The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-11-01
Tjme.Keepiuo Novelties.

dream 1t is.
Time Keeping Novelties. '~T
In the days of ''Grandfather's Clock"
there was little business in time.keep-
ers, but forty or fifty years ago New
England manufacturers pushed in on
the domain of the wooden and heavy
old-fashioned clocks with wares that
were carried everywhere, North, West,
and South, as sewing were
pushed into prominence at later date.
The clock peddler went everywhere,
and he left in nearly every farmhouse
a pretentious-looking clock.
Because these new time-pieces were
very much cheaper than the old, with
this innovation there was a new impet-
us given the making of clocks, and it
presently enlarged from merely use
ful into fancful industry. As fashion
turned to small clocks. taste began
their establishment, and from an econ
omy they were forced into luxury,
into artistic designs of costly structure,
and it was not only the proper thing to
have clock, but quite desirable that
the clock should be one of the eXpen-
sive ornaments of the house This
naturally opened the way into new
field of enterprise, and the designing
of fantastic and unique models for
clocks became a profitable employment.
1t is the ambition of the clock buyer of
to-day to get one especially notable for
its unIqueness and accuracy of move
ment has really come to be matter of
secondary Importance after the beauty
or Oddity of the workmanship. Stylish
clocks are therefore very expensive
concerns now, and are eagerly bought
in spite of the fact that that equally
good, if not better, timekeepers can be
obtained for comparative trifle.
But while we have been gradually eff
fecting revolution in the character of
clocks, France seems to have been
equally Jealous in concentrating the
destiny of noisy records through plan
to do away with clocks entirely by re-
turning to the dial on an improved ba-
sis. The first important step in that
direction was the removal from the
Grand Hotel at Paris of seven hundred
chimney clocks and the substitution of
dials, the hands OF which will be silent
.ly directed by the municipal reg ator.
In France, no less than III the United
States, there has been a progressive
movement of clocks wholly under the
guidance of fashion. The advance
from wooden to brass works began the
artistic transition here, which in France
the dynasty determined the style of the
time-piece- A nation that so often
shifted its form or personnel of govern
ment naturally kept the clockmakers
busy, and the figures surmounting the
bronze clocks were intended to COM
memorate some incident or event of the
reigning government, so that it is pos
sible to read the history of France in
the varying patterns of her clocks year
by year. AS Greek and Roman subjects
were popular during the First Empire,
though images of Napoleon were com
monest, with an occasional remem-
brance of Josephine, there We're cor
responding characteristics of the row.
alist epochs, and if the superior nobility
happened to be too hideously ugly to
figure well as clock ornaments, an ideal
subject of the time was chosen, the po-
cts, the artists, the players being drawn
from with becoming Difference to their
attractive qualities.
The first clock ever used in France
was sent to Charlemagne by Haroun-
al-Raschid. Before that the sun was
the time-keeper by day, carefully grad
uated candles the servants by night
Now one can not cast a glance without
encountering clock in Paris, and vet
it is singular fact that they are noisy
affairs, upon which no one fully relies as
correct records of time. Frenchmen
are therefore never punctual-Gambet-
Ia became famous for being an excep-
ton to the rule. The clocks of France
are as snowy and superficial as her
people. and of the 700 pendules de
cheminee in the Grand Hotel all made
regularly distracting tick tick, but
hardly two were at the trouble TO tell
the same story of the hour. Hence the
value of the dials. Designing subjects
for clocks has for years been q leading
employment of the highest sculptural
talent of France, and we have ample
evidence of the high art in the clocks
of this country. 1t is not to be ex-
pected, then, that the ornamental will
surrender to the merely useful, and
there is no prospect that the mechan-
ically governed dial will TO any extent
supersede the clocks of the artists. The
parlor, the drawing-room, and the
salon have nothing more exquisite
than the elaborate clocks that repre-
sent in their cost price a goodly foun-
dation of fortune, and if they chance
to be time-keepers as well as clocks,
they have all the seduction of coquetry.
Chicago Inter ocean.
An English firm has begun the
manufacture of casks and barrels of
steel. They are lighter than wood and