes place, and so on in succession. Watches having\nthe cylinder escapement were not known in France till the year 1728,\nwhen Julien le Roy obtained one of them from Graham.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Horizontal Escapement.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Duplex Escapement.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nThe _Duplex_ escapement is of a very peculiar construction, and nearly\napproaches the chronometer; it is probable that it was originally\ninvented by Dr Hooke, although, as we now have it, it came from the\nhands of Tyrer. It is seen in our illustration. A, the escape-wheel; B,\nthe escape-wheel teeth; C, the balance; D, the pallet of impulse; E, the\nruby roller; F, a notch in ditto: 1, 2, 3, cogs or upright teeth on the\nrim of the escape-wheel. The balance is supposed to be turning downwards\ntowards the right, the tooth of the escape-wheel just resting against\nthe ruby roller. When this (which is called the return) vibration is\ncomplete, the balance, by the strength of the hair spring, is carried in\nthe opposite direction, and as the notch F passes the tooth of the\nescape-wheel, this latter is enabled to pass the roller, and the upright\ntooth or cog falls upon the pallet D, and thus gives impulse to the\nbalance. The next straight tooth of the escape-wheel is now resting\nagainst the roller _e_, and the same operation again takes place. This\nescapement is much superior to the horizontal, and is almost independent\nof oil. It can carry a balance of much greater weight, and when well\nmade performs admirably. Duplex watches, however, should never be\nselected by persons who are accustomed to ride on horseback, as these\ninstruments are liable to be affected by any sudden motion. Even the\nstepping quickly from a vehicle may stop them, and yet the escapement be\nas perfect as possible. They are only adapted for persons of very quiet\nhabits. Thomas Mudge, in the year 1766, introduced an admirable\ninvention, which, after many alterations and improvements, is now\nuniversally known as the '_Patent Detached Lever_' escapement,\nrepresented by--_a a_ the escapement-wheel, _b b_ the ruby pallets, _c_\nthe lever, _d_ the balance. On the axis of the balance _d_, towards the\nlever _c_, is a small disc of steel, into which is inserted a small pin\nmade of ruby. This pin fits with great nicety into a notch or opening in\nthe end of the lever _c_, upon which are firmly fixed the two pallets _b\nb_, into which are secured rubies very finely polished. The balance in\nits vibration on either side, carrying with it the steel disc and ruby\npin, causes that pin to enter the notch in the lever and carry the lever\nwith it, and at the same time, to draw the pallet from the tooth of the\nescapement-wheel _a_. Power being exerted upon this wheel by the\nmainspring, the wheel tooth gets disengaged from the locking-face of the\npallet, forces itself down the slopes of the pallet, and thus gives\nimpulse to the balance. At each vibration the same unlocking takes\nplace, but as soon as the wheel tooth falls from the slope, the opposite\npallet is prepared to receive the advancing tooth of the\nescapement-wheel, and so on in succession beat after beat takes place.\nSo excellent was this escapement considered a few years back, that\nchronometers were made upon the principle, and placed in the Royal\nObservatory for public trial. But since then many improvements have been\nmade in it, so that makers are now enabled to produce a pocket watch,\nwith the short angle lever escapement, which marks time at a steady rate\nof within four or five seconds weekly,--a rate which approaches so near\nto the time-keeping of a pocket chronometer, that unless the minutest\nexactness for some specific purpose is required, the last-named watch is\nall that can be wished for.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Lever Escapement.] |\n| |\n| [Illustration: Chronometer Escapement.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nAbout the year 1780 was invented the escapement which is now denominated\nthe Detached or _Chronometer Escapement_ (see opposite page), the\nprinciples of which are the nearest approach to perfection, the impulse\nto the balance being given at the centre of vibration. A is the\nescape-wheel, B the escape-wheel teeth, C the roller let on the verge,\nor axis of the balance. This roller is a circle of polished steel, with\na notch cut out of it, into one side of which, D, a flat polished piece\nof ruby is inserted for the acting part. Below this steel roller,\ncarried on the same verge, is a smaller roller of steel (E),\ndenominated the discharging pallet, having a sapphire fixed on its outer\nedge. F is a slender spring, which is screwed at I to the stouter one,\nhaving its fixture at the stud L, and polished away very thin at K, in\norder that it may bend readily, so as to cause very little resistance to\nthe balance while forcing it on one side. G is a projecting piece,\ncarrying an upright pin made of ruby, against which the wheel tooth B\nrests; at B is a small screw against which the spring L K G strikes, and\nthus prevents it from springing too far back. The action of these parts\nis as follows:--When at rest the circular edge of C is just clear of the\ntwo teeth of the wheel B, which cannot be set in motion while E and G\nremain quiescent; G rests against the screw at B, and the tooth resting\nagainst the locking pallet G, the escapement-wheel cannot turn. To set\nthe chronometer going it is necessary to give it a rotary motion, which\nsets the balance in action. This causes the lower piece on the verge\n(called the lifting piece or discharging pallet) to strike against the\nend of the spring F, which, from its over-lapping the curved end of the\nprolonged spring K G, pushes it back, and thus releases the pin or\nlocking stone G from before the tooth of the wheel: that is, it unlocks\nthe escapement-wheel, which is immediately set in motion by the force\nof the mainspring. The same vibration given to balance and verge brings\nthe ruby pallet D round before the tooth B, which strikes against it and\ncarries it round. The recoil of the spring F has now brought the locking\npallet G to catch the tooth B, the escapement-wheel is thus again\nstopped. But the stroke of the tooth upon the face of the ruby pallet D\nhas driven the balance on in its vibration till it is counteracted by\nthe tension of the balance spring, which brings it back again; in this\nreturn vibration the lifting pallet E, by its curved back, pushes the\nslender spring F before it, and passes it without affecting K, G, which\nis stiff enough to remain unmoved by F, even when this strikes and rests\nagainst it in recoiling. The wheel, therefore, continues locked on the\nupright pallet G, and the vibration proceeds uncontrolled till the great\npallet is again brought round, and the balance spring again checks the\nvibration, the above process being repeated. In this escapement,\nconsequently, part of one vibration in one direction, and the whole of\nthat in the other, is performed without the balance being in any way\nunder the influence of the motive power; while the parts are so\ncontrived that the impulse given by the tooth of the escape-wheel,\naffects in a very slight degree the natural motion of the balance. It\ncan be easily understood that the lifting pallet E can pass the spring F\nin one direction without moving K and G, while in the other it carries E\nand G with it.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Compensation Balance.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nSeveral appliances have been from time to time introduced to correct\nthe error in time-keeping caused by variations in the temperature, but\nnone have come into such general use as that known by the term\n'_Compensation Balance_,' invented by Thomas Earnshaw, of London, and\nfor which he received a government reward. This balance, when properly\nadjusted, causes the watch to keep the same time whether the\ntemperature be 32 deg. or 90 deg.; while without it a watch will show\na considerable difference in time, on being merely transferred from\nthe pocket to the dressing-table, where, probably, the temperature\nwould not be so high. Our woodcut represents a balance of this kind;\nthe divided rim A A, is composed of steel and brass run together by\nfusion, the more expansible metal, brass, being placed outwards, the\nresult of which is as follows:--Heat elongates the pendulum spring,\nand thereby causes a slower vibration of the balance. The same amount\nof heat will also expand the metals composing the balance; but as the\ninner rim of steel does not expand so freely as the outer one of\nbrass, the conflicting action of the two tends to draw the free end of\nthe circular rim inwards towards its centre, and thus decreases in all\nbut one direction the diameter of the balance. This decrease tends to\n_quicken_ its vibration, and thus counteracts the effect of the\nelongation of the pendulum spring. In cold temperatures the pendulum\nspring is contracted, making the vibrations quicker, but the\ncontraction of the brass rim draws the free end outwards, thus\nincreasing its diameter, retarding its vibrations, and counteracting\nthe effect of the contraction of the pendulum spring.\n\nMany contrivances have been introduced to test the equality of\ncompensation balances, but the majority have been abandoned from the\ncircumstance that the heat was not equally distributed to the watches\nunder trial. In pursuance of this object, an oven was invented, heated\nby hot water, which answers the desired end. It is an apparatus made\nof copper, two feet high, thirteen inches broad, and eight inches\ndeep. From the top to the bottom, at the distance of fifteen inches,\nit is divided into two compartments. All around the upper one (except\nthe front, which has a glass door through which the chronometers and\nwatches are seen without opening it) is one inch of water. It has a\nchamber thirteen inches high, eleven inches broad, and seven inches\ndeep for the reception of chronometers and watches. The water is\nintroduced at the top in the same manner as a solar lamp is supplied\nwith oil. The bottom compartment contains a jet of gas, which can at\npleasure be regulated so as to keep the watch at any required\ntemperature. The heat radiated from the inner surface of the\nchronometer chamber is thus equally distributed among the instruments\nunder trial. A thermometer placed within the upper chamber indicates\nthe temperature, and by this simple apparatus a watch can be regulated\nwith the greatest nicety to suit the particular climate into which it\nmay be taken.\n\nThe DIAL AND HANDS should be sufficiently in contrast one to the other\nto show the time at a glance. Dials are sometimes made of gold or\nsilver, but these are not so distinctly seen as white enamelled dials,\nwith black figures or numerals, and dark blue steel hands; the\nenamelled faces, although, perhaps, more brittle than gold or silver\ndials, are therefore in greatest request. Up to a comparatively recent\ndate the seconds' hand was placed upon the level face of the watch,\nbut sunk seconds are now everywhere in use, even in the cheaper sorts\nof watches. The chief objection taken to the sunk seconds is that it\ndisfigures the dial by breaking the uniformity of the numeral letters,\nthe VI being of course obliterated to make room for it, but this\nobliteration seems of smaller consequence than the confusion which may\narise from the use of longer seconds' hands and their being at any\ntime mistaken for that of the hour or minute.\n\nThe JEWELLING of a watch is an important part of its manufacture,\ninasmuch as it is by means of jewels that durability is chiefly\nsecured. Watch pivots would rapidly wear out the metal in those parts\nin which there is continual friction, and jewelling has therefore\nbecome general. The watch-maker uses for his best watches a peculiarly\nhard kind of ruby, which has been known to withstand the wear and tear\nof the best part of a century without showing symptoms of yielding,\nwhereas inferior jewels are perhaps scarcely so hard as the best\ntempered metal.\n\nThe FRAME, usually of brass gilt, sustains both ends of each axis, and\nis now principally designed to fit a full-plate movement or a\nthree-quarter-plate movement. The former is undoubtedly the more simple\nconstruction, but with considerable disadvantage in taking to pieces the\nwatch and putting it together again when repairs are needed. The\nexamination of the escapement in a full-plate watch, and the cleaning,\nor altering, or oiling which may be needed, cannot be done without\ntaking the whole movement to pieces. The three-quarter-plate movement is\nnot only preferable on account of its superiority in respect to\nsolidity, and the economy of labour in its manufacture, but from its\nbeing flatter than the full-plate watch, and allowing of repairs being\nmore easily made.\n\nThe WATCH-CASE, which used to be of various materials, such as\ntortoiseshell, pinchbeck, or one of the precious metals, is now almost\nuniversally of gold or silver. Silver cases are invariably of the\nstandard required by the law and stamped accordingly; gold cases vary in\nfineness,--some being made and stamped of 9 carat gold, but the best\nfor wear, and as such preferred by the best makers, are of 18 carats,\nand are stamped as such with the hall mark, usually in three or four\nplaces,--on the bow, the pendant, and the inside of the case. Much\ndepends upon the care with which this part of a watch is finished, for\nan ill-fitting case admits dust which renders frequent cleaning\nnecessary, and prevents accurate time-keeping. After the casemaker has\nconstructed the case it has to pass through several hands before it is\ncompleted,--for instance, it is one man's work to fit the works to the\ncase by making the joint at the 12 o'clock and the bolt at 6 o'clock,\nand to supply the wheels to propel the hands; it is another's to perform\nthe part of engine turner, and to mark the case with those curiously\nintricate lines whose wonderful precision cannot be secured by mere\nhand-work, but by a combination of mechanical and human labour;\nanother's to finish the joints, or, as the uninitiate would perhaps call\nthem, the hinges; and last of all the fitter of the case with springs,\nand polisher to give the necessary finish. In the same way has each part\nof the mechanism of the interior passed through a series of workmen's\nhands. Nearly every wheel and pinion has been separately made by men\nwhose entire time is given to the perfecting of their several branches\nof labour, the subdivisions of which and their ramifications would need\nmany lengthy chapters of description, to do them justice. The\nescapement is of itself a distinct department requiring a number of\nco-operating hands, from those which first shape the metal to the\nbalance-maker working in brass, steel, or gold, and the final adjustment\nof the escapement-maker. The chain, the spring, the jewelling, the\nbrass-work, the engraving, the gilding, have each their separate\nhistory, some of them being brought from one district and some from\nanother, to be put together in the watch manufactory, which is finally\nto produce them unitedly as an entire watch. Division of labour provides\na larger amount of skilled work, and a more satisfactory result, than\nany other method. The workman whose entire life is spent in making the\nhead of a pin or in fixing it on, will do his work better than the man,\nhowever clever he may be, who should attempt to make the whole pin; and\nnot only is the work thus better done, but it is done by combination\nmuch more expeditiously and cheaply. All that the watch-manufacturer can\ndo by way of choosing his materials is, however, of course, but\nantecedent to his own work of actual construction, of finishing,\nexamining, and regulating. He is to the watch what the architect is to a\nhouse; the latter is none the less the rearer of the structure because\nhe did not himself make the bricks, or saw the timber, or mix the\nmortar. Each subordinate brings certain materials to the hand of the\nconstructor, and he combines them, and gives them their places, he\nturns them into shape and produces them as a perfect whole. So the\nwatch-manufacturer, instead of going himself back through the various\nstages of work which in Nuremberg-egg time had, perhaps, all to be done\nby one pair of hands, chooses, adapts, combines the labours of hundreds\nof busy collaborateurs, all of whom have made portions and pieces,--he\nalone makes the Watch.