The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1879-05-08
HISTORY OF CLOCKS.
Their Uss Dates Back 60 4AS Tfnas eT ia


AasyrIans.
The periods of the day were first
measured by the Assyrians with water
clocks, which, according to early Persian
authors. were in use in Ninevah in the
reign of SaTdanapalus. This clock was
merely brass vessel of cylindrical shape,
holding several gallons of water. A hole
was bored IN one Of the sides, and it
was calculated that the vessel would
empty itEei FIVE or six times g day.
The water clock, or clepsydra, contin-
ued to remain in its primitive condit on
for many centuries and it was not until
the invention of the sun dial at Alexan-
dria, $50 years before Christ, that it I'M
derwent any improvement. About that
time, however, an Egyptian of Memphis,
added dial with a hand to the clepsy-
dra. The hand revolved on a pivot and
communicated to 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. spssmOdic jerks, something like
thOse 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, & clepsydTa mark
ing the hours and minutes according to
the method horology in use in Rome.
The cylinder and dial plates were of
gold, and the hands studded with small
Tubies; each of the ciphers denoting the
hours was cut from a single sapphire.
The cylinder needed replenishiDg only
once day.
The monks of the order of st. Benedict,
| %oI -, -
time by the number sof prayers they
could say, and it as hence that the
custom Of.wearing chaplets or beads
arose. The task assigned to each monk
was to recite as many "paters" and
" ayes" SIS there were beads on his string,
and as the orthodox number on q chsplet
was supposed to be then, as now, thirty
thTee-that is one for each year of our
J Savior's life-tbeTe was work for q full
! hour and half, if conscientiousIy per-
formed.
TIE famous Caliph of Bagdad, Haroun
al Rsschid, restored the old water clock
to Europe in the year S07, and sent q
magnificent clepsydra as a token OF
friendship to Chsrlemagne but the
present was looked upon as q thing rather
to be admired than copied, for we find
no mention of any water clocks of French
make until the reign of Philip, cotem
pOrary with William the Conqueror.
The first real clock was made in Francs
in the yesr 1874. The maker was one
Henri de Vic, an Arab, who had beer
converted to Christianity. This cloci
was monster machine, weighing 50(
pounds It WAS moved by weights, wa
T possessed of horizontal lever, and pro
vided with bell to toll the time. Thu
maker received a pension of 100 crowns
o! gold for life and was enobled.
Horology was first applied to sstron
omicsl calculations by Purbach in 1900
/ and in 1860 the Danish astronomer
Tycho Brshe, the teacher of the grea
Kepler, set up in his magnificent observ
atOry of CTaniesburg q clock which
marked both the minutes and TIT
seconds.
Popular tradition ascribes the inven
ton of watches to Peter Hele, of Nurem
burg, in the year 1890 But then it is
notorious fact that King Robert, OF Scot
land, possessed one so far back as the yea
1910. The only way in which we CA
account for this discrepancy is by tn
superstition that watches were original,
invented by Scotchman, but that To
l maker died suddenly without promulgs
3 ting his secret. German watches wer
NOT introduced at the Ehgllsn court unit
1897. The first seen in England Wa
} worn by the beautiful Lady ArabeIl
o Stuart. Claude. wife OF Francis I. G
France, had one so small that it was sc
ia q ring.
In 1880, Calico conceived the idea c
a pendulum clock. The theory was after
! ward put into practice in 1887 by Hu
gems in Holland.
, The invention of spring pocket watches
, such as we now wear, is owing to tn
Englishman Hooke; it dates from 1868
and eighteen years after this, in tn
, year 1876, the first repeating watch VS.
s made at Amsterdam From this tim
: until the present century, when chron
: ometers and stop-watches were invented
the science of horology received n
further development.