Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1892-06-04
THE FIRST WATCH MADE.
WHEN AND BY WHOM is A HIS
TOPICAL PUZZLE.
It's Name in Its Early Days Was Pocket
ciock-Ets Invention Claimed BY
the Ancient German City
Of Nnremburg.

Watches are believed by historians
TO have been used as early as I47O.
The word watch Is derived from the
Saxon w8ccan-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 its
earliest days was pocket-clock. 1t
was the perfected invention OF the
Theological science OF many centuries
and included the sun-diaL the clepsydra
or water-elock the hour or sand-glass
and wheel clock by actual gradations
OF experiments and skill
The ancient German city of Nurem-
burg claims the invention of the
pocket clock. says the Detroit Free
Press and it is 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 Milanese poet alludes 10
watches in sonnet written by him in
1895. SO that watches had then reached
| Italy. And that country has tried TO
fasten the triumph of their invention
upon a Florentine astronomer. but
without success The Emperor Charles
/ ", OF Spain possessed a watch or as
It was then called small table clock.
| He amused himself with several of
these in his retirement in the monas-
terry of ST. Juste. Ii is said he could
i 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 must have
been to have squandered SO much
blood and treasure in an absurd at
tempt to make all men think alike
when ! cannot even make 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 Eng.
land during the reign OF Henry VIII.
who possessed watch that went for
a week. A watch belonging to this
monarch was on exhibition in London
at the worlds fair In 1851.
A large oval watch which wa:
owned by Mary Queen OF Scots is still
in good order In the museum OF the
Andersonian university. It has q
mixed metal case like that of a hunt
: ing watch. and is much larger thar
: our present watches The dial plats
is deliberately engraved with the rep
resentation Of some continental city
: The interior has cord of cat-gut in
stead of chain. The cat-gut is no
! found in watches later than the six
teenth century.
III John Knox. the reformer. wa
| given a watch by Queen Mary at
time when she wished to cajole hin
4 into an approval of her schemes /
j is OF octagonal oblong shape an incl
and half in length and one and two
tenths in breadth. 1t has two case
4 or lids which are concave silve
| plates each opening by itself upon
brass hinge. Under the upper lid i
the brass front of the watch with
| small silver dial-plate in the middle
The dial plate is only nine-tenths @
an inch in diameter Under the 9th
4 er case. or back, OF the watch ar
/ carved on the brass plates these words
/ IN. Forsaict Paris" The interio
seems to be disposed nearly in tn
same mode as later watches 1t ha
a crown escapement Instead of th
chain of the fusee there is a fine their
band. The balance-wheel has n
spring,
] The manufacture of tiny watches
SO minute that they could be worn
a ring. is mentioned as early as 150(
A musical watch now exhibited i
i. the St Petersburg Academy of Scienc
he performs a religious chant with seem
~ accomplishments 1t is about the sii
le of an egg. Within it is a represent,
&c ton of Christ with Roman sentinels &
of watch. On pressing a spring ii
stone rolls from the tomb the sent
nels fall down. the angels appear. Il
holy women enter the sepuleher az
at the same chant which is sung in Il
lie Greek church on Easter Eve is actual
ch performed. This watch was invent,
d, by an ingenious Russian peasant du
he ing the reign of Catharine of Russi
fu The silver clock watch OF the u
os fortunate king, Charles L, is still
"a existence. 1t is most deliberately e
W graved with pastoral scenes on 4
es dial. and border of flowers and is
very interesting relic of that unhapl
monarch.
~---------------