\n\nCOMPLICATED WATCHES are so called because besides the ordinary watch\nmovement they possess other mechanism more or less complicated, by\nmeans of which they can indicate special portions of time,--as for\ninstance the _Chronograph_, which marks on its dial the fifth of a\nsecond; the _Quarter_, and _Half-Quarter_, and _Minute Repeaters_,\nwhich furnish the time in the dark to within a minute, and are\ninvaluable to invalids and blind persons; the _Clock-Watch_, which\nstrikes the hours even in the pocket; the _Clock-Watch Repeater_,\nwhich strikes and repeats; the _Independent split Centre Seconds, and\nFifth Seconds Watch_, which shows (by comparing the one with the\nother) the lapse of time to the fifth of a second; the _Perpetual\nCalendar Watch_, which shows the day of the week and of the month, the\nname of the month, the phases of the moon, &c.; the _Perpetual\nCalendar Repeating Watch_, which in addition to the calendar shows by\na repeater the hour, quarter, and minute; and the _Meridian Watch_,\nwhich shows the time of day in any given number of places in any part\nof the world. A few words descriptive of the peculiarities of each of\nthe above complicated watches will be necessary here, and observing\nthe sequence as above, the following brief particulars will perhaps be\nsufficient for ordinary reference, or for being kept in memory.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Complicated Watches.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nThe CHRONOGRAPH is undoubtedly the most perfect instrument yet\ninvented for marking the exact time occupied by certain rapid\nmovements or events or performances,--and is therefore well adapted\nfor astronomical and medical observations, for timing machinery, for\nindicating the speed of a race, and of similar quick events even to\nthe tenth of a second. It consists of an ordinary quick train lever\nmovement on a scale sufficiently large to carry the hands for an\n8-inch dial. The peculiar feature of the chronograph is its second\nhand, which is double, consisting of two distinct hands,--the one\nlying over the other. The lower of the two is furnished at the tip\nwith a small reservoir having an extremely small orifice below; over\nthis orifice the point of the upper hand is bent so as to fall exactly\nupon the puncture, and to convey through it, as with a pen, the ink\nheld in the reservoir. The mode of operating with the chronograph at a\nrace has been thus described. 'The chronograph is held firmly in the\nleft hand of the operator, who watches the starters, but need not\ntrouble himself to keep at the same time an eye upon the dial. At the\nmoment of the start he presses the finger or thumb of his right hand\ngently upon the button of the pendant, and instantly a black dot is\ndeposited on the dial, and--the operator being ready to touch the\nbutton at the precise moment of the finish, and thus to complete what\nwe may call the chronogram of the event--the exact length of the race\nis registered, even to a decimal fraction of a second, and an\nindisputable record written by the instrument itself in black and\nwhite. The chronograph, it should be mentioned is, apart from its\nchronographic mechanism, an excellent time-keeper, and may be worn as\nan ordinary watch, being the same size as a gentleman's lever watch.\n\nREPEATING WATCHES are now made so as to require no key. They are\nconstructed with a lever or chronometer escapement, and are known\naccording to their method of repeating,--the ordinary _Repeater_\nstrikes the hours and quarters,--the _Half-quarter Repeater_ strikes\nthe hours, quarters, and half-quarters,--the _Minute Repeater_ strikes\nhours, quarters, and minutes. The first tells the time in the dark or\nto the blind person to within a quarter of an hour, the second tells\nit within seven minutes and a half, the third tells it to the minute.\n\nThe CLOCK WATCH and CLOCK REPEATING WATCH are also made so as to need\nno key. They strike the hours and quarters while being worn in the\npocket, and have not only the two trains of wheels for going and\nstriking as in a clock, but a third train provided for repeating\npurposes. Both mainsprings are wound up by the same winder by a\nforward and backward action of the pendant. They are constructed with\neither Lever, Duplex, or Chronometer Escapements, and some are\nprovided with compensation balances adjusted to act equally at\nextremes of temperature.\n\nTHE INDEPENDENT CENTRE SECONDS WATCH is peculiarly adapted for the use\nof the medical profession. By means of its two trains it carries,\nbesides the ordinary hands denoting hours, minutes, and seconds, a\nlong seconds hand which can be stopped without stopping the watch. It\nis made with a stem winder, and therefore requires no key.\n\nTHE SPLIT CENTRE SECONDS is not quite so complicated as the last\nnamed. It has two centre second hands revolving round the dial, the\none directly over the other, as also, in another part of the dial, a\nsmall hand revolving five times in a second. Upon pressing a\nstop-piece one of the long second hands is stopped, and another\npressure will stop the other--the space between the two hands will\nthen indicate precisely the time occupied by the event which it is\ndesired to measure. Another push to the stop-piece will make both\nhands again fly together, and enable the operator it may be to make a\nnew experiment or observation.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: The Perpetual Calendar Keyless Watch.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nTHE PERPETUAL CALENDAR KEYLESS WATCH, shows on its dial the year, the\nmonth of the year, the day of the month, the day of the week, the phases\nof the moon, as well as hours, minutes, and seconds. It requires no\nsetting, as the old-fashioned Calendar Watch did at certain intervals,\nbut, by a very ingenious contrivance, the changes from month to month,\nas for example from February 28th to the 1st of March, or from 30th or\n31st of other months to the 1st of the next, are all performed by the\nwatch, which also of itself marks the extra day for Leap Year. When to\nall the above are added, as is sometimes done, the Minute Repeating Work\nto repeat the hours, quarters, and minutes, it may be said that the\npower of complication can no farther go within the limits of the small\nbox which is called a watch case,--for these watches are provided with\neither Lever, Duplex, or Chronometer Escapements as may be preferred,\nand with compensation balances adjusted to serve in extremes of\ntemperature. But in the examples set forth in the following\nillustrations, it will be seen that superadded to all the foregoing are\na thermometer, and an index showing the calendar by the old and new\nstyle, as indicated by the words Gregorian and Russian,--the former\nreferring to Pope Gregory who decreed the alteration to the new style,\nand the latter to the fact that the Russians still reckon by the old\nstyle.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Perpetual Calendar.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nTHE COMPLICATED PERPETUAL CALENDAR AND INDEPENDENT SECONDS KEYLESS\nWATCH, is another example of this kind of mechanism, which, without\nbeing re-set from time to time for leap year and other changes, keeps\na perpetual register of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months,\nand years, shows Old and New Styles, the phases of the moon, and\nvariations of heat and cold. It has also two separate trains of\nwheels and two mainsprings, both of which are wound up by the button\nat the pendant. It will be seen that the dial has two hour circles\nwith hour and minute hands showing separate time. Below the centre is\nthe sunk seconds dial with two seconds hands, the one over the other,\nand each working independently, so that the one may be stopped by a\npush at the button of the pendant and yet the other go on, to be in\nits turn stopped, so that the operator may use it as a stopwatch.\nUnderneath the hour hands of each circle is the hand showing the month\nand the day of the week. The two centre hands, with the letters G and\nR, are pointing to the days of the month, and showing the Gregorian\nand Russian day. In the small square space just below the centre is\nthe year, and below this and lying over the second hands is another\nhand pointing to the degrees of temperature to which the watch is\nexposed; near the top of the dial is a small plate showing the phases\nof the moon,--the position indicated in this illustration is that of\nfull moon.\n\nThe MERIDIAN WATCH shows the time of day in any number of places in\nany part of the world. It is set to Greenwich time, and marks the\ndifference between this and the time of all the great metropolitan\ncities in both hemispheres,--as St Petersburg, Constantinople, New\nYork.\n\nThe name CHRONOMETER,--derived from the\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: The Meridian Watch.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nGreek, and meaning a time-measurer,--is chiefly applied to marine\ntime-pieces and to watches which have been carefully made with\nchronometer or detached escapements and compensating balances serving\nto equalize the effects of heat and cold. MARINE CHRONOMETERS are the\nchief instruments for discovering the longitude at sea, and are\ntherefore subjected to special tests at Greenwich observatory and\nelsewhere before being sent on board ship. They have dials of three or\nfour inches in diameter, hour, minute, and second hands, besides a\nhand to indicate the day upon which the instrument was last wound\nup,--and they are made to go from two to eight days. Being well\nmounted on gimbals inside of an air and water-tight brass case they do\nnot toss about with the motion of the ship but always preserve their\nequilibrium. For extra protection they are generally kept enclosed in\na mahogany case. Chronometers have for their motive power, like\nwatches and spring-clocks, a mainspring acting on the fusee by the\nchain,--as the chain winds upon the fusee the force of the spring is\nso equalized that it is exactly the same whatever the position of the\nchain. When marine chronometers are sent to the Greenwich observatory\nthey are subjected, under the directions of the Astronomer Royal, to\nextreme degrees of heat and cold, and up to the year 1835 prizes were\nawarded to those makers whose instruments best stood these tests; but\nsuch prizes are no longer given. It has even been found that\nchronometers which are most capable of withstanding extremes of\ntemperature are not the most perfect in medium climates, and this\ndiscovery brought about new endeavours and a new suggestion known as\nthe Auxiliary or Secondary Compensation.\n\nMARINE TIME-PIECES FOR SHIPS AND YACHTS. These instruments possess the\ncharacter rather of clocks than of chronometers, inasmuch as they are\ndesigned to hang against a bulk-head, and they would not appear\nunsuitable to house purposes. They are portable and useful clocks, and\nhaving a lever escapement with compensated balance, the motion of the\nvessel does not affect them. Some yacht time-pieces are constructed so\nas to chime the quarters or tunes, and to strike the ships' bells as\nwell as the hours. They are also sometimes placed in very handsome\ncases of bronze or ormolu, decorated with special designs to\nillustrate the name of the ship or yacht to which they belong. Their\nmovements are not as accurately adjusted as those of Marine\nChronometers, but they, nevertheless, are made to keep time\nexcellently.\n\n\n\n\nKEYLESS WATCHES.\n\n\nThe keyless mechanism to a watch is one of the great modern\nimprovements in watch work; it does away with the old-fashioned key,\nwith which so many persons have ruined their watches, the watch is\nwound by turning a knurled knob, placed on the handle or bow (see\nillustrations, pp. 96-7) instead of by the ordinary means: the hands\nare set in the same way, with the addition of pressing a small\nprojection on the side of the case. The advantages of these\nimprovements are obvious; the case, which never need be opened in\nwinding, is made air tight and dust tight, thus preserving much longer\nthe fluidity of the oil, and greatly prolonging the intervals between\nthe necessary cleaning of the watch. Besides which, the keyless\nmechanism being attached to the watch, the key can never be lost or\nmislaid, or worn out.\n\n_Strict attention to the following simple Directions is necessary for\nthe proper Management of a Watch._\n\n1st.--Wind your watch as nearly as possible at the same time every\nday--the morning is the best. Care should be taken to avoid sudden\njerks.\n\n2nd.--Be careful that your key is in good condition, free from dust\nand cracks. It should not be kept in the waistcoat pocket, or in any\nplace where it is liable to rust or get filled with dust.\n\n3rd.--Keep the watch while being _wound_ steadily in the hand, so as\nto avoid all circular motion.\n\n4th.--The watch, when hung up, must have support, and be perfectly at\nrest; or, when laid horizontally, let it be placed on a soft substance\nfor more general support, otherwise the action of the balance will\ngenerate a pendulous motion of the watch, and cause much variation in\ntime.\n\n5th.--The hands of a duplex or chronometer watch should never be set\nbackwards; in other watches this is a matter of no consequence, but to\navoid accidents it is much better to set them always forward.\n\n6th.--Should the watch vary by heat or cold, as when worn or not worn\nin the pocket, the hands may be set to time, but the regulator should\nnot be altered; but when it is found necessary to alter the regulator,\nit should be done gently, and very little at a time.\n\n7th.--_The glass should never be opened in watches that are set and\nregulated at the back._\n\n8th.--Keep your watch-pocket free from dust or nap, which generally\naccumulates in the pocket when much used.\n\n9th.