The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1860-04-14
SOMETHING ABOUT CLOCKS.


could the thing be done with equal facility.
there is little doubt but that that large. be-
nevolent and pubiic-epirited class of indi-
yiduals who take so much pleasure in reg
ulating their neighbors' characters and az
fairs would find equal pleasure in regulating
their clocks and watches displaying the
same praiseworthy ingenuity in finding a
screw loose in the one as in the other. Con-
sequently, we find that, in all ages and in
all countries of the world, mankind has
made perseyering efforts to possess himself
of something which should enable him to
form some idea as to how ''tbe enemy''-as
old Father Time is profanely called-is pro-
crossing.
In these days, when electrical clocks in
our large towns~beat tick for tick with the
great regulator at Greenwich-which is
as much as to say that their unerring fin
gers keep pace second by second, minute
by minute. hour by hour. with that mighty
time-keePer. the earth. in its axiai rotation
when every man prides himself upon his
:nialiible ticker" and when angry hus-
bands from ''the CITY," finding dinner fifteen
minutes late, settle all disputes as TO time
by an appeal to their watches, ''set that very
day by the government -time-ball in the
Strand" we can form no conception of the
troubles and perplexities of our yforefathers
In their crude attempts to ''tell the creeping
hours as they passed. - - 2fELfcxs3t#
Ages probably before the invention of
the sun dial, as we now know it, its proto-
type, the gnomon. had been set up on the
plains of the east. by the primitive astron-
omsrs, the Chaldean shepherds, who de-
termiEed, with all the precision of which
that first rude astronomical instrument was
capable, the length Of the day and of the
year. and the position of the equinoxes and
the solstices.
The first machines, however, for measur-
ing time, of which we have any distinct
and certain record, were the clepsydros, or
water clocks. OF the precise form in which
they were made. we are ignorant; but we
know that they all depended upon one prin
ciple-namely, the dropping of water
through an ori6ce of determinate size, the
fall OF water indicating the time which had
elapsed. They must have been extremely
imperfect, iDasmuch as the rate at which
the water, dropped would be liable to con-
slant variation from It's constantly varying
heightand pressure. The clepsydra was most
probably Grecian invention, and was in
troduced into Rome Turing the consulship
Of Pompey. In the latter place, it was used
IN manner which might not unfrequently
have It's advantage IN our own day. II
would appear chat the orators in their courts
of justice were limited to a certain time for
the delivery of their addresses, which time
was indicated by the clepsydra hence the
expression of Cicero, ''latrare ad ciepsv
drama mode of literally throwing cold
water upon speaker which could not fail
of being appreciated by the audience. -
After the clepsydra came the hour-glass,
clumsy enough method of measuring time,
which has, nevertheless, become the con-
vent'onal symbol of its passing away.
Clocks, consisting of trains Of wheels
and weights. were probably not invented
until the end of the twelfth century they
were almost invariably termed horologia.-
For long time, however. they continued
very scarce. very expensive. and very i'm
perfect, and were almost entirely confined
10 the monasteries and some few cathedrals.
Why the monasteries should have had
monopoly of them, it is hard to say, unless,
indeed, they used them in the same moral
izing spirit as the philosophical individual
encountered by the melancholy jacques"
in the forest of Arden-and who is very
unjustly designated fool--who
Drew dial from his poke.
And, looking on it with lackustre eye,
Says, very wisely: ait is ten o'clock;
Thus may We see," quoth he, chow the world
wags:
IT'S but an hour ago since it nine;
And after an hour more, t will be eleven;
And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and rire,
And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot
And thereby hangs taleP 81 g
That these horologia, however. were used
for other and more active purposes than
pointing moral upon the flight of time.
we learn from certain book called Pri-
maria Lnstituta Canonicoram Prenaoastra
tensians. in which--jf any of our readers
are curious enough to consult it, which is
hardly hkely--they win find in the 9o9th
page. and in the best monkish Latin. full
directions to the sacristan to regulate the
borologium, and make it strike before ma
tins. to arouse the sleepy brothers to pray
ers. Strange to say. however. this horolo
GUM displayed wonderful alacrity in getting
out of order. especially when the mornings
were usually cold, and the chapel unusually
damp--cold and damp, it would appear, be
ing inimical to the accurate performance of
the horelogium IN those days. We read.
however, of one enthusiastic monk, Peter
Damiani by name. who had method Of
measuring time peculiar to himself, for we
arc soiu IbaS ne Shau custom OF singing
to himself whenever he wished TO have
notion as to the quantity of time; tina;
whenever the brightness of the sun or the
position OF the stars was obscured by the
weather, be might form certain time meas
urer by the quantity of spalmody he had
accomplished"
Striking clocks must. we know, have
been in use as early as the latter portion of
the thirteenth century. for we End that
Dante. who died ia 1921. aged fifty -seven.
makes aliu>ion To them in his PGrodiso.-
The earliest clock, of the construction Of
which we have positive. information. was
the great clock made for the palace of Charles