Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1879-04-25
History or Clocks.

The periods Of the day were first
measured by the AsSyrians with water
clockS,whjch according to early Persian
authors, were IN use IN Ninevah, in
the reign OF Sardanapalus. This clock
WAS merely brass vessel Of cylindrical
shape, holding several gallons Of water
a hole Yves bored III one Of the sides
and It was calculated that the vessel
would empty itself five or six times a
day
The water-cleek, or clopSydra, eontin-
ued to remain in itsp,imtivo condition
for many centuries; and Il was not nm.
III the invention 81 the sun dial AZ Alex
andria, go Years before Christ, that Il
underwent amy Improvement. Ahou,
that time, however, an Egyptian, of
Memphis, added dial with n hand to
the Clepsydra, The hand rcvelved ON
" pivot and communicated To string
which was attached to float
As the water leaked ont. the
iloat fol- with it, and the
tension of the string caused the hand to
move around with slight, Spasmodic
Jerks, something like those o( the sec.
ond hand on u watch OF inferior make,
When Pompey returned to Rome
after his triumph ever the MithriditcS,
he brought with him, from tho treas
urcS Of the King OF pontuS, elepsydra,
marking the hours and minutes occord-
ing to the method of hopiogy i'll use IN
Rome, The cylinder and dial plates
were OF gold. and the hands studded
with small ruhieS; each OF the ciphcrs
donating the hours was cut from Il sim
gle sapphire, The cylinder needed re-
replcniShing only once day
The monks Of the order of St Rene
dict, instituted III the year 52S, eomput.
ed the time Ivy the number of prayers
they could say, and il was hence that
the custom OF wearing chaplets or beads
arose, The task assigned 10 each monk
WAS ~ rccte rs many "ratere and
caves" as there were heads on his
string, and rs the orthodox number on
n chaplet was supposed to he then, as
1t is now, thirty-thrcc--that IS one for
each year OF our Savoir's life there
was work for \ full hour and Il half, il
consclcutiously performed.
/ The famous Cahph Of Bagdad, la.
rouu Al Rasehid, restored the old water
clock To- Europe in the year S0s, sent II
magnificent elepSydra rs token of
friendship to Char,cmagnc; hut the pre-
sent was looked upon ~ n thing TO be
rather admired than copied, for we find
no mention Of any wntcr.clocks Of
French make until the reign OF Philip.
contemporary of William the conquer
! or.
The first real clock was made in
France III the year 1874. The maker
was one Henri do Ne, IN Arab, who
had been converted to christianity.
| This clock WAS monster machine,
weighing 500 pounds. 1t was moved
| 10y weights, was possessed OF horizon
tai lever, aud provided with n bell to
toll the time. Tue maker received u
pension Of 100 crowns of gold for life
and was ennohled
Horology was first applied 10 astron.
omical calculations by purbach, in 1900
and in 1860 the Danish astronomer
Tycho set up in his magnificent ohscr-
yatory OF Craniesburg clock which
marked both the minutes and the sec.
onds.
Popular tradition ascrihcs the lnvon,
ton Of watches To Peter Hele, OF Nh
rembcrg, in the year 1890. But then it
IL n notorious fact that KING Robert, of
Scotland, possessed one 40 far back rs
| 1910. The only way in which we can
account for this discrepancy is by the
suppOsltiOn TINT watches were original.
/ ~ invented by II Scotchman, but thnt
the maker died suddenly without pro
mitigating his secret. German watches
were not introduced NJ the English
court until 1897. The first seen IN
England was worn by the beautiful
Lady Arabelh Stuart. Claude, wife of
Francis !. Of France had one 50 small
that il WAS set IN n ring,
In 1880, Calico conceived the idcu Of
n pendulum clock. The theory was
aftcrward put into practice in 1861, by
Hugons, in Holland.
The invention of spring pocket
watches. such as we now wear, is owing
70 the Euglishman Hooke, il dates
from 1858; aud eighteen wears after
this, in the year 1876, the first repeat
ing watch was made NJ Amsterdam.
From this time until the present cen
fury, when chronomctcrs and stop
watches were invented the science Of
horology received no further develop
mcnt.