--Be cautious to whom you give your watch for repair; the best\nwatches being frequently irretrievably damaged by inexperienced\nworkmen. Never allow your watch to go longer than two years without\nbeing cleaned.\n\n\n\n\nHOUSE CLOCKS.\n\n\nBetween the small wooden Dutch Clock of the value of but a few\nshillings, and the carefully-made Regulator Clock which costs ten\ntimes as many pounds, there is necessarily a wide difference; but both\nmay be considered as within the general designation, 'House Clocks.'\nThe former sometimes go for many years with a fair amount of\nregularity, and are found to be useful to the humblest classes, whose\nhours for early morning labour are frequently regulated thereby. The\nlatter are made with such accuracy as to correct the time of other\nclocks, such as turret and church clocks, which are more exposed to\nthe influence of the weather, and are necessarily made upon a coarser\nscale. In large mansions there is no handsomer or more necessary\nappointment for the hall or vestibule than a fine eight-day clock, 'to\nwelcome the coming, speed the parting guest,' and to give the time of\nday to the entire household.\n\nIt would be worth while, did our purpose admit of it, to write a\nchapter on the longevity of Clocks, by way of showing the comparative\ncheapness of the solid, well-built piece of mechanism whose every item\nhas been carefully put together of the very best and most durable\nmaterials by the most skilled horologers. For generation after\ngeneration such a sound, well-made time-piece shall keep accurate\ntime, and put to shame by both its performance and the insignificant\nexpense of keeping it in order, the instruments of, it may be, more\nshowy appearance, but less careful construction. Such a clock descends\nfrom father to son until its own age is scarcely to be remembered, and\nis regarded as one of the family heir-looms,--nay, as more,--almost,\nwe would say, as a friend familiar with all the scenes and experiences\nwhich have made up family history. It was of such a clock that\nLongfellow wrote--\n\n 'By day its voice is low and light,\n But in the silent dead of night,\n Distinct as a passing footstep's fall,\n It echoes along the vacant hall,\n Along the ceiling, along the floor,\n And seems to say, at each chamber-door,\n For ever--never,\n Never, for ever.'\n\nIt was such an one that Dickens apostrophized in that\nwonderfully-genial style which won for him so much love and fame:--'My\nold cheerful, companionable clock. How can I ever convey to others an\nidea of the comfort and consolation that this old clock has been for\nyears to me!... What other thing that has not life could cheer me as\nit does! what other thing that has not life (I will not say how few\nthings that have) has proved the same patient, true, untiring friend!\nHow often have I sat in the long winter evenings feeling society in\nits cricket voice! how often in the summer twilight, when my thoughts\nhave wandered back to a melancholy past, have its regular whisperings\nrecalled them to the calm and peaceful present! how often, in the dead\ntranquillity of night, has its bell broken the oppressive silence, and\nseemed to give me assurance that the old clock was still on guard at\nmy chamber-door!'\n\nThe Hall clock is often a plain, simple, undecorated instrument, where\nall others are perhaps somewhat ornamented. Bracket clocks for the\nstaircase or landings, Mantelpiece clocks for the drawing and dining\nrooms, for the study, the boudoir, and the best bed rooms, have each\ntheir separate shape and character specially designed, and are to be\nfound in simple black-stained wood or real ebony, in marble of different\ncolours, in bronze, in buhl, and in ormolu, with or without enamel\nornaments, and with or without miniature figures at base, sides, and\ntop. Until lately most of our ornamental mantelpiece clocks were\nimported from the continent, although French workmanship is generally\ninferior to our own, but preference was shown by the public to the\nformer on account of the greater attention given by the French to\nexternal decorations and variety of pattern. I am endeavouring to\nprovide that for the future this branch of clockmaking shall not be\nabandoned entirely to our continental neighbours, whose exports of this\nkind to our country yearly are very considerable. Henceforth by means of\nnew designs specially made for me and by me, and of a sufficiently\nskilled staff of artistic workmen, selected for the purpose of working\nunder my superintendence, on my own premises, I shall be able to compete\non equal, nay, as to mechanism, on superior, terms with the best\nspecimens of decorated clocks from foreign _at\u00e9liers_. There is no\nreason why the admitted superiority of English mechanism should not be\ncoupled with the best designs for decorated clock-cases; there is every\nreason why handsome clocks should be made which will keep time well, and\nadd not only by their beauty but their usefulness to the enjoyment of\ndomestic life. If the proverb, 'handsome is that handsome does,' applies\nto clocks, English workmanship should soon obtain pre-eminence, for it\nis well known that the principle upon which French clocks are generally\nmade renders them less durable time-pieces.\n\nThe most ancient clocks differed in many respects from those now in\nuse. Clocks of the earlier period had, as we have said, instead of the\npendulum now in use, a _balance_, vibrating on the top of the clock,\nas the regulating medium. The escapement was of the verge\nconstruction, a sketch of which will be seen below, which represents a\nclock of a most ancient character.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Old Balance-Clock.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nWithout entering into any very minute detail of the manner in which\nmotion in a clock is successively communicated from one toothed wheel (G\nor R) or pinion (_e_ or _g_) to another, which, indeed, would only tend\nto perplex the mind of the general reader, it will be sufficient to\nstate the following. S is a square piece of steel fixed to and forming\npart of the pinion P. In winding the clock the key is placed upon this\nsquare, and being turned round continuously in one direction, the pinion\nP turns with it. This communicates its motion to the wheel R, which is\nfixed to the cylinder B, and which in its revolution coils or winds up\nthe cord to which is attached the weight A. While this takes place the\nwheel G is held in check by another wheel, called the 'ratchet,' and a\nclick (neither of which is seen in the sketch), but when the operation\nof the winding is completed, and the weight A begins to descend, the\ncylinder B, together with the wheel G, turn on their common pivots V, V,\nand the motion is thus communicated from wheel to pinion until it\nreaches the escapement-wheel I. The teeth of this wheel, in its\nrevolution, act alternately on the pallets _i_, _h_, which project from\nand form part of the spindle or verge K, M, and thus produce a vibratory\nor backward and forward motion of the balance L, L.\n\nWere it not for this detention, the duration of which is much\nincreased by the swing of the balance, the weight A would descend with\ngradually accelerated speed, till, in a few moments, the cord would be\nentirely unwound from the cylinder, and the clock be at rest.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Clock Spring.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nThe SPRING CLOCK as ordinarily made is thus constructed. The frame\nconsists of two oblong plates of brass pinned together by short\npillars, and pierced with holes, in which run the arbors of the\nvarious wheels. Next, the mainspring, the moving or motive power of\nthe clock, which is a riband of steel, highly tempered, and enclosed\nin a cylinder or barrel. In the middle of this barrel is the spring or\nbarrel arbor, to which the spring is hooked at one end, the other end\nbeing fixed to the circumference of the barrel. Outside the frame or\nplate, and at the end of the arbor, is the ratchet, a wheel with\nsaw-like teeth. This is acted upon by a click, which, falling into the\nratchet teeth, prevents the recoil of the mainspring, so that the\nspring has no means of uncoiling itself, except by the moving of the\ntrain of wheels. This click is screwed to the outside of the oblong\nplate. The power of the mainspring is transmitted to the train of\nwheels by means of a chain or gut, one end of which is fastened to the\nouter edge of the barrel, and the other end to the fusee, which is of\nconical shape, securely fastened to the arbor or axis of the main\nwheel; on this same arbor is the square, on which the key is put for\nwinding. When this square is turned in winding, the fusee draws the\nchain or gut from off the outer edge of the barrel, and coils up the\nspring within it. The spring when fully wound, and consequently at its\ngreatest power, acts by means of the chain or gut on the small end of\nthe fusee, which in turning drives the train of wheels. As the spring\nbecomes gradually uncoiled, and the power exerted less, the leverage\nis increased in the same proportion by the increased width of the\nfusee on which it acts.\n\nTo prevent the straining of the spring, a little contrivance called\nthe stop-work is introduced. It consists of a piece of steel somewhat\nin the shape of a bayonet, which is so fixed and contrived that the\nlast turn of the gut or chain on the fusee forces the stop into\ncontact with a projection on the end of the fusee, which abutting\nagainst it, forms the check felt when the clock is wound up. On the\nsame arbor with the fusee is fixed the main wheel, which with the\nbefore-described contrivance of click and ratchet, permits the turning\nof the fusee or winding-up of the clock, while it itself remains\nstationary. This wheel acts in the centre pinion (a pinion is a little\nwheel playing in the teeth of a larger wheel, and has six, eight, ten,\nor twelve teeth, or, as they are called, leaves), which is fixed to\nthe centre arbor, and carries the minute hand. This pinion is so\nconstructed in relation to the other parts of the clock as to make one\nrevolution in an hour; the centre wheel being firmly riveted on the\npinion, it must also revolve once an hour. The centre wheel acts into\nanother pinion, which is called the third wheel pinion, upon the arbor\nor axle of which is securely fixed the third wheel, which again acts\nin the escape-pinion carrying the escapement-wheel. On the top of the\nback plate is firmly screwed the back cock, or the support of the\npendulum, which is suspended from it by a flexible spring, as before\ndescribed. This pendulum receives impulsion from the wheel-work by\nmeans of the crutch, a small part attached to the arbor of the\npallets, and which projects downwards about three inches, parallel\nwith the pendulum rod. To the lower part of the crutch is screwed or\nriveted at a right angle a piece of steel, in such a direction as to\npenetrate the pendulum rod, which has a slot or hole cut to receive\nit; impulsion is thus given to the pendulum. Between the frame and\ndial-plate is the motion work, consisting of three wheels; the first,\ncalled the minute wheel, is attached to the arbor of the centre wheel,\nwhich, it will be recollected, makes one revolution an hour, and acts\nin a wheel of the same size, whose axle carries a pinion serving to\ndrive the hour wheel. This hour wheel is supported by a bridge screwed\nover the minute wheel. The dial is pinned on to the front plate; the\nhour hand is fixed on a socket communicating with the hour wheel, and\nthe minute hand on the arbor of the centre wheel.\n\nWhen a clock is intended to strike, a separate train of wheels has to\nbe introduced into it,--one train of wheels serving to keep the time,\nand another train for the striking part. It may be as well to add that\na greater amount of labour is required to make the striking than the\ngoing part of a clock.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Rack Striking Work.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nThere are only two kinds of striking parts now in use, and these are\ncharacterized by the terms 'Rack' striking work, and 'Count-wheel,' or\n'Locking-plate,' striking work. The Rack striking work (see next page)\nis the best and safest ever introduced, because with it the clock may be\nmade to strike any number of times within the hour. A, the minute wheel\nrevolving in the direction of the arrow, and driving the wheel B, which\nis of the same size, and has the same number of teeth. C, a pin fixed in\nthe wheel B, and acting on the lever D, which has its centre of motion\nin the point E. L, the click, the lower point of which acts in the teeth\nK of the rack M. S, the rack-spring, which acts upon the lower end of\nthe rack, or, as it is called, the rack-tail, and brings it in contact\nwith the snail P. Q and R are the jumper and its spring, by which the\nsnail P, fastened to the star-wheel O, is kept in its place. Y, the\ncentre of motion of the rack, on which it acts freely. In the wheel A is\nfixed a pin U, which, as the wheel A rotates, gradually forces before it\na tooth of the star-wheel O, which carries with it the snail P, until\nat last the second step of the snail is opposite the rack-tail. While\nthis is going on, the wheel B, driven by the wheel A, is advancing in\nthe opposite direction, and, by means of the pin C, is pushing before it\nthe end of the lever D. It is obvious that the other end, F, of the\nlever will be gradually raised, and this will lift the lower point of\nthe click L out of the teeth of the rack. The latter being now free will\nyield to the action of the spring S, which will force its lower end into\ncontact with the second step of the snail, and throw back the head of\nthe rack to a corresponding extent. By this action the striking train of\nwheels is released, and the two wheels, G and I, seen in the upper part\nof our cut, begin to rotate, but are stopped by H, a pin that is caught\nby a stud which projects from the end F of the lever. As the wheel B\nadvances, the pin C gradually frees itself from the long arm of the\nlever D, which drops by its own weight into its original position, and\nfrees the wheels G and I, which immediately commence once more to\nrotate. At the centre of the wheel I is fixed the gathering pallet,\nthat, as it revolves with the wheel, gathers up one by one the teeth of\nthe rack, which is prevented from falling back by the lower end of the\nclick L, and thus gradually draws it forward until the last tooth is\nreached, when the end of the gathering pallet abuts on the end of the\nrack head, and the train of wheels is once more at rest. It is obvious\nthat for every tooth of the rack which is gathered up, there is one\nrevolution of the wheel I, and this communicates with the tail of the\nhammer, causing at each revolution a blow on the bell. There is, as will\nbe at once seen, an important connection between the various parts. When\nthe second step of the snail is presented to the rack-tail, the head of\nthe rack is thrown back a distance corresponding to the width of two of\nits teeth. This requires two revolutions of the gathering pallet to\nreturn it to its place; and these two revolutions of the pallet and the\nwheel which carries it govern the two blows on the bell which signify\nthe hour. At three o'clock the third step of the snail will be presented\nto the hammer-tail, and so on.