The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-12-12

si,,on sn" ,ts rate was that the first blow Of the
! bour may be relied on within less than one
| second a week; which is a seven times greater
accuracy than was required in the original
conditions under which the clock was built.
proportionate part of Mr.. Woods inte-
resting volume is devoted to the smaller sub
ject Of watches. The invention of the coiled
spring as motive-power, instead of the
weight used in clocks, seems to have taken
place in l477 at Nuremberg, where watches
were first made, and called from their oval
shape, Nuremberg eggs In 1880, we find
Charles V, in his retirement at the monas-
terry OF st. Yuste, amusing himself with
ipOTtable cOcks;" reflecting:-"How foolish
was to have squandered so much blood and
treasure to make men think alike, when l
can't even make few watches keep uniform
timeV and goOd-naturedly observing, when
clumsy monk overthrow them all-''I have
been laboring for some time to make these
watches go together, and now you have effected
it in one instant" This emperor possessed
one watch that was made ''in the jewel or col
let of his ring" SO that diminutiveness of con-
struction must have been rapidly attained to.
George III, however, had a repeating watch
presented to him (by Arnold of Devereux
Court, in the Strand), whose size did not ex-
ceed that of silver twOpenny piece ''It con-
tanned one hundred and twenty different parts,
but altogether weighed not more than five
pennyweights, seven grains and three -fourths."
specimen of his art, Arnold had to make nearly
all the tools used in its manufacture. This
tiny watch contained the first ruby cylinder
ever made.
The king presented Arnold with FIVE hun
dred guineas, and when the Emperor of
Russia offered thousand guineas for a SINH
lar one, the matchmaker refused to make
it, lest he should depreciate the value of his
| gift"
When Diana of Poitiers became mistress of
Henry II of France, the courtiers because
she was widow, paid her the singular COM
pliment of wearing watches in the shape of
skulls and coffns. Sir John Dick Lauder pos
sesses a skull-watch that belonged to Mary,
! Queen of Scots; this is Of silver gilt, and or
namented with representations of Death be-
tween the Palace and the Cottage; the Garden
of Eden, and the Crucifxon; the
Holy Family at Bethlehem, etc.
| The works are as brains in the skull,
the hollow Of which is filled by a silver bell;
the dial-plate being on a fiat upon the roof of
the mouth. With reference to this CHASTITY
subject, Mr. Wood relates that in a French
engraving of 1880, Death enters watch
makers shop, and shows his hour glass to the
MASTER saying" VaiS,je bien ?" to which the
latter answers, "VouS acancez horriblement."
MANY persons addicted to the science of
Matchmaking seem indeed, to have been on
unusually familiar terms with the King of
Terrors; and some have left epitaphs behind
! them of a very characteristic nature. Ia the
churchyard of Lydford, in Devonshire, is to
be read the following
Here lies in horizontal position
the outside case of
George Routlegh matchmaker,
whose abilities In that line were an honour to
Integrity Was the ,nainsprin1 and prudence the
regulator of all the actions of his life;
Humane, generous, and liberal his hand never
stopped till he had relieved distress:
SO nicely regulated was his movements,
that he never 10ent sorong,
except when Set-dDoinO
by people who did not know his KEY;
He had the art Of dispOsing of his time
That his hours glided away in one
continued round of pleasure and delight,
Till an unlucky moment put period to his
He departed this life November IA, 1902,
Aged 81, l0Onnd up,
in hopes of being taken in hama Dy MS
And of being thoroughly cleaned, repaired, and
Set-d0oing for the world TO come.
, A much pleasanter composition in connec
ton with watches is to be found In the Gen
HemanS Magazine for 1909
ON SEEING FRENCH WATCH ROUND THR NECK OF
A BEAUTIFUL YOUNG WOMAN.
Mark what the gain from foreign lands
Time cannot now be SAID to l1nger,
, Allowed TO lay his two rude hands,
Where others dare not lay finger.
OF course watches could not be made to imi
the Academy of Sciences at Petersburg there
is a watch which was made by Russian pea
SAINT, named Kulubin, in the reign of Catherine
II, which is sufficiently wonderful. 1t Is abou
the size of an egg, and contains representa-
tion of the tomb of Christ, with the Roman sen
tinels. On pressing a spring, the stone is rolled
from the tomb, the sentinels fall down
the angels appear, the holy women enter the
sepulchre and the same chant which is sung
in the Greek Church on Easter Eve is accu
rately performed.
| The most costly and elaborate watch ever
produced by British workmen, up to 1874, was
! made in that year by Hart & Son, of Cornhill
7 for the Sultan Abdul Medschid; the brilliancy
) of its colors, and exquisiteness of its pencil
3 ling, seem to have surpassed anything OF th
/ kind of foreign manufacture. 1t struck tn
hours and quarters by ITSELF and repeated
7 them with the minutes upon pressing small
gold slide and the sound, produced by wire
i instead of bell resembled that OF powerful
5 and harmonious cathedral clock. Its pric
: was one thousand two hundred guineas.
s The most accurately exact watch is prObabl
Mr. Bensons Chronograph, used for timing
2 the Derby. "It consists of an ordinary quicl
Y train lever movement, on a scale sufficiently
L large to carry the hands for an eight-inch dial
e and with the addition of long seconds hand
a which traverses the dial, instead of being, a
5 usual, Just above the figure vi. The pecu
: liarity of the chronogTaph consists in thi
It seconds-hand and the mechanism conneote
Il with it, The hand itself is double, or formed
o of two distinct hands, one lying over tn
other The lower one at its extreme end i