The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-10-10
QUAINT CLOCKS.

Pvor since man first began to contrive ma
chimes 20 answer the momentous question,
IVbat,s o'clock 2" he seems to have delighted
in taxing his ingenuity to make the poor IN
stmments complicate the answer. Not CON
3o,t With having the hour indicated on dial,
w sonndad nv a bell, he must needs have IL
o;Sostod VI ~ his vision by dancing dolls, or
nnnnnced TO his ear by trumpet-blo
"bernbim or gong-sounding monsters; Two
thousand years ago, When tne onty NnGIn trjo,!
means of measuring time was ny Vne IElUh- ,I
ne"nS iins ,ater from one vessel to another, the
LIE isOdro- ~ maker INDUCED his,fancy, and made
SSUoP;g,rIo wares elaborate by the employment
nf fantastic contrivances for showing the time
through the agency OF automaton ngures'
The ciepsydra of Ctesibius, for instance, CON
sisted outwardly of a lachrymose mannikin
whose falling tears supplied the water that
impelled the instrument, while his jubilant
brother, buOyed up on afoating pedestal, boldly
nointed with a wand to the hours marked
On an adjacent column. Coming to times a
little less remote, we find the Persian King
Haroun. al-Raschid sending the Emperor Char
legne water-clock, whereof Giffard, in his
"History of France" gives this description
''The dial was composed Of twelve small doors,
which represented the division Of the hours;
each door opened at the hour it was intended
TO represent, and out of it came the same
number of little balls, which fell one by one,
at equal distances Of time, on brass drum.
It might be told by the eye what hour it was
bv the number of doors that were open; and
by the ear by the number of balls that fell.
When it was twelve o'clock, twelve horsemen
in miniature issued forth at the same time,
and marching round the dial, shut all the
DOORS" Old St. Paul's was not without a
curiosity of this character; for, according to
Dugdale's history of the cathedral, there was
a dial ordered in the reign of the third Edward,
''to be made with all splendor imaginable.
w dOnn having
the image of an angel pointing to the
hour both of the day and night" The bell,
too, of this clock, or of its successor, was
struck by the wooden ancestors of the mon
strOsities that are at present to be seen in
front of Mr.. Benefits shop in Cheapside /;
they were a more numerous family in those
days than they are now, for it seems to have
been a common thing for churches and market
houses to have their "Jacks o. tn clock, - as
the automaton bell-strikers were termed.
Decker who wrote his "Gull's Hornbook'' in
1909, calls the st. Pauls figures "Paul's
jacks" he says, "The great dial is your last
monument: where, bestow one-half of the
three-score minutes to observe the sauciness
OF the Jacks that are above the man in the
moon there; the strangeness of their motion
will quit your laber.' He further adds, "But
howsoever if Pauls Jacks be once up with
their elbows and quarreling to strike eleven,
as soon as ever the clock has parted them, and
ended the fray with the hammer let not the
Dukes gallery contain you any longer"
Other cathedrals besides StrasbOurg have
marionette clocks of less complicated struc-
ture, but still very curious as displays of in
genuity. There is one at Lyons which has,
like its Strasbourg prototype and many others,
a growing cock that flaps his wings and thrice
sounds his shrill clarion every three hours
In a gallery beneath him, door opens Oh
one side and out comes the Virgin Mary, and
from an opposite door the angel Gabriel, who
meets and salutes her. A dove descends upor
the Virgins head; and after these puppets
have retired, a reverend father comes forth
and pantomimically gives the spectators q
blessing. The days of the week are represented
by seven figures each of which takes its place
in a niche on the morning of the day it symbo-
lizes and remains there till midnight. Then
there is the clock at Venice, which has SINH
are scattered about the continent some that,
like that at Lyons, have received attention,
and are in some sort of going order, and others
buried in the dust and lumber of disused clois-
ters and towers.
Germany, the country of toymakers, seems
always to have excelled in the manufacture o.
these mechanical drolleries. Augsburg was
especially famous for them, as, indeed, it was
for the more simple and exclusively usefu
form of clocks. Most of the fgure-movinE
timekeepers were constructed there; and it il
said that they were chiefly made and used fo
presents IrOm dLuUdSSduOrb Ol SuTlSIldu COuu
tries to Oriental princes and barbarians. Tht
South Kensington Museum contains some hal
dozen Augsburg clocks; but these have NJ
automata; and doubtless many others are Il
be found in the art collections of our country
A clock of unique design, conjeGtured to be o
German make, and of date about the com
mencement of the seventeenth century, wa
exhibited at a meeting of the Archaeological
Institute in 1855. 1t was in the form of
griffin bearing an escutcheon, on which wa
the dial. The animal rolled its eyes constantly
whilst the clockwork was in movement
opened its mouth when the quarters struck
and tapped its wings at the striking of tn,
hour.
Nicholas GrOllier de Serviere, an old soldie
who had served in the Italian army, and VIII
died in 1859, devoted his latter days to tn,
invention and construction of a variety O
whimsical clocks, some of which he made fo
the sole purpose of delighting and surprisint
his visitors. A figure OF a tortoise, droppet
into plate OF water having the hours marked
on the rim, would float round and stop at th,
proper hour, telling what it was O'Clock like
learned pig. lizard assembled a pillar q,
which the hours were marked, and pointed a
the time as it advanced. A mouse did tb
same thing by creeping along an hour-marle,
cornice.
During the last century, music was adde,
TO automaton clocks to increase the charms
and accompany the diversions of the fgures
According to an old advertisement. there wa
one exhibited at the Duke of Marlborouob;
Head, in Fleet street, which 'Sbesides diSar
o,,r;oV1c TnOtinua '' NA