\n\nOn the next page is an illustration of the back part of a French\nClock, as seen upon opening the door of the case. At the right hand\nside will be observed the count-wheel A, fitting tightly upon a\nprolonged square arbor of the second wheel in the train, and having\ntwelve openings of unequal length around its outer edge, 1, 2, &c.\nJust above the wheel towards the right will also be seen the 'Dog,' or\n'Detent,' F, which falls into these notches, and is a part of the\nlocking similar to that which is represented at the stud and the pin\nH. So soon as the stud is lifted the pin becomes disengaged, the\nwheel-work revolves, and the count-wheel being firmly fixed to the\nprolonged arbor of one of those wheels, advances with it in the\ndirection indicated by the arrow, the detent resting upon the plain\npart of the locking-wheel. When the required number of hours have\nstruck, the notch approaches the detent, the gravity of which allows\nit to fall therein.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Back of French Clock.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nIn connection with this detent is also another projecting piece, which\nis carried inside the frame, and when it falls presents a broad\nsurface to a pin fixed in the rim of one of the wheels. Thus the\nmotion of the wheel-work is stayed until this piece is again lifted by\nthe going parts from the pin, and held in that position by the outer\nrim of the locking-wheel A, until again the next notch is presented to\nthe detent. When it falls, the stud is carried with it, against which\nthe pin becomes engaged. The number of strokes depends on the distance\nwhich the count-wheel has to revolve before being stopped by the\ndetent F. The chief objection to the locking-plate being used for\nstriking, arises from the fact that, if ever the clock is allowed to\nrun down, or if the clock gets otherwise stopped, it strikes wrong\nafterwards, until it has been properly re-set to the hour.\n\nClocks are made of all manner of shapes, patterns, and sizes, for all\nmanner of places, positions, and persons.\n\nBRACKET CLOCKS, which are intended to occupy but a small space, say on\na staircase, or lobby, or landing, are sometimes made with extreme\nfinish, care, and elegance, sometimes are simply plain and devoid of\nembellishment. They are constructed with or without striking work.\n\nCHIME CLOCKS are a great addition to the attractions of a house. They\nare usually made to go eight or fifteen days; to strike the hours and\nquarters on four or eight bells or gongs.\n\nMUSICAL CLOCKS are constructed so as to play several tunes at certain\nintervals with the greatest finish and perfection. The mechanism for\ntime-keeping being easily disconnected from the musical mechanism, the\nlatter may be stopped without any interference with the clock as a\ntime-keeper.\n\nCARRIAGE CLOCKS are made so as to be unaffected by the motion of the\nvehicle. They are usually of a small and squarish shape, enclosed in\nleather, so as to protect the case from scratches; but they vary in\nsize,--measuring usually from four to seven inches high by\ntwo-and-a-half to four inches in breadth and the same in depth. Some\nare made without striking movement, some to strike hours, half-hours,\nand quarters, some with repeating work, and some with an alarm added\nto them.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Carriage Clock.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nLIBRARY and DINING-ROOM CLOCKS are frequently seen decorated with\nhighly elegant ornaments, in bronze, marble, ormolu, and with\nminiature figures, as well as objects of still life, but these clocks\nare usually not so conspicuously ornamental as those which are\ndesigned for the drawing-room.\n\nSKELETON CLOCKS are so named from their movements being all bare and\nuncovered. When watches were comparative novelties it was not at all an\nuncommon desire on the part of their possessors to watch the operations\nof a mechanism which was regarded as wonderfully resembling life itself.\nWatch cases were consequently made of crystal, and were found strong and\nserviceable. In skeleton clocks the escapement is sometimes made a\npeculiarly interesting feature to the non-professional eye delighting in\nnoting the amazing accuracy with which each piece of the mechanism works\nand combines to produce the result required.\n\nREGULATOR CLOCKS are, as we have said, the most perfect time-pieces\nwhich can be manufactured.\n\nTELL-TALE CLOCKS are of great service in securing the attention and\nwatchfulness of persons left in care of premises or property. They are\nmade with a number of pins projecting round the edge of the dial, and\ncoming into contact once every quarter of an hour with a pin fixed at\nthe top part of the dial, over the part which in an ordinary clock is\noccupied by XII. The dial revolves completely once every twelve hours,\nand presents one of the projecting pins to the index every quarter of an\nhour; the watchman should then be ready at hand to pull a cord, by means\nof which the projecting pin is pushed in; otherwise the dial shows the\nexact time of his absence and neglect of duty.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: English Ormolu Clocks.] |\n| |\n| [Illustration: English Ormolu Clock, &c.] |\n| |\n| [Illustration: English Ormolu Clock, &c.] |\n| |\n| [Illustration: Tell-Tale Clock.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nELECTRICAL CLOCKS have been several times planned and made by\ndifferent ingenious inventors, and obtained considerable notice, but\nthey have not been hitherto as successful as was expected. Electricity\nhas been applied to the direct movement of the pendulum itself, and\nsubsequently to the raising a small weight to act upon the pendulum in\nthe style of a gravity escapement. In perhaps the latest of these\ninstruments, called a Magnetic Clock, an electromagnet was used to\nrelieve the pendulum from the influence of the spring by which\nimpulsion had been given, and to make the return or reflex vibration.\nElectric clocks are now seldom made; electric dials without any\nclock-movement in connection with them are made to show the standard\ntime by means of a galvanic current sent from the Greenwich\nObservatory clock at intervals of a minute or half-minute it may\nbe,--even as Electric Timeballs show to distant towns and out-ports,\nby means of such a current, the exact Greenwich time once a day.\n\nThe ELECTRO-CHRONOGRAPH is a new and useful invention for timing with\ngreat precision the quickest of events. It is applied to a central\nseconds clock with a dial three feet in circumference showing the\nhours, minutes, seconds and fifths of seconds. This clock erected in a\nprominent position, say on a raceground, and worked by electricity,\nenables the starter of a race to set the works in motion; by means of\na tape held up at the winning post and connected with the batteries,\nthe winner upon breasting the tape stops the hand of the clock.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThe following simple directions will be found of great use in the\nmanagement of a Clock:--\n\nWhen the Clock is unpacked it should be carefully handled with a silk\nhandkerchief or piece of tissue paper, to prevent the moisture of the\nhands soiling the case. Unscrew the bell and take it off, then put on\nthe pendulum by passing it through the fork, and hang it upon the two\nsmall brass pins, _with the hook from you_. Screw on the bell with the\nconvex part outwards, taking care that it does not touch the pendulum.\n\nThe stand or bracket should be both steady and level before the Clock\nis placed upon it; for, unless the Clock is quite in proper beat--that\nis, unless the beats or ticks occur at equal intervals, it cannot go\nregularly.\n\nIn order to set the Clock to the hour of the day, the minute-hand\nshould be turned on carefully forward with the finger and thumb, the\nsetter pausing as he reaches the XII. and the VI., to allow the Clock\nto strike each hour and half-hour.\n\nIf the striking should at any time be wrong, and it should strike the\nhour at the half-hour, or the half-hour at the hour, the error can be\nrectified by moving the minute-hand on to 5 minutes before the hour,\nor half-hour, and then back until it strikes.\n\nOr, if it should strike a wrong hour--_e.g._, supposing the Clock\nshould strike 3, and the hour-hand point at 7, then the hour-hand may\nbe moved back to 3, and the Clock afterwards set to the hour of the\nday in the usual manner.\n\nIf, at any future time, the Clock should require regulating, the small\nsteel square above the XII. is the regulator, and turning it a\n_little_ to the right (half-turn of key) will make the Clock go\nfaster, and to the left, slower. This should be repeated until the\ndesired effect is obtained.\n\nThe bell-stud, or arm to which the bell is screwed, is purposely made\nof soft metal, so that it can be bent up or down so as to obtain a\nheavy or light blow of the hammer as may be desired.\n\nBoth squares in the dial should be wound once a week.\n\n\n\n\nTURRET CLOCKS.\n\n\nA Church tower without a clock and bells seems an unfurnished edifice,\nwhich must be fitted and filled before it can serve the purpose for\nwhich it was built;--like a form without life, a body without a soul.\nA good Church clock is useful to everybody; it is the friendly monitor\nalike of rich and poor,--the regulator of every private\ntime-piece,--the standard of time for a whole parish or township. By\nit the artisan or mechanic trudges off to his daily labour; by it the\ntradesman opens and closes his shop; by it the schoolboy is admonished\nas 'with shining morning face he creeps like snail unwillingly to\nschool;' by it the law itself regulates its penalties,--(enacting, as\nit does, house-breaking between nine at night and six in the morning\nto be the heavier crime of burglary;)--by it, in a word, are all the\nmultifarious transactions of everyday life more or less regulated and\nmeasured, and when the church clock stops, it produces a social\ndiscomfort and anarchy throughout a whole neighbourhood, to an extent\nscarcely credible. A good public clock is a benefit to all,--a faulty\none is a general nuisance and a continual source of irritation. A\npublic clock is in its way as necessary as the public highway, the\npublic market, the public law itself. It is the product and the symbol\nof advanced civilization, the one everwakeful watchman and trusty\nfriend of all, by whose chimes the sleepless merchant has often\nplanned his ventures or sighed o'er apprehended losses and dangers;\nthe student busied with researches has consumed the midnight oil; the\nsick have counted their hours of pain, longing in the night for the\ndawn, in the daytime for the night. On the other hand, when one like\nMr Justice Shallow is reminded of the mad days of his London youth, he\nvery aptly associates them with the Bacchanalian memories which\nFalstaff appeals to,--'We have heard the chimes at midnight.'\n\nTo have lived 'where bells have knoll'd to church' was according to\nShakspeare to have been blessed by humanizing influences comparable with\nthose produced by having--\n\n 'Sat at good men's feasts, and wiped our eyes\n Of drops that sacred pity has engendered.'\n\nCowper can find no better words to describe the utter desolation of\nthe island where the shipwrecked Selkirk bemoaned his absolute\nsolitude 'out of humanity's reach,' than by putting into his mouth the\nlanguage--\n\n 'But the sound of a church-going bell\n These valleys and rocks never heard,\n Never sigh'd at the sound of a knell,\n Nor smiled when a Sabbath appear'd.'\n\nIn our everyday experience we can each testify to the truthfulness of\nthe poet who points to the close association which exists in most\nminds between the church clock and the varying times and seasons, with\ntheir different joys and sorrows, and we can most of us say, with\nSouthey,--\n\n 'I love the bell that calls the poor to pray,\n Chiming from village church its cheerful sound,\n When the sun smiles on labour's holy-day\n And all the rustic train are gather'd round,\n Each deftly dizen'd in his Sunday's best,\n And pleased to hail the day of piety and rest.\n\n And when, dim shadowing o'er the face of day,\n The mantling mists of eventide rise slow,\n As through the forest gloom I wend my way,\n The minster curfew's sullen voice I know,\n And pause, and love its solemn toll to hear,\n As made by distance soft it dies upon the ear.'\n\nIt is but a short step from the sentimental consideration of such\nreminiscences to the practical inquiry how is the public time kept,\nand yet it is one which probably is seldom taken with a view to more\nor less thorough investigation. Without traversing the distance which\ndivides us from that antique time when Archimedes measured the shadows\nof the Pyramids by his walking-stick, or when the 'dial of Ahaz' was\nconstructed as one of the first of historical time-measurers, we can\ndiscover the principles upon which an instrument such as a thoroughly\nserviceable public clock of the present time, with all the newest\nimprovements both in time-keeping and in wearing qualities, should be\nproduced.\n\nIt is of some consequence, in the first place, to know that the\nintroduction of steam-machinery has added to the accuracy of clockwork\nand at the same time considerably diminished its cost; fifty or sixty\nyears ago there would have been charged as much as \u00a3800 for a turret\nclock inferior to that which may now be procured for \u00a3150; and the\nresult is to be seen in the largely increased numbers of public\ntime-pieces. It is obvious, however, that there is none the less need\nof care in the choice of a Clockmaker, for upon his skill and\ntrustworthiness will depend whether the money be well spent or not,\nand whether the instrument furnished by him prove to be valuable and\nserviceable. It is not a purchase wherein the buyer can usually of\nhimself judge of the merits of his bargain, he must rely upon the\nreputation established by previous works of the same kind. If the\nClockmaker be not merely a clock-seller (as is too often the case, for\nTurret Clockmakers are but few), he will be able to point to similar\ninstruments made and set up by himself in different towns and cities,\nin proof of his ability, but there will still be a necessity for\nexplaining to the purchaser the chief points upon which the accuracy\nof such a time-keeper must depend.\n\nIn the first place, it is necessary to say that Turret Clocks are not\nmerely house clocks upon an enlarged scale, differing from the latter\nmerely in size and weight, but that the extra strength of the\nmachinery requires greater weight of materials 'in a ratio as much\nhigher as the cube is higher than the square of any of its\ndimensions,' and that increased weight means increase of friction.