The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1892-01-23
VOL. XXVII.-NO. 12.
Ancient and Modern Timepieces.

Ancient and Modern Timepieces.
In a recent discourse on the Dial of
Ahaz, Rev. DIR. Talmage, of Brooklyn,
made some very interesting remarks upon
ancient and modern timepieces His remarks
were based on II Kings, Xxx, II: "And
Isaiah, the rophet, cried unto the Lord;
and he brought the shadow 10 degrees
backward by which it had gone down in
the dial of Ahaz'
Here is the first clock or watch or chro-
nometer or timepiece of which the world
has any knowledge. But it was watch
that did not tick and a clock that did not
strike. II was sun-dial Ahaz, the
King, invented it. Between the hours
given to statecraft and the cares of Office
he invented something by which he could
tell the time of day. This suu-dial may
have been great column, and when the
shadow of that column reached one point
it was o'clock A. NJ, and when it reached
another point it was o'clock p NJ, and
the hours and half hours were so measured.
Or it may have been flight Of stairs such
as may now be found in Hindoostan and
other old countries, and when the shadow
reached one step it was 10 o'clock A. NJ,
or another step it was clock p NJ, and
likewise other hours may have been indi-
Gated.
The elepsydra or water-clock followed
the sun-dial, and the sand-gIass followed
the clepsydra Then came the candle.clock
of Alfred the Great, and the candle was
marked into three parts, and while the first
part was burning he gave himself to relig-
ion, and while the second part was burning
he gave himself to politics, and while the
third part was burning he gave himself to
rest After while came the wheel and
weight clock, and Pope Sylvester II, was
its most important inventor. And the skill
of centuries of exquisite mechanism toiled
at the timepieces until the world had the
Vicks clock of the 18th century, and
Huyghens, the inventor swung the first
pendulum, and Dr. Hooke eontrived the
recoil escapement. And the ''endless chain
followed, and the ''rachet and pinion lever
took its place; and the compensation bal
ance and the stem-winder followed, and
now we have the buzz and clang of the
great clock and watch factories of Switzer-
land and Germany and England and Amer.
lea turning out what seems to be the per
lection of timepieces.
1t took the world 5000 years to make
the present chronometer. So with the
measurement Of longer spaces than minutes
and hours. Time was calculated from new
moon to new moon; then from harvest to
harvest. Then the year was pronounced
to be 354 days and then 800 days, md, not
until a long while after, 365 days. Then
events were calculated from the foundation
of Rome, afterward from the Olympic
games Then the Babylonians had their
measurement of the year and the Romans
theirs and the Armenians theirs and the
HindOos theirs. Chronology was busy for
centuries studying monuments, inscriptions,
coins, mummies and astronomy, trying to
lay plan by which all question of dates
might be settled and events put in their
right place in the procession of the ages.
But the chronologists only heaped up
mountain of confusion and bewilderment
until in the sixth century Dionysius Ext
guus, Roman abbot, said "Let every
thing date from the birth at Bethlehem Of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the
world" The abbot proposed to have things
dated backward and forward from that
great event
What a splendid thought for the world
What mighty thing for Christianity 1t
would have been most natural to date every
thing from the creation of the world But
| am glad the chronologists could not too
easily guess how old the world was in order
to get the nations in the habit of dating
from that occurrence in its documents and
histories. Forever fixed is it that all his
tory is to be dated with reference to the
birth of Christ, and, this matter settled,
Hales, the chief chronologist, declared that
the world was made 5,41l years before
Christ, and the deluge came 3,155 years
before Christ, and all the illustrious events
Of the last | 9 centuries and all the great
events of all time to come have been or
shall be dated from the birth of Christ.
These things | say that you may know
what watch is, what clock is, what an
almanac is, and learn to appreciate through
what tolls and hardships and perplexities
the world came to its present conveniences
and comforts, aud to help you to more re-
spectful consideration of that sun-dial Of
Ahaz planted in my text,
Teach The Boys.
A well-known man, the monument of
whose exceptional ability as financier in
the great dry goods establishment of which
he is the head, contended that discussion
of the subject from his standpoint would