The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1880-04-14
History of Clocks and Watches.

The clock, which at the present day is
considered an almost Indispensable arti-
Gle in every household in the land, and
the watch, which is generally required
to complete the wardrobe of nearly every
man and women, compared to the hts
tory OF the world, are but of recent orr
gin or invention. - Ns&#t0
The ancient people used to mark the
progress of time by the moving of the
heavenly bodies, and for more briet
space by the shadow of the sun cast on a
sun dial, certain marks on the dial not
ing the length of time. The dial Is
used to-day, and the sun at its true
meridian is found at the present time
through this system. The North
American Indians fixed their time and
age, or any event, by SO many moons,
, and so many winters, and leaves falling
from the trees. Less time was SO many
suns or days in certain moons. BY this
way of computing time, an old Indian
could tell how many days, months and
years he had lived; VI H. =
In the absence Of the sun, the ancients
always used a clepsydra, vessel con-
tanning water escaping through small
oriice in equal quantities at equal times.
A floating body in vessel which re-
ceived the water, denoted the time by its
rise to Certain numbers on the side of the
vessel. The Romans introduced this in
strument IN the days of Pompey, from
Greece, seventy years before the Chris
tian era. They employed it to denote
the length Of speeches in the Roman
Senate. .,'@.F',+s g.. ..4 g."
The sand or hour glass was an ancient
invention and used in Egypt before the
days of Christ. This cheap and conve-
A.nient instrument has been handed down
to the present day, and is still employed
for some purposes which require the fire.
quent measurement of short time as a
half minute, running out horologuc, or
three minutes to boil eggs. "a. ,...
great mathematician, $50 years before
Christ, wheel work was made to move by
springs and weights to impel equal mo-
ton at equal times. From this motive
power first sprung the clock for keeping
time, which was used In Euro pc as early
rs the eleventh century, and the inven-
tlon of which was due to the Saracens.
A clock that would strike the hours
was known as early 1891. There was a
clock in Dover Castle, England, in 1349.
From the large public clocks sprung the
small family clocks of all kinds and sizes.
Clocks of different movements were con-
structed with quito as much ingenuity
and lntricacy 200 years ago as at the
present time. ..... ...'..
1t IS stated that watches were made in
/ Nuremberg as early as 1477, yet there is
no accurate authority for the statement
There was a watch in Sir Ashton Levers
! museum bearing the date of 1871. Henry
. Viii, who died in 1547, owned watch
. TIE hair spring was applied to the watch
| TO regulate the time by DR.. Hook in 1868
.fGlass at one time was used for hair
springs, but it soon grew out OF use fol
reason of it's breaking so easily by a JAR
but they were acknowledged to keep a
watch IN more accurate time. From
\ those days Improvements were made in
n England and imported to this country,
but machinery has been made to do many
parts of the work, and nearly all the
watches madein this country at the pres.
Eent time are American movements. In
1857 the value of watch movements i'm.
ported to this country was $3,S23 900, in
1875 it was 1851, 900, the duty OF which
was $656,OOO. '...> ...'. 1882