Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1879-05-03
HISTORY OF CLOCKS.
Their uss Dates Rack ~ the Tirne Z IN
Aaayraann.


Thelr uss Date. Back 10 the TiHne Of ths
A~aayrians.
The periods OF the day were hTsi
| measured by the Aseyrians with water
CLOCKS, which, according TO early Persian
authors. were in use in Ninevah IN the
| reign OF Sardanapalus. This clock wa
merely a brass vessel Of cylindrical shape,
holding several gallons Of water. A hole
was bored In one of the sides, and II
was calculated that the vessel would
empty-itseli five or six times a day.
The water clock, or clepsydra, contin-
| ued TO remain In Its primitive condition
for many centuries /; and 1t was not until
the invention Of the sun dial at Alexan'
dria, $50 years before Christ, that 1t un'
derwent any improvement. About that
time, however, an Egyptian OF Memphis,
| added q dial with a hand to the clepsy-
dra. The hand revolved on a pivot and
communicated to a string which was to
float. As the water leaked out the float
fell with it, and the tension OF the string
caused the hand to move around with
slight, spasmodic jerks, something like
tho,e OF the secondhand OF a watch OF
inferior make.
When Pompey returned to Rome
after his triumph over the Mithridites,
he brought with him, from the treasures
OF the king of Pontus, a c~lepsydra mark
ing the hours and minutes according to
the method o horology in use in Rome.
The cylinder and dial plates were OF
gold, and the hands studded with small
rubies; each of the ciphers denoting the
hours was cut from a single sapphire.
The cylinder needed replenishing only
once a day.
The monks of the order of st. Benedict,
instituted in the year 523, computed the
time by the number Of prayers they
could say, and it was hence that the
custom Of wearing chaplets or beads
arose. The task assigned to each monk
was to recite IS many "paters" and
"aves" as there were beads on his string,
and as the orthodox number on a chaplet
wa supposed to be then, as now, thirty
three-thst is M for each year of our
Savior's liie-there was work for a full
hour and a half, II conscientiously per-
formed.
The famous Caliph Of Bagdad, Hsroun
al Rsschid, restored the old water clock
to Europe in the year S07, and sent a
magnificent clepsydrs as a token o.
friendship to Charlemagne but the
present was looked upon as a thing rather
to be admired than copied, for w find
no mention of any water clocks OF French
make until the reign OF Philip, cotem.
NoNarxf NTH WILLIAM thu nopn.,arnr
The first real clock was made in France
In the year 1874. The maker was one
Henri de Vic, an Arab, who had been
converted to Christianity. This clock
was a monster machine, weighing SOC
pounds 1t was moved by weights, was
possessed of a horizontal lever, and pro
vided with a bell to toll the time. The
maker received a pension of 100 crowns
o. gold for life and was enobled,
Horology was first applied to astron'
omicsl calculations by Purbach in 1900
and in 1860 the Danish astronomer
Tycho Brahe, the teacher of the great
Kepler, set up in his magnificent observ
atory of Craniesburg a clock which
marked both the minutes and the
seconds.
Popular tradition ascribes the inven
ton Of watches to Peter Hele, of Nurem
burg, in the year 1890. But then it is 8
notorious fact that King Robert, of Scot,
land, possessed one so far back as the yeal
1910. The only way in which we eau
account for this discrepancy is by the
supposition that watches were originally
invented by a ~Scotchman, but that the
maker died suddenly without promulga.
ting his secret. German watches were
not introduced at the English court until
1897. The first seen in England WAS
worn by the beautiful Lady Arabells
Stuart. Claude. wife OF Francis l. Of
France, had one SO smsll that it was set
In a ring.
In 1880, Calico conceived the idea Of
a pendulum clock. The theory was after.
ward put into practice in 1857 by HUI
gems in Holland.
Theinvention of spring pocket watches,
such as w now wear, is owing to the
Englishman HooSe; it dates from 1868
and eighteen years alter this, in the
year 1876, the first repeating watch was
made at Amsterdam From this time
until the present century, when chron~
ometers and stop-watches were invented,
the science OF horology received no
further development.