The Irish standard., 1886-12-25
THE IRISH STANDARD: sATURDVY -, DECEMBER Is, 1886.
WoopiEN CLOCKS.
An Important Industry Carried ON In the
Heart of the Black Forest.

Heart of the Black Forest.
A wooden clock is good deal of a
curiosity in this part of the world, but
in Europe, and especially on TIE Cont
nent, where the enterprise of the
Yankee clock and matchmaker has
yet failed to penetrate, the wooden
clock is the general rule among The
middle and lower classes. The
simplest form of time-pieces Of this
construction are very cheap, and as
they combine with this the advantage
of being fairly accurate time-keepers
their popularity is not to be wondered
at. 1t is perhaps not generally known
that these wooden clocks are the prod
uct of an industry that is carried on al
most exclusively in the Black Forest i'll
Germany, and in recent report to the
State Department Consul Ballow OF
Kehl gives very interesting account
of the history of this curious, and one
might almost say, primitive industry.
The inhabitants of this wild and other
wise unproductive region apparently
had no other resource but to engage in
some such employment, and in this re-
spect the wooden clock industry is a
species of natural production, in which
all the phases of the process of evolu-
ton are illustrated. They did not have
the soil to work upon, but they had
plenty of wood, and the natural in
genuity of the pleople was not long in
turning it to account.
The first wooden clocks were made
in the seventeenth century and were
of the most primitive construction.
Even in the middle of the last century
the mechanism was of the simplest
form, and consisted of three wooden
wheels and on escapement resembling
yoke, which was operated by leaden
weights. The pendulum was intro
duced still later, but it was not until
thirty years ago that any changes were
made in the old traditional forms.
Many of those old clocks were very
complicated in their mechanism, at
least 50 far as attachments were con-
cerned, and in addition to recording
the time of day they would mark the
day of the week, month and year, the
principal feast days, and operate whole
armies of soldiers and other automatic
figures. The clock-makers of the
Black Forest during the early part of
the present century had gained such
reputation for their product that they
controlled the market on the Continent
and made a great deal of money.
Then new styles came into fashion, and
for a long time the industry in the
Black Forest languished because the
manufacturers refused to give up the
old form. Since 1850, however, they
have conformed to the more modern
usages, and now all varieties of clocks
are made, from the very finest regu-
lators with metallic works down to the
plainest of old wooden forms, for there
are still many who adhere to the old
traditions.
There are now ninety two commu-
mites engaged in this industry in the
Black Forest, and in 1880 the total
production was 100000 clocks, the
city of Furtwangen alone max ng over
100000. They are sent to all parts of
che world, the present trade with the
United States being valued at $50, 1000.
The varieties in greatest demand here
are the cuckoo and trumpeter clocks,
although occasionally chronometers
and musical ones are imported. Ger
many takes all kinds from the finest
regulators down; Austria only the
cheap articles, such as the chain-work
clocks, the high duty being an inn
pedinent to trade. England takes
trumpeter and cuckoo clocks and
regulators. Y. Graphic.