\nBesides this point which is peculiarly the province of the Turret\nClockmaker, there are important questions to be considered by\narchitects and their employers as to the proper method of constructing\na Turret Clock chamber, so as to prevent too much atmospheric\nvariation,--heat and cold, wind and damp, being each likely in some\ndegree, as the seasons change, to affect the public time-keeper,--as\nwitness the clock of St Paul's Cathedral, popularly believed to be an\nexemplary piece of mechanism, and yet often forced by the wind to vary\nits time so as to damage its own reputation among those who narrowly\nwatch its behaviour under what may be called trying circumstances. It\nis not wise to build a tower without careful consideration for the\ntenant which is to occupy it, or having regard merely to architectural\nnotions of external proportion, for usually it happens that when clock\nand bells occur as an afterthought, there is often some difficulty\nand extra expense in planning the room for them. Plenty of length and\nbreadth to allow of the proper fall of the clock-weights and the swing\nof the pendulum save much in the cost of fixing, and are necessary to\nsecure good time-keeping with the least trouble, for it is obvious\nthat where numerous bevelled wheels with rod-work are employed for the\npurpose of moving the hands over the dial, if the probabilities of\nunvarying accuracy are not lessened, the cost must be much increased.\nWorks which have to be placed at some distance from the dials must be\nmore powerful than if they could be put in their proper place, and a\nlittle forethought in the architect will save much money both in the\noriginal price of the machinery of a clock and in its subsequent\nrepair. Then again, there is always the question for and against the\nillumination of dials to be considered, and of course with this is\nunavoidably mixed up not only the arrangements as regards space for\nthe proper working of the time-keeping, striking, and lighting\nmachinery, but the vexed question of ventilation above referred\nto,--some horologers asserting that chambers as nearly air tight as\nmay be should be devised, and others that there ought to be a draught\nthrough the clock-room. There are in fact so many opinions more or\nless excellent, according to the circumstances of each case, that\nthere is no laying down any arbitrary and unvarying rule, much must be\nleft to the discretion of the Turret Clock manufacturer,--upon whom as\nhas been already stated it is necessary also to rely for the\nessentials of a good clock, viz., the soundness of the materials, the\nquality of the workmanship, and the scientific accuracy with which the\ninstrument has been planned and put together. Now before considering\nthe present advanced state of the art of Turret Clockmaking and the\nvarious improvements which have to be carefully studied and applied by\nthe makers who would bear the highest reputations as manufacturers, it\nwill be necessary to bear in mind what has been said of the\nstep-by-step progress in horological science of which we have already\nendeavoured to give the chief particulars. From 1288 A.D., the date of\nthe oldest historical clock--that mentioned as having been set up near\nWestminster Hall by means of funds derived from a fine levied by the\nLord Chief Justice of the period--till now when Big Ben reigns in its\nstead, is a long interval, with many wonderful incidents, and some\ngreat historical names. Henry de Wyck's Paris invention, Galileo's\ndiscovery of the pendulum, Huygens's practical application of that\ndiscovery, Dr Hooke's 'anchor' escapement, and Graham's dead-beat\nescapement, Harrison's 'gridiron' pendulum, and the latest\napplications of electricity and eccentricity, have each and all their\npeculiar attraction for horological students, but we need not recur\nto these branches of this highly interesting subject elsewhere treated\nof. We will proceed to mention a few memoranda about several old\npublic clocks whose ingenious mechanism gained for them a\nwell-deserved fame,--not, perhaps, so much for accuracy in\ntime-keeping as for the grotesque devices with which old clockmakers\namused their contemporaries? To them time, as such, was perhaps of not\nso much consequence as it is to us in these days of telegraph and\nsteam communication. We moderns seem to think it a task sufficiently\ndifficult to set up a sound public time-piece without connecting\ntherewith the wonder-working machinery of a wax-work exhibition.\n\nThe CLOCK AT WELLS CATHEDRAL, made originally A.D. 1340, by a monk\nnamed Peter Lightfoot, is one of the best known of its class still in\nsome sort of working order. The dial of this horologe is divided into\n24 hours; it shows the motion of the sun and moon, and bears upon its\nsummit eight armed knights on horseback, tilting with lance in rest at\none another, by a double rotatory motion. This clock was removed from\nGlastonbury to Wells after the dissolution of the Glastonbury\nMonastery. In 1835 the works were so worn away that they were replaced\nby a new train, the curious old dial and equestrian knights being\nstill retained.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Wells Cathedral Clock.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nST DUNSTAN'S CLOCK [see p. 137]. This Clock, when old St Dunstan's\nChurch in Fleet Street was pulled down, was sold by public auction,\nand bought by the late Marquis of Hertford, for whom Decimus Burton the\narchitect erected St Dunstan's Villa in the Regent's Park. In the\ngrounds of that villa this old clock with its automaton giants striking\nthe hours and quarters was put up, and it is there still, to be seen in\nfull working order, performing the same duties as of yore in Fleet\nStreet.\n\nST JAMES'S PALACE CLOCK [see p. 138] is one of the most ancient public\ntime-pieces now in use, but is intended soon to be removed it is said\nto South Kensington Museum. It has a locking-plate with ting-tang\nquarter, the quarter hammers being raised from the pin wheel while the\nstriking hammer is lifted from the pins in the main wheel. It has a\ncrown-wheel escapement with teeth on its edge, and the pallets working\nupright instead of over the top like a verge escapement. The hands are\nconnected by the bevel wheels below the clock. The whole of the going\ntrain with the intermediate and bevel wheels are attached to the one\nbar so that the whole of the works have to be removed if one piece\nrequires alteration or renewal. The pendulum rod is of iron.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: St Dunstan's Clock.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL CLOCK [see p. 140] is one of the best examples of\nold-fashioned clocks in London; it occupies the clock-room in the\nsouth-western tower. It may be described as a ting-tang quarter on the\nrack principle, having hammers raised from pins in the main wheel as in\nSt James's Palace Clock. The train is run in a bar, so that to get away\none piece the rest must be disturbed. The escapement is a recoil,\nbeating two seconds with a wood rod pendulum. The length of the minute\nhand is eight feet, and its weight 75lb; the length of the hour hand is\nfive feet five inches, and its weight 44lb. The diameter of the bell,\nmade from old 'Great Tom of Westminster,' is about 10 feet, its weight\n11,474lb; the hammer weighs 145lb, and the clapper 180lb.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: St James's Palace Clock.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nThe OLD CLOCK AT THE ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL, GRAY'S INN LANE, is a fair\nspecimen of the work of 120 years ago. It has a recoil escapement,\nmost of the wheels are of wrought-iron, cut by hand, as is also the\npinion. The pendulum rod is of iron with leaden bob.\n\n\nTHE WHEELS.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: St Paul's Cathedral Clock.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nAnd now, in order to form a judgment of what is necessary to be done to\nmake a really sound and valuable Turret Clock of the present day, let me\ndescribe the materials of which it should be formed. One of the most\nimportant parts of a clock is the wheel-work. Iron wheels are of course\nvery much cheaper than those which are made of gun metal or hard brass,\nbut iron wheels, however well they may sometimes wear, are more liable\nto oxidize and to decay, and although it is certain that a large number\nof clocks are constructed with iron wheels by London houses of some\nreputation, a few years are generally sufficient to prove such\ntime-pieces to be very faulty, and to necessitate the substitution of\nwheels of the superior metal.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Old Clock at the Royal Free Hospital.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nThe best clocks are usually made with wheels of the best gun metal.\nThe teeth are cut by steam power, with an improved cutting engine; and\nat the same moment that the teeth are cut, they are finished by the\nengine without the aid of the file, sand-paper, or other polishing\nmaterials, so that the most minute difference cannot possibly occur,\ntheir accuracy being secured even to the thousandth part of an inch.\nIn the old times this work was done by a man turning a fly-wheel, but\nthat method necessarily occasioned an unevenness of cut which had\nafterwards to be removed by filing and hand polishing. Wheels thus\nmade could not of course have that precision of movement which is\nessential in a public clock, and which can only be obtained by a\nperfect mechanical fit of the teeth of the wheels, such true\nmechanical fitting being only secured by truly accurate cutting\nmachines. Hand cutting varies with each artisan, and therefore cannot\nbe equally trustworthy. In cheap clocks, constructed to suit public\ncompanies who give their contract to the lowest tender, iron is\nfrequently used instead of steel, both in the pinions and arbors, and\ncast-iron takes the place of gun metal or hard brass in the wheels and\nbosses,--the result usually being that the Public Clock gets into\ndisrepute through its requiring to be repaired so frequently, and more\nmoney is expended upon such repairs than would have sufficed for the\npurchase of a thoroughly perfect time-keeper. It is urged by the\nadvocates of iron wheels that a clock can be manufactured at a\nconsiderably less cost by their employment, but in estimating expense\nthere seems to have been overlooked the important question, as to what\nwill be the probable durability of the machine.\n\nI should be sorry to condemn wholesale all clocks, the main wheels of\nwhich are made of iron, but very certain it is that a large proportion\nof clocks constructed of this material and by London houses of great\nreputation (despite of their possessing an escapement invented by\namateurs who consider themselves the depositories of all horological\nknowledge), have been found most faulty time-keepers, and after a few\nyears have become entirely worn out and useless.\n\nIt is argued (and rightly so) by the advocates of iron wheels that\ncase-hardened pinions should not be used, in consequence of their\nwearing with great unevenness, but such persons should be reminded\nthat this objection is much greater in the instance of cast-iron\nwheels. A case came under my notice some time since of a clock made by\na London house, with iron wheels, which after comparatively little\ntime became entirely worn out and had to be removed, a result not at\nall surprising to those who are aware of the porous nature of iron.\nThe TEETH OF WHEELS have to be made with the greatest skill and care\nin order that the entire mechanism shall work without friction, and\nshall not only temporarily keep time with regularity, but shall last\nfor many years without renewal. Teeth should fit into one another\nwithout a squeezing pressure (which is equivalent to friction), but\nwith exact uniformity of contact, the action being almost entirely\nbetween the teeth separating from each other and not between those\nwhich are approaching, i.e. in technical language, the action should\nbe after the line of centres of the wheels and not before it.\n\nChurch clocks were accustomed formerly to be made to go for\nthirty-four hours, and to be wound up every day; by the frequency of\nwhich winding the clock could be made to keep time with great\naccuracy, for regulating could be attended to as frequently, and no\ngreat variation could well occur in twenty-four hours. But the\nregulating, as a matter of course, requires a regulator, or standard,\nof time, which is not always to be found in country places, nor even\nis the man in charge of clock-winding always in possession of a watch\nsufficiently accurate to convey the time from the regulator if there\nwere one to the Church clock. Of late, Church clocks are made to go\neight days, and so the labour of frequent winding has been saved,\nwhile at the same time by extra care in the manufacture and fixing of\na clock, there need be no necessity for frequently regulating it.\n\n\nPENDULUMS.\n\nWhether the credit of practically applying the mathematical theory and\nproperties of the pendulum was or was not due to Huygens the Dutchman,\nwe have seen that Harris, a London clockmaker, put up the first\npendulum clock in St Paul's Church, Covent Garden, in 1621. The great\nadvance upon this discovery was that the pendulum bob must move not in\na circle but a cycloid; and that back and front should be alike both\nin weight and shape to secure regular vibration. Cylindrical bobs are\nnow in general use for large clocks. The old iron rod pendulums were\nsoon discovered to be affected considerably by variations of heat and\ncold,--the difference between winter and summer being ascertained to\namount to the loss of a minute a week. Harrison's gridiron pendulum\nwas one of the chief endeavours to prevent such variation, followed\nafter a long interval by other ingenious inventions, which gained\ntemporary approval and gradually fell into disuse. Room should be\nprovided by the architect of every clock-tower in the chamber below\nthat containing the movement, to allow of the swing of a 15-foot\npendulum.\n\n\nFALL OF THE WEIGHTS.\n\nWe have seen that the position in which a clock is placed in regard to\nthe dial or dials whose hands it is to drive is a matter requiring\nsome attention. Properly the floor of the clock-chamber should be so\nplanned that the clock might stand immediately behind, and level with\nthe dials; for there is extra expense and inconvenience connected with\nany more distant situation of the works,--the fall of the weights\nbeing sometimes difficult in such case to be provided for. The weights\nshould hang, wherever it is possible so to arrange, immediately from\nthe barrel to which they are affixed, without the intervention of\npulleys of any kind, and much expense may be saved by providing for\nthe descent of the weights to a considerable depth below the\nclock-chamber. As an instance however of the extent to which such\ndifficulties can be overcome, I may mention that the hands of my great\nclock at the International Exhibition were situated nearly 400 feet\nfrom the clockworks, while the weights were carried by iron wire ropes\nover pulleys below the floor to a distance of 200 feet from the\nmovement, then over another pulley fixed at a height of 80 feet from\nthe ground.\n\nThe ESCAPEMENT is perhaps the most important part of a clock.\n\n\nCROWN-WHEEL ESCAPEMENT.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Escapement.