The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1876-05-06
Our 0lio.



trade value, was in the farm houses in the
Black Forest, in Baden aud Wurtemburg.
There is hardly hamlet in the civilized
world where the Black Forest clock, or
one made upon the suggestion Of that orig
inal, may not be found And though va
rious improvements have been introduced,
perhaps il is safe TO say that these improve
ments are rather in the mechanical facility
Of construction and in consequent cheap
ness of manufacture, than in the quality
Of the article. The modest wages Of the
Black Foresters, however, still keep down
the prices of their work, and for accuracy
Of timekeeping the best German wood
clocks are unexcelled by any other Of the
material. The ''compensating pendulum
in clocks Of metal works, made ofdiiferent
metals, is not the only application of that
principle. Different sorts of wood, in the
case and in the works, are employed in the
better classes of the German wooden clocks
in order to counteract the influence Of the
weather. In ls42 it was estimated that
two hundred thousand wooden clocks were
annually made in the Black Forest region,
and thence found their way over Europe
and America. At the present time the
annual product Is about seven hundred
thousand
The beginning of Black Forest clock,
making was near the close of the seven
tecnth century-about two hundred years
ago. A family named Kreutz made u
rude clock of wood, with a weight. which
they gave or sold to the parish priest A
profitable epidemic broke out among the
peasantry, and the farm-houses of the dis
trict soon had each its wooden clock, the
foresters and mountaineers of Germany
and Switzerland having been ingenious
carvers from time immemorial. Soon the
domestic manufacture" became an arti-
Gle of trade. Hawkers of clocks went forth
to vend the new invention, and Schwarz
waid, the Black Forest, became house
hold word through Germany. Its clocks
were the last things consulted at night
and the first in the morning. Our Yam
kec friends must surrender the claim to
the invention of clock pedders as well as
wooden clocks.
The first cuckoO-clock sounded between
the years 1880 and l740, the inventor be-
ing one Franz Ketterer, of Schonwald.
The cuckoo made enough music for forty
years, and then came the notes of flute
clock. About the same time the Black
Foresters introduced the pendulum into
their clocks. Inventions did not find imi-
tators so rapidly hundred years ago as
they do now. For the question as to who
first practically applied the pendulum, had
been disputed between the countrymen of
Richard Hooke an English mathematician,
and Christian Huygens, Hollander, for
hundred years before the German wood
en- clock makers adopted the invention.
The cuckoo and flute clocks were the first
specimens of what the Germans called
spieluhren, or "clocks of amusement"
The trumpet clock came next. A recent
visitor to the Black Forest towns, to whom
we are indebted for many of the facts
noted here, mentions several specimens of
the "clocks of amusement" Bands play
ing or seeming to play, helmeted trumpe-
ters, cuckoos and thrushes, venerable
monks who pull the bell and ring the hour,
and all sorts of nutomata, fitted to all
purses and all tastes, are shown in the
trades halls Clocks of straw illustrate the
delicacy Of manipulation, but are not war
ranted. Most of our readers have seen
fine specimens Of every variety, the home
bringing Of travellers, or importations of
fancy dealers.
1t is proper to say that the work is not
now all done by hand, as in the peasa nts
cots in the beginning. Machinery is nov
employed, and the work is transferred
from the households of the workers to
shops, where they work as journeymen,
still the finer carving must be done by
hand, and is more than mere mechanical
occupation. The first noteworthy thing
in this subject is the humble beginning of
the business in the occupation of the leis-
ure hours of a family The next is the
great extent to which the trade has grown.
And, best Of all, is the present condition
of these thrifty and still not jealous work.
ers. A "clock-makers' school" origina-
ting with the trade, and encouraged by
the Government, was opened at Furtwan-
gen In lS50-the first probably Of all
technical" schools in the world. The
instruction is free, the conditions of ad-
mission being only that the pupil must be
fourteen years Of age, and have passed
through the public elementary free course.
The clock-makers' school has two main
objects. The first is the instruction of the
pupils by theoretical teaching in the ele-
ments on which the art of clock.making
is based. These include drawing free
hand, ornamental, lineal and constructive;
arithmetic, geometry, mechanics, natural
science, and the leading subjects of Ger
man industry and mercantile business.
Such is the education for working me.
chanics thought necessary by practical
men. To this course Of shook learning"
is added a practical school, This is
workshop where the details of the trade
are carried on. For admission to this
each run.l ,..,..t h.;oS. IL. -.-., .ool.