The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1885-07-29
OUR CLOCKS AND WATCHES.
n BR1Hr GLANCE AT THE HISTORY
OF TTMEPIECEs.

Origin Of Clocks and watches SUN
Dinls and the CIepSydr -pintes
keepers as TOys-The ''Turnips"
Sun-dials were the first markers OF
time, but they were never quite to be
relied on. The fact is, the sun is more
irregular in his habits than many good
and confding people suppose. He is
sometimes careless about getting up in
time, and has been known to be as much
as half an hour late in reaching noon.
In the 800 days of the year he is right
only four times, and so little dependence
can be placed on him that astronomers
have been obliged to invent a sun, and
make it mark the hour of noon. This is
called "mean time" making a day OF
invariable length, which is not the case
with the solar day. Sun -dials might do
very well for primitive man or for the
shepherds of Arcadia, but mean time is
the time of civilized life. BY mean time
the board of trade, the banks, the manu-.
factories and business houses are opened
and closed. Without it there is no
punctuality possible, no certainty, no
secure dependence. For accurate mean
time we make the watch and clock re-
sponsible and give the sun up as ire
claimable, for the clocks noon and the
suns coincide only four times in the
year.
After the sun-dial came the clepsydra
or water clock, a transparent graduated
vessel, filled with water, which slowly
dropped OF trickled through an apper.
ture at the bottom. The intervals be-
tween the filing and emptying of the
vessels, which, of course, varied with
tbo al of tho t-ooco1c xuoro pollpd
Watches" They were used in the
Greek and Roman forums to time the
speeches of the orators. One of Mar
tails epigrams counsels dull orator
who drank water constantly during his
harangue to drink from the clepsydra,
and thus relieve his audience as we'll as
himself. The hour glass is modifca-
ton of the clepsydra, substituting sand
for water. Sun-dials and hour glasses
marked the time for our forefathers be-
fore the Revolution. There were very
few watches or clocks owned in this
country until after that time. Clocks
were invented in the eleventh century,
and were first supposed to have origi-
mated with the devil, but as the monas-
teries Immediately adopted them, that
idea was soon dissipated. They were
very rude and clumsy contrivances until
the pendulum was discovered by Gallieo.
GAS untrustworthy as town clock" is a
proverb that has been long in vogue.
OF the clocks in London Charles Lamb
said they allowed him to ''walk from
the Strand to Temple Bar in no time
and gain five minutes"
The watch was at first called pocket
clock, name the Germans still adhere
to, and was as large as a saucer and run
by weights. The substitution of a spring
for weights was made about 1850. The
city of Nuremberg claims to be the place
where watches were first made, and it is
certain that at first and for many years
they were called. Gutenberg eggs"
For a long period watches were con-
sidered more as toys than as timekeepers,
and the ingenuity of the artisan was ex-
erted to produce something novel or
curious. All kinds of fantastic shapes
were devised. Mary Queen of Scots had
a watch shaped like a skull. Others
were made, like cross, bird, tulip,
OF any astonishing form the maker could
imagine. They were inserted in snuff
boxes, in finger rings, in canes, in shirt
studs, in bracelets, and even in saddles
In fact, the history of watches for nearly
a century is a record of the whimsicali-
ties and fertile ingenuity of watchmaker'
in accordance with the capricious ano
fantastic taste of the times. Finally
about century ago, the watch as time
keeper was evolved, and it took on it
present settled form. Then it was tina
the name s'turnipn was applied to it, be
cause it had something of the shape o
that derided vegetable, and did not lool
beautiful-like cross, pear, or
flower.
''The watch, " said prominent jewele
to the Herald reporter, ''has come to b
one of the necessities of life, and, lik
every other necessity of life, it can b.
bought at any price and in all qualities
can sell you one for 5000, which, j
you owned, you would believe the star
were set by 1t, so accurately does 1t keel
time, and YOU can buy one for $2.50
which would probably be as erratic i
its motions as a comet, and yet would b
a watch by which you could guess tn
time of day. There is Matchmaker
and jewelers. Association IN the Unitet
States, which meet annually. At our las
meeting it was reported that the dali
demand for watches in this countr
amounted to nearly $4. 900. Some fe'
years ago We imported watches to th
value of over 81, 600, 600, now our import
reach only about $500, 900, showing thu
american made watches have at last VIC
the day Chicago Herald.
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