St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-21

another, and a grave international
difficulty was only adjusted by ar
bitration. The st. Paul pendulum
is a great rod, which hangs down
from the clock through hole in the
floor, and wags TRANQUILITY back and
forth in the story below. It's entire
length is about fifteen feet. The
winder said it weighed $50 pounds.
The guide insisted las 'ow it were
1900 pun" The difference, however,
is a mere nothing. Both gentle1(
men agreed that it had swing of,
five feet, and that it was regulated
by a gravity escapement. I
The escapement is very valuable
feature in clock. Were it not for
this pleasing contrivance Father
Time would throw away his siekle.;7
lift up his robe and disgrace his
gray beard by a mad attempt at
record breaking. Those water bonds
would fall due before the Seventh
ward league could call a meeting.
Assem- blyman Reardon would be out,
of Office before he could open his
mouth, and the pretty capitol ste4
nographers would become old maids
before they had annihilated that
Infamous reporter" The exquisite
mechanism of a gravity escapement
is too beautiful for description, but
one of it's duties is to keep the pen
dulum from growing fatigued AS.
n 20 -
raises a small arm weighing but
the quarter. of an ounce, and this
trifiing weight, rebounding upon the
heavy steel rod, impels the latter to-
complete its full swing in the oppo-l
site direction. So susceptible is the
delicate balance that trifing adj
justments of the clock are usually
made by placing one or two print
er's "quads''-little pieces of type
metal as big as the end of a finger
upon either side of the pendulum
rod.
: AT one end of the clock is a brass
bar marked with scale of the hour.
a small wheel or two, and a wire
leading up to the ceiling. This com
bination is the automatic dial light
er. AS now adjusted the clock turns
a current of electricity into four
ffty-candle power lights every even
ing at o'clock, and turns the cur
rent Off at in the morning. Dur
ing the summer the lights burn from;
p. m. to a. m. These lamps are
placed inside the upper tower, one
pehlnd each dial. The guide here
impaired the fact that in the tower
OF the great Westminster Abbey. 700
feet above the ground, there is a
CLOCK with a dial sixty feet wide.
Illuminated so brightly by s.Hen-
glish hare light" that it serves every
night to adjust the watches of all
patriotic British residents at Calais
and Boulogne.
Each of the three windlasses is at
tached by about forty feet of wire
rope TO enormous weights made I'M
Oh small circular sections such as
are used on a large scale Tho
weight Tor the big BELLS windlass is
SAID to equal two and auartertons
tne others being smaller. These
Welghts are not under the clock /
out suspended from beams in the
south corners of the tower and con-
nected by their cables with
THE CLOCK wINDLAssEs
They, like the pendulum and
Banquo's ghost, descend through y
mole IN the floor. When the clock is
run down, the weights have fallenI
thirty feet.
Adjusting detachable handles toj
the two largest wfndlasses, the wind-I
ers now began the labor of the day.l
After they had ground away for half
an hour they invited the reporter toE
partake of the health giving exercise
He did so, whirling the windlass mer-
rfly around and pausing at eyervi
turn TO take breath and receive thei
compliments of his companions. Thew
admitted that their own efforts had
been crude and unscientific. and
agreed that, by initiating the grace
and Delsartean embellishments lust
set before them, they could easily
spend a day and a half in the
tranquil joy of their weekly wind.
While the winder and the guide
were practicing their new movements
they revealed some facts about their
brazen, wheely pet. 1t was made bv
the Seth Thomas Clock company in
1889 and cost $500. 1t is one of the
finest clocks in America, and keeps
more accurate time than most
chronometers. Its variation never
exceeds two. seconds during an en-
tire month.
When the. clock was completely
wound up and the winders complete
ly run down, till they felt, as Mr..
Slocum explained; like bicycle girl