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nThis is the earliest known escapement, and is to be found, as we have\nsaid, in Henry de Wyck's clock, all the difference between his\nescapement and the above being that one of the weights in de Wyck's\nbalance is now set in a vertical instead of a horizontal plane. The\nbent end or fork seen in the illustration connects the pendulum with\nthat arm technically called the crutch.\n\n\nTHE ANCHOR ESCAPEMENT.\n\nAfter the crown-wheel escapement, the anchor escapement, invented by\nDr Hooke or one of his contemporaries, came into general use, and\nremains so still; but it is not generally applied to those clocks\nwhich are required to go with the nicest accuracy.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Anchor Escapement.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nIn the next illustration the tooth is seen escaping from the left\npallet at the moment of the right pallet's infringing upon the\nopposite tooth, the pendulum is therefore to be seen still rising a\nlittle to the left, and will thus cause the wheel to recoil a little;\nupon its return the pallet and pendulum are again urged to the right,\nand so the impulse is continued which is necessary to maintain the\nmotion.\n\n\nTHE DEAD-BEAT ESCAPEMENT.\n\ninvented by Graham is the one in most general use for the best clocks\nmade by London makers of the highest repute.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Dead-beat Escapement] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\n\nFRENCH SINGLE-PIN ESCAPEMENT.\n\nThis is a simple and ingenious escapement (see next page), which after\nbeing used for some time in both France and England went out of use,\nwhen, but recently, it was re-invented by a London watch-maker. The\nteeth are pins of steel set in the face of the wheel, and the upper\nhalf of each cylinder cut off as well as a small portion of the under\nor acting side. This escapement has one great advantage--that if a pin\nbecomes worn or injured it is easily replaced, whereas in a wheel, if\none tooth is damaged the wheel itself is worthless.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: French Single-Pin Escapement.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\n\nTHREE-LEGG'D GRAVITY ESCAPEMENT.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Another.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nThe above illustration represents a regulator escapement as it would\nappear in a front view; the pallets are lifted by the three central\npins. The locking teeth vary in size from one to nearly two inches.\nThe horizontal pieces projecting from the top of the pallets form the\nadjustment for the arc of the pendulum.\n\nThe great advantages possessed by this escapement over all other\ngravity escapements, &c., are as follows:--\n\n1. It requires no oil.\n\n2. The angle of the detent planes reduces the friction to almost nil.\n\n3. As the impulse and the unlocking are in one direction, the\nescapement is unlocked without recoil of impulse arms.\n\n4. No impending force to the pendulum from inertia of impulse arms.\n\n5. The hold in the stops can be increased or diminished to any\npractical extent by reason of the inverted impulse arms.\n\n6. Less affected by any disturbing forces of the train in proportion\nto the pressure on the stops.\n\n7. Will bear more weight and give more power to the train without\nincreasing the arc of oscillation.\n\n8. No possibility of tripping under any increase of motive power.\n\n9. The minimum arc of vibration to unlock is 8-tenths of a degree.\nOther escapements of similar construction require from 4\u00b0 to 7\u00b0.\n\n10. Take less weight for the motive power in proportion to the\ndifference of pressure and draught on the lockings.\n\n11. Unlocks by gravitation instead of by the pendulum and at the time\nof impulse.\n\n12. Requires no fly nor remontoir, and thus reduces the weight of the\nmotive power by one half.\n\n13. The impulse giving motion to the pendulum increases as the force\nof gravity on the pendulum decreases. A great advantage over those\nescapements in which the unlocking is done by the pendulum when its\nmomentum is nearly expended and at the extremity of its arc of\nvibration.\n\n14. The angle of the detent planes can be set so as not only to offer\nno resistance to the unlocking, but to give an actual impulse in the\nsame manner as the impulse pallets of a dead escapement. This\ncompletely frees the impulse which gives motion to the pendulum from\nany retarding influence of the train.\n\n15. The arc of vibration is more equal in this than in any other\ngravity escapement.\n\n16. It is not so liable to stop in consequence of a diminution of arc\nfrom the variation of motive force in train.\n\n17. It will answer for regulators as well as for turret clocks, its\narc of vibration being from 1\u00b0 to 3\u00b0.\n\n\nDOUBLE THREE-LEGG'D ESCAPEMENT.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Double Three-legg'd Gravity Escapement.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nThis escapement is chiefly designed for turret clocks with heavy\ndial-work requiring much power on the scape-wheel. The peculiarity\nconsists of two locking wheels with one set of lifting pins between\nthem. The wheels are set so that the pallets may lie between, and the\npallets fall with the pendulum clear of all other contact. The pallet\nD for instance has its stop in front for the wheel A B C to act upon,\nand the E stop is acted upon only by _a b c_, the E and A being on\ndifferent planes. In this escapement, by making the teeth longer and\nthe pallets shorter, the resistance of the pendulum is much reduced,\nand the stride of the pallets being wider, the actual weight required\nof them is considerably lessened,--a point of some importance.\n\n\nTHE REMONTOIRE.\n\nis an invention which, being derived from the French, still bears its\nFrench title, and consists of either a train remontoire, or a gravity\nor remontoire escapement, in which latter the impulse is not given to\nthe pendulum directly by the clock-train or weight, but by some small\nweight lifted up or a small spring bent up by the clock-train at every\nbeat of the pendulum, so as to secure a uniform and constant impulse,\nthe remontoire weights being lifted either faster or slower according\nto need. The train remontoire differs from the escapement but\nslightly, the chief difference being that the small weight or spring\nwhich gives the impulse to the pendulum is not wound up at every\nbeat, but at some larger interval, seldom more than half a minute. Its\neffect is to counteract the various errors to which large clocks\ndriving heavy hands are always liable, and to diminish the friction\nwhich arises from the use of heavy weights--these being in very large\nclocks almost incredibly heavy; for instance, the weights used by me\nfor my clock in the Great International Exhibition of 1862 amounted to\nmore than two tons. Whatever the cause of inequality of movement in\nthe clock, whether it be dust or dirt, or insufficient oil, or whether\nit be wind delaying or expediting the progress of the hands on the\ndial, the remontoire regulates and counteracts.\n\n\nTHE DIALS.\n\nThe utility of a Public Clock is considerably enhanced by its being\nprovided with a dial marking the time in the simplest and most\nunmistakeable lines, so that it may readily be ascertained at any\nreasonable distance from the clock-tower what is the hour either by\nday or night. In order that this important requisite may be attained,\nit is of course necessary that the dial shall be so constructed as to\nbe visible both by night and day, and so arises the necessity for\nproviding illuminating power either from within or from without. Now\nthe simplest method, and perhaps also in the end the least\nobjectionable, is that followed at the Horse Guards, where the dial\nforms part of the tower itself, and is lighted not from within, but\nfrom without. The advantage of this arrangement is, that the architect\ncan make the dial harmonize with the character of the building, that\nthe illuminating power is kept apart from the clock, and if the centre\nof the dial be slightly sunk the hands may be brought quite close to\nthe face, so as to prevent any seeming error in time, as is sometimes\ncaused by the convexity of a copper dial. The figures too, having been\nonce carefully divided and cut into the stone, are renewed, so to\nspeak, by merely being painted over.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Memorial Turret Clock Dial.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nDials may be made of any material, wood, stone, slate, iron, brass,\ncopper, and coloured or semi-opaque glass. Copper dials possess many\nadvantages, and these have been of late years preferred, except where\nmore ornamental dials are required, in which case slate and skeleton\nframes are used with good effect. The large dial of my great clock\nwhich was placed over the principal entrance of the International\nExhibition Building in the Cromwell Road was of slate, elaborately\nenamelled with white and gold on a blue ground. Another kind of dial\nhaving a good effect is that erected by myself some time since for Sir\nMoses Montefiore, at the Synagogue, Ramsgate, consisting of a skeleton\nor framework of iron fitted with Minton or encaustic tiles. A dial\nsuch as this can thus be made with comparatively little expense during\nthe erection of the tower, and the architect can then, as I have said,\ndesign it so as to be in keeping with the edifice; the Minton tiles\nhave also the advantage of being almost indestructible, and of being\nmade of any pattern or colour. The chief points to remember are that\nthe dials should be slightly sunk in the centre so as to allow the\nhour hand to traverse in the sinking point close to the disc and the\nfigures, and especially that the dial should be made large enough to\ndistinctly show the hour. Properly the dial should never be less in\ndiameter than one-tenth of the number of feet which it is distant from\nthe ground, and in all cases where it is possible I should recommend\nit to be much larger than this. The dials of St Paul's and Westminster\nare larger than they would be under the above rule, and they are\ncertainly not too large. As to the colour of the dials, figures, and\nhands, there is not much choice; dark ground and gilt figures, or\nwhite ground with black figures, or a skeleton frame with gilt figures\nare the chief in use. In the white semi-transparent dials with opaque\nfigures used for illuminated clocks, the time, which is seen with\nsufficient distinctness by night when the light is behind the figures,\nis not as clearly indicated by day. To remedy this defect an invention\nhas been applied by which the dial when illuminated at night throws\nout a beautiful transparent light admirably marking the position of\nthe figures and hands, which being black or dark blue, or even\nstrongly gilt, can also be distinctly seen by day, even as clearly as\nthe long-approved copper dials painted black with gilt figures.\n\n\nTHE HANDS\n\nshould be most carefully made, and like the figures should be painted\nof a colour which shall most powerfully contrast with that of the\ndial. The hands are almost invariably made of copper strengthened by\ndiaphragms, and poised from the inside. In some old-fashioned clocks\nin which the hands have been poised from the outside the effect has\nbeen produced of a third hand, and numerous mistakes caused thereby.\nAs to the shape of the hands, there is but one simple rule, namely,\nthat the less of ornamentation in them the better. The minute hand\nshould be perfectly plain, with a tapering but not too fine point,\nextending to the top of the figures; the hour hand should be of equal\nbreadth and plainness, but its point should be more marked by perhaps\nan arrowhead or heart-shaped tip only reaching to the bottom of the\nfigures. With large hands counterpoises are found necessary, and these\nshould be placed inside the dial if possible, for they are when\noutside sometimes mistaken for the point of the hour hand. If a\ncounterpoise must be placed outside, it is better to arrange that it\nshall be as little as possible, and that the inside counterpoise make\nup the difference, giving to the latter perhaps two thirds, and one\nthird to the former,--but in any case care has to be taken to prevent\nthe counterpoise appearing like a hand.\n\n\nTHE FRAME.\n\nThe old-fashioned clock-frame, known in the trade as the 'bedstead,'\nis now generally superseded by the horizontal frame originally\nintroduced by the French, which possesses the special advantage of\nnot only being durable and strong, but that it allows of any part of\nthe clock which may have been injured, or may require cleaning, being\neasily taken out and replaced without interfering with other portions\nof the mechanism,--any wheel can be separately handled and removed. In\nthe old upright frame which is even now still in use by some of the\nmore ancient firms of clockmakers, if any part of the clock be injured\nthe entire machine must be taken to pieces.\n\n\nTHE FIXING\n\nof a Turret Clock requires much careful forethought and experienced\nlabour; because whatever oversight has been made by the architect in\nplanning the clock-room must be made good by the clockmaker who has to\nfix up a public time-piece. In the first place the latter will take\ncare that the supports of the clock shall be sufficiently strong and\nfree from vibration, and that the movement shall be bolted securely to\nthe iron girders, or strong oak beams provided for the purpose; he\nwill remember that when it is intended that the clock shall strike the\nhours and quarters, that the bell or bells should be hung as high in\nthe tower as possible, so that when the stroke of the hammer is given\nby a perfect fall of the weights, the louvres of the tower should be\nso arranged as to bring out the full sound of the bell, as in the\ncase of the bell at St Paul's cathedral, which, though only weighing 5\ntons 4 cwts., is frequently heard on clear nights as far as Windsor.\nHe will in a word require to be acquainted with all the points of\nimportance attached to his rather intricate duty, or he may by failure\nrender nugatory the best workmanship that could be bestowed in\nclockmaking. The wiser arrangement as to clock-fixing is to intrust\nthe duty to the clockmaker, and he will then necessarily bear the sole\nresponsibility of any mistake.\n\nTHE WINDING and keeping in order is, as we have said, a less laborious\ntask as respects modern clocks than those which were made fifty years\nago, inasmuch as, although it is the duty of a clock-winder to watch\ndaily the action of the time-piece under his charge, he need not\nperform his winding duties oftener than once a week. He must be on the\nalert to observe any effect produced by the action of the wind or the\nfall of snow upon the hands of the clock, which under certain\nconditions is not uncommon; he must note by some good regulator any\ntendency to variation in the Church clock, and he must also observe\nthe Equation of Time, which is the difference between true and mean\nsolar time for each day, and which is not quite the same for every\nyear, because it moves on about a quarter of a day in each year until\nleap year comes and puts it back again. The Equation may be reckoned\nby an Equation Table, or by the time mentioned in the Almanacs as\n'clock before' or 'clock after sun.' It is obviously a very important\nrequisite for good time-keeping that good horological instruments\nshall be intrusted to skilful and careful hands. In many instances it\nhas happened that escapements made upon the truest scientific\nprinciples, and set going in thorough working order, have been so\ninjured by the mechanical genius of the village (some blundering\nsexton, or some jack-of-all-trades, whose education in mechanism must\nbe exercised at the parish expense), that the new clock with all its\nmerits has been seriously damaged. In such a case the clockmaker had\nbetter be at once consulted.