The Dickinson press., 1888-12-15
INVENTION OF THE cLocK.

many different people and attributed to many
eras. The Chinese declare they owned clocks
1000 years ago. Tho Germans insist that the
first mechanical clock was made by them
only eight centuries back. The word origin
ally signitied bell and the French 'cloche'
sill retains its meaning. Clocks were re-
sarded as curiosities until the Eleventh
century. when they were placed in all the
monasterics. In this manner arose tho
fashion of placing clocks in church towers.
Even the use of clocks by sanity men did
not keep the common folk from regarding
them as tho DEVILS own handiwork.
In the early part of the Fifteenth century it
WAS discovered that o'clock work' could be set
in motion as well by the gradual uncoiling
OF q spring as by the running down of weights,
and that these motions could be made iso-
chronous by n balance wheel acting upon the
cscapcment. But it remained for Calico to
discover the great principle of the pendulum
and reveal it TO mankind. Applied to the
clock tho pendulum added greatly to its
accuracy. Until after the Revolutions scarcely
II clock licked on Americas coast. Sun dials
and hour glasses sufiiced for those slow days
of religious rigor. Now the American clock
tells the hour even in far off Jerusalem, in
TIC Chinese capital, i'll the heart of Siberia.
The first watch devised was called a "pocket
%ciocl,' or Nuremberg animated egg" 1t
was made i'll 1417 by Peter Hole, n clock
maker of Nuremberg. 1t took n years labor
to make it. When it was finished it varied
nearly al hour q day from true time. 1t re-
quircd winding twice u day, and the price
asked for it and similar ones subsequently
made was $1,000. 1t was tho size and shape
of Il goose egg. 1t had only one hand, and
no watch with moro was made for many
years. Nothing was known of hair springs
in the days of the one handed watch. Hele
invented the fuseo. But for 1875 years tho
fusee chain was made of catgut, a material
peculiarly susceptible to atmospheric changes.
The library of the Waltham watch factory
contains II watch bearing the date of 1G00
which has the catgut fusec chain.
THE coILED AIR Rim
Tho application of the coiled hair spring
was the most important improvement in
watch making. IL is attributed both to DR..
Robert uooke and the astronomer Huglcns.
jewels were first used in the construction of
watches in 100. Previously tho pivots ran
OH metallic bearings, which soon wore
out, making constant repairing Il ne
cessity. The diamond, ruby, sapphire,
chrysolire, garnet and agate are the
precious stones used for tho bearings
upon which the pivots rest. Pivots of brass
or steel will run for generations in jeweled
bearings without any perceptible wear.
Very rare watches are jeweled with dia-
monds,% sapphires and rubics. For all prac-
teal purposes garnets and aqua marines an.
swer as we'll. Montana is beginning to sup
ply garnets. Precious stones for watch fac
tory use are bought by the carat.
One popular little time keeper for ladies
has fifteen jewels, all of ruby. The stones
are cut into ''planks," and then into ''joists'
by circular saws and afterwards broken into
cubes. Then each is turned out i'll a lathe
exactly us q bed post is turned out in u fur
niturc factory. By this time it weighs les;
than one-cighty-thousandth of a pound Troy
little circle of brass.
The English watch attained high develop
ment with John Harrison's invention Of thu
compensation balance wheel i'll 1867. Frencl
and Swiss watchmakers very nearly aban
doned two of the chief features of the Eng
lish watch, considering them unnecessary
These were the fusee chain and the vertica
escapement. They threw out more than 60
of tho 500 parts of the cumbersome Englisl
watch. For fifty years were the industriou
Swiss the chief watchmakers of the earth.
The operatives of the Elgin factory ar
about equally divided, male and female
Girls arc taught their trades in the factory
but men usually arc practical workers befor
being.employed in any departnlent.-Chicag
Herald.