The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-10-14

As early a. the fifteenth century
Strasburg had en astronomical clock.
1t was finished in 1854. The clock was
in three parts. the lower part had
universal calendar, the central part an
astrolabe, and in the upper division
were figures of the three magi and the
Virgin. At every hour the magi came
forward and bowed to the Virgin; at
a mechanical cock crew. The clock of
the magi-as it was called-stopped in
the early part of the sixteenth century.
The council of the city resolved to
have a new clock made and called to-
gether all the wise heads of the city to
consider it. After much deliberation
and fruitless suggestion the designing
of the work was given to practical
astronomer, and the execution was
committed to skilled mechanic, Isaac
Habrecht, who took four years to COM
plete the work. This is the builder of
whom the mythical story is told, that
to prevent his building a similar clock
for another city, the city fathers OF
Strasburg had his eyes put out. This
clock went until 1889, when it stopped,
and all attempts to put its works III
order, so that 1t would go again, failed.
After some years, q clock-maker named
Schwilgue contracted to remodel the
internal machinery of the clock. He
began his work in 1888 and finished it
1912. He retained the case as made by
Habrecht, and, in its main features the
new clock is an exact copy OF the
old. A perpetual calendar, form
ing ring around dial thirty feet In
circumference, occupies the central
part of the lower division of the clock.
At midnight, Dec. 81, the clock regu-
lates itself for the new year, for 800
or 500 days, as the case may he, even
the omissions of the bisseXtile day
every 400 years being provided for.
The disc within the calendar shows the
eclipses of the sun and IN Don, calcu-
lated for all time to come. On one
side Apollo points with an arrow to the
date and name of the saint for the day.
On the opposite side stands Diana, the
goddess of night. Above the calendar
is a niche which on each day the
physiological diety of the day appears
Apollo on Sunday, Diana on Mon
day, Mars on Tuesday, Mercury on
Wednesday, Jupiter on Thursday,
Venus on Friday, and Saturn on Sat
urday. Above this is dial marking
the mean time in hours and quarters,
with two genii, one on each side, the
one striking the first stroke of every
quarter, the other turning over the
hour glass at the last stroke of the last
quarter. Then follows an orrery,
showing the revolution of the seven
visible planets round the sun, and
above globe, giving the phases of the
moon. Still above this, in niche, four
figures revolve around the skeleton
image of Death in the center. Child
hood strikes the first quarter, youth
the second, manhood the third, and old
age the last; death strikes the hour.
In higher niche stands the image of
our Savior. At II o'clock the twelve
apostles pass before him in line, and
he raises his hand to bless them. st.
Peter closes the procession, and, as
he passes, the mechanical cock on top
of the case flaps his wings and crows
three times. The left turret of this
remarkable clock contains the weights
and machinery, and has in its lower
part the portrait of Schwilgue, above
this the figure of Copernicus, and yet
above the muse Urania. At the foot
of the case is celestial globe, calcu-
lated for observation at the latitude of
Strasburg. This clock is wound up
for eight days.-Iate'' ocean.