\n\n\nA MODERN TURRET CLOCK DESCRIBED.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: A Modern Turret Clock.] |\n| |\n| [Illustration: Hour-Wheel and Snail.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nThe Turret Clock which the highest skill and the best experience of\nthe value of the latest improvements can produce, may be thus\ndescribed:--\n\nThe Bed or Frame is of cast-iron. The Barrel on which the cords are\nwound possesses a metal cap in front, and a ratchet or toothed wheel at\nthe back end; between this cap and ratchet is a metal drum or tube\nadapted to the width of the Frame. Passing through the drum is an axle\nor barrel-arbor, on the back end of which the main or barrel-wheel is\nfitted so as to allow the line which carries the weight to be wound\nupon the barrel without moving the wheel, which latter is kept in place\nby means of a cap or key pinned tight on the arbor. Upon the barrel\nwheels are fitted clicks and springs, the former falling into the\ntoothed wheel or ratchet, and the latter keeping the clicks in place\nwhile the clock is being wound up, for as the weights are wound up the\nclicks prevent the barrel running back. At each end of the barrel arbor\nis a pivot in brass bearings fitted in plumber block, and bolted on the\nbed or frame with bolts and washers. Beyond the pivot on the front of\nthe arbor is a square to receive the winder. The uprights or small\nframes for carrying the going-train contain the following; first, there\nis an arbor across the frame at the back of which is a pinion working in\nthe teeth of the barrel-wheel; at the other end of the arbor is the\ncentre-wheel with teeth cut in it, and above this wheel is another\npinion running into it with a wheel at the other end, termed the third\nwheel and pinion. The escape-pinion runs into the third wheel; on this\narbor is fitted the escape-wheel, which has very fine teeth cut in it.\nAbove the escape-wheel is an arbor termed the verge arbor, to which are\nfitted the pallet arms. The pallet bits or pads working in the\nescape-wheel teeth are of hardened steel polished. At the back end of\nthe verge arbor is fitted the crutch which connects the escapement and\nthe pendulum rod. The escapement is that called the dead-beat or lever\nescapement, found to be the best for time-keeping, and least likely to\nget out of order. Upon the set-hand arbor, used for setting the hands on\nthe dial to time, are two springs or keys to keep in place a wheel\nfitted loosely on the arbor, and working in the teeth of the\ncentre-wheel. The hands are set by means of the set key which fits on\nthe end of the arbor in front. At the back end of the same arbor is a\njoint by means of which an iron rod connects the clock to the dial, and\nworks the outside hands. The whole of the arbors are turned with\nsuitable pivots into brass bearings screwed into the uprights, and all\nbolted to the bed or frame by stout bolts and washers. On the front\nupright is fitted an index or set-dial by which to set the outside\nhands, and two wheels and pinions, termed the motion or dial-work,\nfitted on sockets and working on iron studs which are screwed into the\nupright. Upon the largest wheel, known as the hour-wheel, is fixed a\nsnail having twelve steps in it for regulating the strokes to be given\nat the different hours. The striking-train consists of a barrel similar\nto the going-train, only that it has a camm or toothed-wheel fitted on\nthe back of the barrel-wheel for the purpose of raising the hammer\nwhich strikes the bell, a lever being used called the hammer-tail. This\nbarrel is fitted into bearings in plummer-block, and bolted on frame.\nThe train of wheels and pinions fitted in arbors, and working in brass\nbearings, consists of,--the pallet pinion fitted tight in the pallet\narbor and working in the teeth of the barrel-wheel; at the front end of\nthis arbor is a pallet of steel working in the teeth of the rack (see\nnext illustration), and gathering it up as the blows of the hammer\nstriking the hours are given on the barrel. Above the pallet arbor is a\npinion running into the teeth of the pallet wheel and termed the\nfly-pinion, as it is used for regulating the blows or strokes. Fans are\nattached to the fly-pinion to assist in regulating the striking,--the\nintervals between the strokes being thus made longer or shorter as\ndesired. Fitted to the fly-frame is a ratchet with two clicks and\nsprings, these being used to prevent the train being stopped too\nsuddenly, and the damage likely to arise therefrom. At the right-hand\nside of the clock frame is an arbor to carry the work for the\nmaintaining power, by means of which work the clock is kept going even\nwhile it is being wound up, and injury to the escapement is at the same\ntime prevented. But for this maintaining power during the winding-up,\nwhilst the pendulum is vibrating to and fro, the pallets are liable to\ncatch the teeth of the wheel, and these are so fine as to be readily\ninjured. As properly fixed the clock cannot be wound up unless this\nmaintaining power is put in action by means of a lever passing in front\nof the barrel-square, so that the winder cannot be put on the square\nuntil the lever is raised and puts this power in action. The repeating\nwork for the striking-train is fitted on brass sockets working on\nwrought-iron studs screwed into the front upright, and consists of the\nRack-hook, Warning, Locking, and Lifting pieces. The Rack is a portion\nof a circle with a number of half-circular teeth cut on its edge; at the\nend of the Rack is the Rack-arm fitted with a spring having a nib or pin\nin it, which nib or pin falls upon the steps of the before-mentioned\nhour-snail, and thus the different strokes are given at the hours; as\nthe nib falls nearer the centre the rack drops a greater number of\nteeth. The Rack-hook is placed above the rack to catch the rack as it is\ngathered up by the gathering pallets, and when the proper number of\nstrokes has been given this hook falls into a deep tooth, and then, by\nmeans of a locking-piece attached to it, causes the train to be locked\nwith the stop-piece on the fly-pinion arbor, this latter piece forming\npart of both the locking and warning work. The lifting-piece lifts the\nrack-hook out of the deep tooth in the rack and locking, by means of a\nsnail or eccentric fitted on the set-hand arbor. On this lifting-piece\nis also a piece for the warning, fitted on a small stud. The pendulum\nrod has a brass top, and some adjusting work with a steel suspension\nspring set in brass, by means of which the clock can be put in beat with\ngreat exactness, there being no necessity with this adjustment to bend\nthe crutch as heretofore, for the crutch on the verge arbor has a pin\nscrewed into it which communicates the escapement to the adjusting work\nor pendulum, and keeps it in motion. At the bottom of the pendulum rod\nis an iron screw and nut by means of which the pendulum bob is raised\nor lowered, and the clock made to go faster or slower. The motion or\ndial work for driving the hands are outside at the back of the dials,\nand consist of two wheels and pinions working in one another, the larger\nof the two being fitted to a socket and tube. At the other end of this\ntube is another socket for the hour hand to be fixed to; and through\nthis tube passes another iron rod, at one end of which rod is fitted one\nof the pinions and the minute hand, the other wheel and pinion being\nfitted on a socket worked upon a stud in a cock bolted on a bar called\nthe dial bar. If the clock has to drive more than one pair of dial\nhands, wheels called bevelled or angle wheels are used, which may be cut\nto suit any angle, so it will not matter how far off the dials may be\nfitted, or how many they may be, so long as the proper expansion and\nuniversal joints are fitted to them. The Hammer-work consists of an iron\nframe with an arbor pivoted into brass bearings, and upon this arbor is\nfitted a lever, one end of the lever holding the hammer-head, and the\nother end raising the hammer. The lifting of the hammer is done by means\nof a wire from the hammer-tail previously mentioned. There is also a\nsteel spring attached to the lever to prevent the hammer chattering on\nthe bell.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: The Rack.] |\n| |\n| [Illustration: Pendulum Rod.] |\n| |\n| [Illustration: Quarter or Chime Clock.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nQUARTER or CHIME CLOCKS differ from the above only in having another\nbarrel and train of wheels to provide the extra power for such\nstriking and chiming.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: GAS WHEEL FOR ILLUMINATED DIALS.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nIn instances where it is requisite that the clock face should be\nvisible at a great distance, it is necessary that the dial should be\nmade of semi-transparent glass and be illuminated by gas, which is\nusually turned as low as possible by day and turned on at night by\nmeans of the 24-hour wheel, as shown in the annexed illustration, the\ntime for the turning on being regulated by the man in charge of the\nclock, who takes out or screws in the pins placed in the rim for that\npurpose.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: NEST OF BEVELLED WHEELS FOR FOUR DIALS.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nThese wheels should be rather large, inasmuch as they have to carry\nthe hands moving upon the face of the dial. The size of these wheels\nvaries of course with the size of the clock, but they are seldom less\nthan five inches and are generally from seven to nine inches wide.\n\n\nHAMMER AND BELL.\n\nThe next engraving exhibits the relative positions of hammer and bell\nin a turret clock,--the hammer being fixed at right angles to the\nswing of the bell, so that the blow of the hammer should not drive the\nbell out of reach of its next blow, and this position least\ninterfering with the ringing of the bell, when the bell is required to\nbe rung. The hammer spring, as shown, is sometimes so adjusted as to\nallow of the hammer being brought nearer or further from the bell.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Hammer and Bell.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\n\nTHE GREAT CLOCKS OF THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF 1862.\n\nBENSON'S GREAT CLOCK.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Benson's Great Clock.--The Exterior.] |\n| |\n| [Illustration: Benson's Great Clock.--The Movement.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nThe movement of this clock, next to that at Westminster, is the largest\nin the world, and, in point of quality of material and finish of\nworkmanship, it is unequalled by any. The three main wheels are each two\nfeet in diameter, and cast in the solid, of the very finest gun-metal,\nthe teeth being afterwards cut by an engine made expressly for that\npurpose. The frame is of the best wrought-iron planed to a smooth\nsurface, and by means of a contrivance, known to engineers as plumber\nblocks, any part of the mechanism may be removed without disturbing the\nremainder. The pendulum, which is self-compensating, is over 15 feet\nlong, and vibrates or beats once in two seconds. The quarter chimes,\nwhich are struck on four bells, are a modification of those of S. Mary,\nCambridge.\n\nThe great weights necessary to drive so large a clock, and which by\nthe friction they would cause might prejudicially influence its\nperformance, are in this case not allowed to act directly upon the\npendulum, but are made to wind up a small auxiliary weight once every\nhalf-minute, and this weight imparts an exactly uniform impulse to the\npendulum at each vibration. This arrangement, which is called the\n_remontoir_, is supplemented in this clock by a double lever\nescapement of a novel kind, in connection with that known as Graham's\nDead Beat.\n\n\nA CALENDAR AND WIND-DIAL\n\nare useful additions to some edifices. The CALENDAR indicates on\nspecial circles of a large dial--by means of three separate hands--the\nmonth of the year, the day of the month, and the day of the week. The\npeculiarity of this invention is that it needs no correction for the\nlong and short months, nor even for the month of February, with its\noccasional 29 days; as by means of a wheel cut for the successive\nmonths in a period of four years, and which takes that time for a\nsingle revolution, the calendar is rendered a perpetual one. The\nmechanism which directs the pointers to the days of the week and of\nthe month is discharged, by the clock, each night at 12 o'clock, when\nthe levers shift the hands to their proper places on their several\ndials. On the first of the month all three hands on the dial are moved\nat the same instant.\n\nThe WIND-DIAL is lettered with the four cardinal points of the compass\nand the 12 intermediates. The hand which points on the dial is\nconnected by rods and bevelled wheels with a vane at the top of the\nhouse, placed 20 feet above the roof in order to be affected, not by\nwind eddies, but by the true current of air. The connecting rods boxed\nin the wall are broken at every eight feet with universal joints, and\nhardened steel is used for all pivots and sockets. The dials are\ngenerally made of semi-transparent ground glass and are lit by gas\nafter dark. In a set of Clock Calendars which I some time since\nprovided for His Grace the Duke of Portland, the clock showed the time\non four illuminated dials five feet nine inches in diameter, chiming\nquarters, hours, &c. (the well-known Cambridge chimes) on bells of 12\ncwt., repeating the hour after the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd quarters. The two\nsides of an adjoining tower show a calendar similar to the one above\nmentioned, with the addition of an extra circle on the dial to mark\nthe age of the moon and the equation of time, so that each dial has\nfour circles, besides the circle of the moon, shifted simultaneously\nat 12 o'clock every night.\n\n\nSUN-DIALS\n\n(see illustration on following page) are chiefly used now to mark the\nsolar meridian or noon. Those which indicate other hours have a gnomon\nwith its edge parallel to the earth's axis and inclined to the horizon\nat the angle corresponding to the latitude of the place in which the\ndial is fixed.\n\n\nCARILLON CHIMES.