The weekly Butte record., 1862-11-01
CLOCKS.

ulu4Nll-, noon aAu t'ttit- NNNt1 x 4~e-s44-l
distinguished. The Babylouia0s seem 10 have
been the first who obtaioed greater accuracy
by the Invention of the san-iial. at what epoch
is not exactly known. but 1t was evidently
very remote period The dial Of Ahaz men
toned BY Isaiah, must have existed eight cen
turtles before tie Christian era and it IS
curious example Of the communication which
existed in ancient times between the nations Of
the world, that this instrument was unknown
to the Greeks until about $40 +. c. \
I Grccian su8-lial is preserved in the British
Museum. 1t is copjectured that it served to
show the hour in one Of the cross ways Of
Athens, The Greek inscription. placed upon
the exterior of the two western faces. states
that PL2drus, the son of Zoiles. 4 Paonan.
made this"
\ few centuries later, the Egyptians in
order to distinguish the hours at night and in
cloudy weather, invented The clepsydra. or
water clock probably mere float, with a rod
fixed upon it Ike mast, and placed in a yes
sci of water with a hole at the bottom as the
water ran out, the float deceuded, and figures
marked on the rod at proper intervals showed
the number Of hours elapsed. The sand glass.
made like the modern hour glass, was also used
in ancient times. from a bas relief. representing
the marriage Of Peeus and Thetus which is-a
figure of Morpheus, holding a glass Of this
construction.
The period of the invention of wheel clocks
is involved in uncertainty authors sta
ting it 10 have been as early as the fourth, and
others as late as the tenth century. The cause
of this disagreement is that the word Is clock p"
has been used to designate the clepsydra and
hour glass and probably the clocks mentioned
by old chroniclers, and set down by modern
authors as proofs Of the antiquity of the inven-
ton, were some notifications of these instru-
ments. Such, probably, was the clock sent
by Paul l. to Repin lie Bret, in $50.
| The French historians describe clock sent
to Charlemagne, in S07. by Hayoun al Raschid,
the Calph OF the East, which struck the hours
by the falling of twelve horsomen, who came
out, one at a time, at separate doors which
they opened and closed again This clock
must certainly have been furnished with some
kind of wheel work but the moving power is
said to have been the fall of wafer.
In the twelfth century clocks moved by
weights, appear TO have been used in Italy;
and, early in the fourteenth century. one was
put up in London, by Willngford, a monk,
who died in 1925, which was said to show the
time with accuracy. In the year 1874 Giaco-
mo Dond erected, at Padua his celebrated
clock which besides the hour of the day,
showed the course Of the sun and the places of
the planets The celebrity acquired by this
clock was the cause of great advancement Of
the art. Almost every court in Europe was
desirous of possessing similar work; and
skillful mechanics were. in consequence induced
to turn their attention 10 the manufacture.-
lis author was dignfed by the surname of
Horologius, which is still borne by his de-
scendants, the chief Of whom, the Marchesse
Dondi Orologio, was lately, and most likely
still is a resident of Padua.
\ story told of Louis Nj, king of France
from l46l TO l465,) shows that the art had
then made great advances. A gentleman, who
had lost great deal of money at play, stole
clock belonging to the king, and hid it in his
sleeve. In short time the clock, notwith-
standing its removal struck the hour, and the
theft was, of course discovered. Louis, as
capricious in kindness as in tyranny, not ouly
pardoned the culprit, but made him a present
of the clock.
All these instruments. though much superior
to the clepsydra, and celebrated at period Of
their invention for the accuracy of their move
ments, gave, according to our present notions, /
but coarse approximation to the true time.
They were retarded greatly when q particle of
dust got into their works, ana accelerated
when cleaned As 10 the minute divisions Of
time, they were quite useless Tycho Brahe,
an astronomer who lived in the sixteenth cen
tury, and who spared no expense or trouble in
their construction, found that no dependence
could be placed upon them for his observations.
The adaptation of the pendulum by the
celebrated Huypens, in 1867. at once brought
clock making to perfection. The clock, which .
had hitherto merely served to divide the day
into periods Of sufficient accuracy for the de- (
tails of business, Or the hours OF eating and
sleeping, now became the means of recording
the minutest lapse Of time. of showing the
smallest irregularities in the apparent motions
of the sun and planets, and of reducing astroDo- /
nv to the exactness Of mathematical reasoning.
Increased skill in Workmanship has, of course
produced greater accuracy but the pendulum
is still the means Of giving the effect.
IyocULATIyG SHsEP.-The utility Of inocu-
atiug sheep for small poz is loudly proclaimed