The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-03-31
CURIOUS TIME-PlECES.
Odd Watches and Clocks Discovered ir
Various Parts of the World.

Odd Watches and Clocks Discovered In
Various Parts of the World.
In the year 1889 a transparent watch.
of small size, constructed principally of
rock crystal, was presented to the Aca-
denny of Sciences in Paris. The works
were all visible; the two-teethed wheels
which carried the hands were of rock
crystal and the others were metal. All
the screws were fixed in crystal and each
axis turned on rubies. The escapement
was of sapphire, the balance-wheel Of
rock-crystal and the spring of gold. 1t
kept excellent time.
A curiosity in the way of watches was
shown by the director OF the Watch
makers School at Geneva before the
neurological section of the Society of
Arts at a meeting last year. This Won
der is nothing less than a watch with
one wheel, manufactured at Paris, in the
last century. The watch was presented
to the National Institute in 1890, being
then in deplorable state; but
the teacher of the repairing
section at the school has, after many
hours of labor, succeeded in re-estab-
ishing harmony between the various
organs, so that it is now in going order
1t would take professional wathmaker
to describe the manner in which the one
wheel is made to perform the whole duty
Of keeping time.
A recent number of the JeaUelers' CIR
cular describes an ancient musical clock
now in possession of citizen of Mari
eta, Wis. .sIt is two hundred and thir-
ty-fve years old, and keeps good time.
The movement is made of wood, lead
and iron. The weight that runs the
musical part weighs fifty pounds. 1t
plays piece every hour, but it is rather
hoarsc at present from old age. The
dial is large and has the paintings OF
William Penn describing his history. At
the top are five musicians dressed in
uniforms, who raise their instruments to
their lips as they begin to play. The
case is made Of maple and mahogany.
it was made in the year l649, and was
brought to this country in 1847 by a
party of immigrants. being the only
time-piece brought with them.n
A paragraph went the rounds of the
newspapers some time ago describing
the novel invention of Salt Lake
jeweler. It is time-piece in the shape
of steel wire stretched across a show
window, on which a stuffed canary
hops from left to right, indicating as it
goes the hours of the day by pointing
with his beak at dial stretched beneath
the wire and having the figures from one
to twenty-four. When it reaches the
latter figure, it glides across the wire to
one again. There is no mechanism
whatever that can be seen, it all being
inside the bird. The inventor says he
was three years in studying it out
A clock of some historic interest was
recently sold at auction in Carlisle,
Mass. 1t stood in house at Lexington
at the time the shot was fired which was
heard ground the world The British
set fire to the house, but the clock es-
capped in some way and has just
turned up again after the lapse Of q
century in perfect running order. II
was purchased by a resident of Lexing-
ton, and is now performing it's daily
| rOuuO VI uuGlcS Ill IIS Oiu uOulC. IL
bears the date 1774, and is supposed to
be remotely connected to that other
"ancient time-piece, which to the poet
seemed always to be saying:
"Forever-never-
Never-forever."
| A novel form of clock has recent,
been designed by an English artisan
The face has the form of a tambourin.
decorated with wreath Of twelve flow
ers at equal distances apart. These mari
the hours, and over them glide two gay
ly-painted butterflies, one larger thai
the other. These are the hands, TIN
larger indicating the minutes. the small
er the hours. The works are concealed
behind the tambourine, and the motions
of the butterflies, which are made o
magnetic metal, are produced by mag
nets carried on the arms forming tn
real hands of the clock. Another clocl
worthy of mention is exhibited in awell
known clock-makcr's window in Lon
don. 1t is a framed and colored photo
graph of the houses of Parliament, West
minister, with real dial let into tn
tower to represent "Big Ben" The dia
is very small, to match the photograph
nevertheless it is said to keep good time
N. Y Observer.