\n\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| [Illustration: Sun-Dial.] |\n+----------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\nThese beautiful examples of _al fresco_ music, which have been hitherto\nchiefly identified with Belgium, are now being produced in England with\nperhaps even more pleasing and satisfactory musical effect. Carillons\nattached to Church or Turret Clocks are being set up in various churches\nand mansions in different parts of the kingdom, and it is not improbable\nthat the taste for such chimes may grow with the opportunity for hearing\nthem. As in musical clocks, the works for time-keeping and those for\nchiming are entirely distinct, with the exception of the means by which\nthe clock at certain fixed intervals lets off the chiming machinery\nafter the striking is done. Chimes were much more popular years ago than\nthey have been until lately. The old-fashioned machinery used to be rude\nenough, consisting chiefly of a large wooden barrel, stuck, like that of\na musical box, with pins. These pins pulled the hammers that struck upon\nthe bells, and the time was regulated by a rope coiled round one end of\nthe barrel driving two or three wheels connected with a fly-wheel. More\nrecent inventions have improved upon these conditions. The barrel is\nsometimes of cast-iron instead of wood, with steel or brass pins fixed\nin it to lift the hammers, and a very heavy weight is necessary to give\nthe motive power. Instead of the ordinary method of raising the hammers\nand letting them fall by means of the pins on a chime barrel, the\nhammers are immediately after use returned to their places in striking\nposition ready to be liberated by the pins on the chime barrel, and upon\nbeing so liberated are prepared to strike again. The tunes to be played\nupon these bells will of course be such as are adapted to the particular\nnumber of bells in each case, and the cost of the entire chimes depends\nupon the number and sizes of the bells so used,--varying with the\ncircumstances,--the size and capacity of the tower, and the difficulties\nto be overcome in providing accommodation for the necessary bells,\nweights, chime barrel, &c. In each instance, as with turret clocks, the\ncost of the whole works depends to a great extent upon the cost of\nfixing the machinery. The tones of the bells have to be carefully\nprovided for, as also the best position in which they can be heard at a\ndistance. With fourteen bells of different sizes almost any tune can be\nplayed.\n\nOne was erected recently upon the new principle, of which the cost was\nsomething under \u00a35000, including 12 bells weighing from five to seven\ncwt. each, clock, architect's charges, gas-fitting, and \u00a31200 for\ntimber-trussing, floors, &c. The Carillon machine is let off by the\nclock and plays seven times on the ringing peal of bells, but is\nadapted to play twenty-eight tunes on fifteen bells. It is wound up\nevery morning and plays eight times in twenty-four hours, _i_. _e_.\nonce every three hours, giving the tune on each occasion three times,\nand occupying about four minutes in doing so. At the expiration of the\n24 hours the tune changes involuntarily, and of course with seven\ntunes there is one for each day in the week. The Carillon machinery is\nconnected with the clock and set in motion thereby, by a lever which\nat three hours' intervals dislodges a pin and allows the weights, 14\ncwt. each, to act upon the machinery, the speed being easily\nregulated, as in clockwork, by revolving vanes. The barrels are five\nfeet long, by one foot in diameter, and are studded with brass pins\nlike that of a musical box. When the bells are required to be rung, a\nbar is turned down on the keys which prevents the motion of the\nmachinery for any length of time that the ringing is to be continued.\nNotwithstanding that the twenty-six hammers weigh from 2 cwt. to 70lbs\neach, it is possible that the tunes could be played by means of an\nivory keyboard, as in a church organ, and with almost as much ease and\nfacility.\n\nPersons requiring to know the cost of a Church or Turret Clock should\nfurnish the Clockmaker with the following data:--\n\n --------------------------------------------------------------\n How many Dials? |\n -------------------------------+------------------------------\n Their Diameter? |\n -------------------------------+------------------------------\n Their Elevation, or distance |\n from the ground? |\n -------------------------------+------------------------------\n If to be Illuminated? |\n -------------------------------+------------------------------\n Of what material is |\n Dial to be? |\n -------------------------------+------------------------------\n Can the Movement be |\n placed on a level with the |\n centre of Dial, if not, how |\n far above or below it? |\n -------------------------------+------------------------------\n Is the Clock to strike? |\n if so, on what size or |\n weight bell? |\n -------------------------------+------------------------------\n If to strike half-hours |\n or quarters, or how many |\n bells, and their sizes and |\n weights? |\n -------------------------------+------------------------------\n What number of feet |\n can be obtained for descent |\n of weights? |\n -------------------------------+------------------------------\n What length of Pendulum |\n will the building |\n admit of, and is a compensating|\n Pendulum required? |\n --------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\nA FEW DATES AND DETAILS FOR ALMANAC READERS.\n\nThe following data may be found useful in studying an Almanac.\n\nThe columns for SUNRISE AND SUNSET are nearly the same year after year\nfor any given place; for by the alteration of styles and the day\nallowed at Leap Year the civil and astronomical year are almost\nexactly the same; but the difference in latitude of different places\nmakes a London almanac useless for sunrise and sunset, say at\nEdinburgh. The sun rises at each place to a greater height in June\nthan in December, but he is always at a less height in Edinburgh than\nin London both in winter and summer, Edinburgh being farther than\nLondon from the equator, where the sun is more immediately overhead.\n\nThe RISING AND SETTING OF THE MOON vary greatly day by day. The moon\nis constantly moving eastward, and she is not moving in the same path\nwith the sun; the latitude and longitude of the observer's position,\nthe place of the moon in her orbit, the rapidity of her motion, and\nother particulars, are to be taken into account in computing her\nrising and setting.\n\nThe GOLDEN NUMBER is a term arising from the discovery that the sun\nperforms his annual course 19 times to the moon's 235. The golden\nnumber is the number which any given year holds in the Lunar Cycle.\nAfter the lapse of 19 years the new moons occur on the same days of\nthe same months as before. This discovery being esteemed by the Romans\nto be highly important, they set up the rule for ascertaining the\nnumber of the year in the Lunar Cycle in a tablet with letters of\ngold, hence the term Golden Number. To find the year of the Lunar\nCycle add one to the present year, then divide by 19 and the remainder\nwill show the year of the Cycle.\n\nThe EPACT is the number of days which must be added to a lunar year to\ncomplete a solar year. Twelve lunar months being nearly 11 days less\nthan the solar year, the new moons in one year falling 11 days earlier\nthan in the year preceding it, it becomes necessary on the fourth\nyear, when the difference would amount to 33 days, to take off 30 days\nas an intercalary month, during which the moon has made a revolution,\nand the three remaining would be the epact or 'addition,' which thus\ncontinues to vary until the 19 years have expired, and the new moons\nrecur as before.\n\nThe SOLAR CYCLE is complete in 28 years, after which the days of the\nmonth return to the same days of the week as before.\n\nThe DOMINICAL OR SUNDAY LETTER, as one of the first seven letters of\nthe alphabet, used to denote the days of the week, one of which must\nof course fall on the Sunday throughout the year. Owing to Leap Year\ntheir order every fourth year is disturbed, so that the Solar Cycle\nmust pass round before the letters can fall to the same days of the\nweek.\n\nTHE NUMBER OF DIRECTION. The Council of Nice having decided, A.D. 325,\nthat Easter Day is always the first Sunday after the full moon which\nhappens upon or next after the 21st of March, it follows that Easter\nDay cannot take place earlier than the 22nd of March, or later than\nthe 25th of April. The number of Direction is that day of the 35, on\nwhich Easter Sunday falls.\n\nROMAN INDICTION was a period of fifteen years, appointed by the\nEmperor Constantine, A.D. 312, for the payment of certain taxes. It\nwas observed by the Greek and Roman Churches.\n\nTHE JULIAN PERIOD consists of 7980 years, produced by the\nmultiplication into each other of the Solar and Lunar Cycles and the\nRoman Indiction, 28\u00d719\u00d715=7980. This period is reckoned from 709\nbefore the Creation of the World, when the three Cycles are supposed\nto have commenced together; the lapse of the entire period will be\nA.D. 3267.\n\nEQUATION OF TIME is the difference between the time as indicated by a\nsun-dial, and that by a good clock. It is necessary because the sun,\nthe chief agent in measuring time, does not upon all days of the year\nappear to move equally fast, inasmuch as an hour by a sun-dial,\ncorrectly indicating the sun's motion, is sometimes longer, sometimes\nshorter, than an hour by the clock, the hours of which are supposed to\nbe perfectly equal, although the sun's are not. The Equation of Time\nshows how many minutes are to be added to, or subtracted from,\nsun-dial time in order to show clock time. The same table of equation\nwill serve all over the world. [See following pages for Equation\nTable.]\n\nTRUE OR SOLAR TIME is that marked by the sun, and it is taken at the\nmoment when he has attained his greatest height above the\nhorizon,--such a moment being of course dependent upon the latitude of\nthe place of observation. The solar time by which our nautical\nstandard is fixed, is that of the meridian of Greenwich.\n\nSIDEREAL TIME is that measured by the fixed stars, which are at such\nan immense distance from the earth that the diurnal motion of the\nearth brings these stars to the meridian at sufficiently regular\nintervals. It is necessary, however, to remember when making\nobservations for sidereal time that these must be made from fixed or\ntwinkling stars, not from planets.\n\nOf the various Eras from which time has been dated, the following are\nthe chief:--\n\n A.M. _Anno Mundi._ The Year of the\n World, dating from the Creation, according\n to Jewish Calendar 5635\n\n The Deluge, Era of, variously\n reckoned 2348 to 3155 B.C.\n\n The first Olympiad 776 B.C.\n\n A.U.C. or _Anno Urbis Condit\u00e6_, the year\n of the building of Rome 753 B.C.\n\n The Hegira, or Flight of Mahomet from\n Mecca to Medina 622 A.D.\n\n The Birth of Christ in the year of the\n World 4004\n\n The Jewish year 5635 commenced Sept.\n 12, 1874 A.D.\n\n Table Colunm Headings\n A. 3m.fa.45s.\n B. 13m.fa.50s.\n C. 12m.sl.36s.\n D. 14m.fa. 1s.\n E. 3m. sl. 0s.\n F. 2m. sl.30s.\n+---------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| A TABLE OF THE EQUATION OF TIME, |\n| For regulating Clocks and Watches for 1875. |\n+-----+-----------+---------+----------+---------+---------+----------+\n| Day | January |February | March | April | May | June |\n+-----+-----------+---------+----------+---------+---------+----------+\n| 1 | A | B | C | D | E | F |\n| 3 | 4 41 | 14 4 | 12 11 | 3 25 | 3 14 | 2 12 |\n| 5 | 5 36 | 14 16 | 11 45 | 2 49 | 3 26 | 1 51 |\n| 7 | 6 29 | 14 24 | 11 16 | 2 14 | 3 35 | 1 30 |\n| 9 | 7 20 | 14 29 | 10 47 | 1 41 | 3 43 | 1 7 |\n| 11 | 8 9 | 14 30 | 10 16 | 1 8 | 3 48 | 0 44 |\n| 13 | 8 55 | 14 29 | 9 43 | 0 36 | 3 51 | 0 19 |\n| 15 | 9 39 | 14 24 | 9 9 | 0 5 | 3 51 | 0 fa. 6 |\n| 17 |10 20 | 14 16 | 8 35 | 0 sl.24 | 3 50 | 0 31 |\n| 19 |10 58 | 14 6 | 7 59 | 0 52 | 3 46 | 0 57 |\n| 21 |11 33 | 13 53 | 7 23 | 1 18 | 3 40 | 1 23 |\n| 23 |12 5 | 13 37 | 6 46 | 1 42 | 3 32 | 1 48 |\n| 25 |12 34 | 13 19 | 6 9 | 2 5 | 3 22 | 2 14 |\n| 27 |13 0 | 12 58 | 5 32 | 2 25 | 3 10 | 2 39 |\n| 29 |13 22 | - - - | 4 55 | 2 44 | 2 55 | 3 4 |\n| 31 |13 41 | - - - | 4 19 | - - - | 2 39 | - - - |\n+-----+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------+--+\n\n Table Colunm Headings\n A. 3m.fa.28s.\n B. 6m.fa. 5s.\n C. 0m.sl. 3s.\n D. 10m.sl.16s.\n E. 16m.sl.18s.\n F. 10m.sl.52s.\n+---------------------------------------------------------------------+\n| EQUATION OF TIME, 1875--_continued_. |\n+-----+-----------+---------+----------+---------+---------+----------+\n| Day | July | August |September |October |November |December |\n+-----+-----------+---------+----------+---------+---------+----------+\n| 1 | A | B | C | D. | E | F |\n| 3 | 3 51 | 5 57 | 0 41 | 10 54 | 16 19 | 10 5 |\n| 5 | 4 13 | 5 47 | 1 20 | 11 30 | 16 17 | 9 17 |\n| 7 | 4 33 | 5 34 | 2 0 | 12 5 | 16 12 | 8 26 |\n| 9 | 4 52 | 5 19 | 2 41 | 12 38 | 16 4 | 7 33 |\n| 11 | 5 9 | 5 2 | 3 22 | 13 10 | 15 52 | 6 38 |\n| 13 | 5 24 | 4 42 | 4 4 | 13 40 | 15 37 | 5 42 |\n| 15 | 5 38 | 4 20 | 4 47 | 14 8 | 15 18 | 4 45 |\n| 17 | 5 49 | 3 55 | 5 29 | 14 33 | 14 56 | 3 47 |\n| 19 | 5 59 | 3 29 | 6 12 | 14 56 | 14 31 | 2 47 |\n| 21 | 6 6 | 3 1 | 6 54 | 15 17 | 14 2 | 1 48 |\n| 23 | 6 11 | 2 31 | 7 36 | 15 34 | 13 30 | 0 48 |\n| 25 | 6 13 | 1 59 | 8 17 | 15 49 | 12 55 | 0 fa.12 |\n| 27 | 6 14 | 1 26 | 8 58 | 16 1 | 12 17 | 1 12 |\n| 29 | 6 12 | 0 52 | 9 37 | 16 10 | 11 36 | 2 11 |\n| 31 | 6 8 | 0 16 | - - - | 16 16 | - - - | 3 10 |\n+-----+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+---+\n|_Note_.--Fa. means clock to be fast, _that is_, your Clock, to be |\n|right, must be so much faster than the Sun-Dial--Sl. that your Clock |\n|must be so much slower than the Sun-Dial. _To set a Clock or Watch on|\n|any Day by means of this Table_:--Take out the number of Minutes and |\n|Seconds which stand against that day, and make your Clock or Watch so|\n|much faster or slower (according as the table is marked _fa._ or |\n|_sl._) than the time on a good Sun-Dial. Thus, on January 1st, the |\n|Clock must be set 3m. 45s. _faster_ or _before_ the Dial; on the 1st |\n|of October, it must be set 10m. 16s. _slower_. Correct the Watch when|\n|the Dial marks just an hour, as 9, 10, 11, 1, 2, 3, or 4 o'clock. |\n|Noon is _not_ best, nor near Sunrise or Sunset. |\n+---------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\n\n\n\n JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS.\n\n\n * * * * *\n\n Transcriber's Notes:\n\n Obvious punctuation and spelling errors repaired.\n\n Italic text is denoted by _underscore_.\n\n The carat character (^) indicates that the following letter is\n superscripted (example: 53^s).\n\n Inconsistent hyphenation has been repaired.\n\n The cover for the eBook version of this book was created by the\n transcriber and is placed in the public domain.\n\n In ambiguous cases, the text has been left as it appears in the\n original book.\n\n Corrections:\n Line 1304: \"instance\" replaced with \"insistence\".\n Line 1332: \"inputation\" replaced with \"imputation\".\n Line 2279: \"abanboned\" replaced with \"abandoned\".\n Line 2656: \"Shakspere\" replaced with \"Shakspeare\".","title":"Time and Time-Tellers","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":37031}