The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-03-17
THE FIRST WATCH MADE.
WHEN AND BY WHOM IS A HIS
TORICAL PUZZLE.
LIS Name In It's Early Days Was Pocket
olock-Its Invention Claimed by
the Ancient German city
t1# of Nuremburg. r.


ta of Nurembure. -
watches are believed by historians
TO have been used as early as 1910.
Inc word watch is derived from the
saxon Waccan-to wake; the Swedish
YACHT to watch. and the Danish vaght.
the English watch has the same mean.
ing taken. probably from the watch
OF the night. The actual name in it's
earliest days was pocket. clock. It
was the perfected invention of the
neurological science of many centuries,
and included the sun dial, the clepsvdra
or water-clock, the hour or sand glass,
and wheel clock, by actual gradations
OF experiments and skill. $780,.
The ancient German city of Nurem.
ourg claims the invention of the
ocket-clock, says the Detroit Free
Press' and it is a fact that these first
clumsy watches were from their oval
shape called Nuremberg eggs, and
that the town was famous for their
production.
"A noble Mllanese poet alludes to
watches in a sonnet written bv HIM in
l495, so that watches had then reache
!tal y. And that country has tried to
1asten the triumph of their invention
upon Florentire astronomer, but
without success The Emperor Charles
", OF Spain possessed a watch or, as
IL was then called a small table clock.
lie amused himself with several of
these in his retirement in the monas-
terry of St. Juste 1t is said he could
not make them record the time, and
one day he broke out in this impatient
moral reflection on his past conduct:
what an gorgeous fool 1 must have
been to have squandered so much
olood and treasure in an absurd at
tempt to make all men think alike
when l cannot even make a few
watches keep time together.'
Upon another occasion a careless
monk entered his room and over
turned the timekeepers. The emperor
only smiled at the accident and said
pleasantly:
II have been laboring for some time
to make these clocks go together and
now you have accomplished it in an
instant.'
Watches were introduced into Emo
land during the reign of Henry VIII.
who possessed watch that went for
week. A watch belonging to this
monarch was on exhibition in London
at the worlds fair IN 1851.
A large oval watch which was
owned by Mary Queen of Scots is still
in good order in the museum of the
Andersonian university. 1t has a.
mixed metal case like that of hunt
ing watch, and is much larger than
our present watches. The cial plate
is deliberately engraved with the rep
resentatlon OF some continental city.
The interior has cord of cat-gut in
stead of a chain. The cat-gut is not
found in watches later than the six
teenth century.
John Knox, the reformer was
given watch by Queen Mary at a.
time when she wished to ca;ole him
into an approval of her schemes. It
is of octagonal oblong shape an inch
and half in length and one and two
tenths in breadth. It has two cases
or lids which are concave silver
plates, each opening by itself upon a
brass hinge. Under the upper lid is
the brass front of the watch with a
small silver dial-plate in the middle,
The dial plate is only nine-tenths of
an inch in diameter. Under the 9th
er case. or back, of the watch are
carved on the brass plates these words:
IN. Forsaict a Parls.' The interior
seems to be disposed nearly in the
same mode as later watches. It has
a crown escapement. Instead of the
chain of the fusee there is fine therm
band. The balance-wheel has no
spring
The manufacture of tiny watches.
so minute that they could be worn in
a ring, is mentioned as early as 1900.
A musical watch now exhibited in
the St. Petersburg Academy of Science
performs a religious chant with scenic
accomplishments. 1t is about the size
of an egg: Within it is representa-
ton of Christ with Roman sentinels on
watch. On pressing a spring the
stone rolls from the tomb the senti-
nels fall down, the angels appear the
holy women enter the sepulcher. and
the same chant which is sung in the
Greek church on Easter Eve is actually
performed. This watch was invented
by an ingenious Russian peasant dur
ing the reign of Catharine of Russia.
The silver clock watch Of the I'M
fortunate king, Charles l., is still in
existence. 1t is most deliberately en-
graved with pastoral scenes on the
dial and border of flowers. and is a
very interesting relic of that unhappy
monarch.
.-... "A Hard Business.