The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1888-11-07
CLOCKS AND WATCHES.
LONG PERIOD OF INVENTION BEGIN
MING WITH THE SUN DIAL.
ms "clspsydra" Of the Ancienss-The
water cioclr--Use Of Spring Instead
Of weights--The First wafch--An Tm-
uortnnA rwnroves,ent.

Of Weights--The First Wafch--An Im-
portant Improvepaent.
Between the sun dial and the little, golden
cased, ticking. pocket time piece is a long
period Of invention. Thirty-one years ago
the first American watch was made. It was
q cumbersome affair, constructed under diff
hculties, but was a wide development from
even the Theological devices that followed
the sun dial Earliest among these was
clepsydra, or "water stealer,n transparent,
graduated vase filed with the pure liquid of
nature which slowly stole away through a
little aperture in the bottom. The receding
surface marked the going Of the hours. The
clepsydra was used In ancient China and
Egypt under the Ptolemies. Pompey intro
duccd it into Roman courts, and the Britons
used It when Cesar went among them The
mechanical ingenuity and skin Of many ma
tions were employed In the construction of
the ciepsydra. It was devised In statuary,
with tears flowing from the eyes; 1t was
made In floating forms that arose and fell
with the water and pointed to the hours en-
graved upon an upright scale.
An Improvement was made In this kind OF
timepiece by the Introduction Of little
wheel, on which the Water fell, thus COM
municating motion to the hands upon dial.
Finally the clepsydra grew into an ingenious
ana cohplcapeu WAFER CLOCK. a Thousand
years ago rersian cniiph sene one 70 one
nlnleror Shsrlemagne winch naa seriking
appsrasus. WIN tne complexion OF eacn
smelse nouis we've ooors IN .ne race opened,
rom wnlcn issued we've automaton norse-
nen, wno waived unell one ssriking ceased,
anu .nen roue peck again. Inc timekeeper
~ sns orl,niis was ouC nnoulncatlon OF tne
pl.'.ase oietsyura' TING SAND was supssi-
.useo tor .ne WAFER.
INVENTION OF THE CLOCK
Tho invention Of the clock is claimed by
many different people and attributed to many
eras The Chinese declare they owned clocks
| 1000 years ago. The Germans insist that the
| first mechanical clock was made by them
only sigas centuries S, back The word origin
stsi, rstairs ~ ,aa,,,,'s r,ea,,s ,,,s,,s -,
garded "a cnr,osities nnt,i tho E,arant,,
century. when thew were nlacad IN 81, tha
| monasferies In tbis msnnar orosa tbs
| faahion az nlacinp cloc,s IN church towsrs
| Even the pse If clocts hv sanity n,e,, Ala
NOT kean tbe enmnoon foli, frr,,,
| them as the DEVILS own handiwork
IN the earlv mart of the Fiftaanth centnrv Il
was discovered that O'CLOCK xvorlr,, could he cat
| In motion a welI nv the Gradual nrcoilino
az af,rfno ms hv fh y-,fns,f o, 5nvvs, NJ
and that these motions corcd be made iso.
chronous by a balance wheel acting upon the
escapement. But It remained for Calico to
| discover the great principle Of the pendulum
and reveal It to mankind, Applied to the
clock the pendulum added greatly to its
accuracy. Until after the Revolution scarcely
clock licked on Americas coast Sun diais
| and hour glasses sufficed for those slow days
| ~
tails the hour oven In far Off Jerusalem. In
tho Chinese capital In the heart Of Siberia.
The first watch devised was called a apocket
clock,n or Nuremberg animated eeg.n It
was made in lat by Peter Hele, a clock
maker Of Nuremberg. It took a wears labor
to make "a. when IL was finished IL varied
nearly an hour day ss,.9ss true time. It.re-
quirea ssnane t~.ce 2 uAys anu the pfics
asked 1or y ana similar ones subsequently,
made was tl,oVO " was the size and shape
OF goose egg. ~ nao only one hano, ana
no watcn VAIN more was made Tor many
years Nothing was Known OK mar springs
In the days OF the one handed watch. Hele
invented tine fusee. But Tor 10 years the
fusee chain was made Of catgut, material
peculiarly susceptible to atmospheric changes.
The library OF the Waltham watch factory
contains watcn bearing the date OF leoo
wn'cn mas the capgut tusee cnain.
THE ooILED HAIR SPRING.
The application Of the coiled hair spring
was the most important Improvement in
watch making. IL is attributed both to DR..
Robert Hooke and the astronomer Hughens.
Jewels were first used In the construction Of
watches In 100. Previously the pivots ran
on metallic bearings which soon wore
ont, making constant repairing a me-
cessity. The diamond, ruby. sapphire,
chryscliro, garnet and agate are the
precious stones used for the bearings
upon which the pivots rest. Pivots Of brass
or steel will run for generations In jeweied
bearings without any perceptible wear.
Very rare watches are jeweled with dia-